I am starting this Blog with my own personal journey with Gluten, then I will touch on some of your burning questions about Gluten!
I have been Gluten-Free for 21 Years. When I was about 8 years old, I was constantly getting sick. I had this annoying cough and was always needing to clear my throat. I felt stuffy and congested and my poor parents couldn't understand what was wrong with me! I also was bloated most of the time and kept on extra weight even though I was a VERY active child. After going to allergists and the doctor multiple times, I still had no answers. Finally someone suggested to my mom that she bring to me a Naturopath and my life would forever be changed. They took one look at me and said, she is intolerant to GLUTEN!
As a child who loved boxed cookies and macaroni and cheese you can imagine this was devastating, but my family and I knew we had to make some changes.
So what happened? The inflammation went down in my body, my white blood cells regained their shape, I stopped getting sick as much, that nasty cough went away and I looked healthy and slimmer. Ever since I was 8 years old I have had to be conscious of my diet. At the time, I also cut back on dairy and corn, then a year later surprise! I'm allergic to peanuts.
I KNOW this isn't an easy lifestyle change to just Cut Out Gluten. What is Gluten anyway?
It is basically the protein in wheat and other grains that gives dough its elasticity. It helps make the bread soft, fluffy and gives it the texture that we all love. Does everyone need to avoid it? Not everyone has a Gluten Intolerance, but it is at the top of the list of inflammatory foods. What this means is that if you are experience any inflammation in the body (skin issues, joint pain, autoimmune disease, leaky gut, thyroid problems, PCOS etc) gluten is likely contributing to making it worse or preventing you from healing. It is not easy for the body to digest and the products that we find it in on a daily basis are over processed.
So what about Weight Loss? Again, a lot of weight loss has to do with decreasing inflammation in the body which can also include cutting out dairy products and sugar. Cutting out gluten alone does not mean you will lose weight, especially if you are just replacing the gluten with "gluten-free" substitutes. A lot of pre-packaged gluten-free foods actually have more calories and carbs because they are made of denser flours. Plus if you are keeping your carbohydrate intake the same or increasing it, you probably won't lose weight.
How do we go Gluten-Free and still stay healthy and enjoy our food? Personally, I do eat gluten-free bread, maybe twice a week. That's the only "gluten-free" food product I really buy, besides chickpea or rice pasta one a month. Everything else I either make homemade or avoid bread products. If we can focus more on whole grains like rice, oats, sweet potatoes and vegetables we don't really need to have bread in our daily routine.
The take home point is that gluten is inflammatory for a lot of people. If you want to do a test to see how your body reacts, cut it out completely for a month and monitor how you feel, how your skin looks, how your digestion functions and keep track of your weight. I know some healthy people who just have it once in awhile on holidays or special events and they can tolerate it, but they don't eat it regularly. Like any healthy diet the less processed food you eat, the healthier you will be! So give it a try and if you are experiencing inflammation or an autoimmune condition, I would highly recommend you try cutting it out completely to help your body heal!
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