The Gluten Conspiracy

To hear folks tell it and to see the food manufacturers coming out with one new product after another made without gluten you would think this gluten stuff ranks right up there with radioactive particles as being the worse thing to put into your body.

Cereals, pastas, breads… there’s a slew of new products out there that are gluten free.  And because of that they’re supposedly healthier for you.  Supposedly.

Do you even know what gluten is?  Many do not.  They can associate it with wheat but that’s about it.  Gluten is a protein– A protein that is found in wheat, barley and rye.  And here’s the kicker on why it’s important.

It’s all about texture and consistency.  Gluten makes bread spongy.  It makes pizza dough stretchy.  It helps give donuts that unique texture.

You see without gluten things tend to taste… well crappy because they develop a new texture and consistency.

Without gluten that pizza you ate for lunch is going to taste like crap.

Without gluten that donut you had for breakfast is going to taste like crap.

And without gluten, you know that pasta you’re going to have for supper tonight– You know how that’s going to taste right?  Yep.  Like crap.

The whole gluten-free thing has picked up steam over the last few years because more people have become aware that they are suffering with celiac disease which potentially causes all sorts of digestive problems for folks.  The thought is that someone with celiac develops a bad reaction to the gluten protein and the result is a disorder within the digestive tract.  Obviously it’s not a fun thing to deal with for those that suffer with celiac.

The problem is, and well there are two problems with this– actually make it three problems…

The first being that manufactures are using other additives that may be even more damaging for your health if you not suffering from celiac, because again without gluten our wheat/barley/rye based foods do not taste the same.  So manufacturers are using more fats and sugars to try to restore the proper consistency to foods.  The result is that many end up doing themselves more harm than good by partaking in those gluten-free foods.

The second problem is that many who report celiac as being one of their health challenges have responded positively to using certain types of probiotics (dietary supplements that contain live friendly bacteria) as part of their daily health regime.  The problem is that many more people simply avoid gluten-filled foods because they think there is no help for someone who reacts negatively to foods containing gluten except to avoid those foods all together.

The result is that those people have to live their lives with a greatly reduced diet and do not realize that perhaps by taking the right probiotic that their issues relating to gluten could be greatly minimized. 

Finally here’s the third problem.  There are a lot of folks who are switching to a gluten-free lifestyle thinking they are on some sort of weight loss program when doing so.  Well as I pointed out earlier many gluten-free foods are showing up with more calories and fat grams than their gluten-filled equivalents– so much for that idea.  HOWEVER because the selection gluten-free foods is still kind of small I suppose you could  say folks are going to eat less just because there’s still far less selection out there.  So I guess there’s some relevance to a weight loss program, but I would think you could find better or more efficient weight loss programs to follow.

We’re blessed with a wide variety of foods… from the breakfast table to the lunch table to the supper table.  And many of those foods contain gluten.  Heck gluten is even used to thicken soups and sauces.   A life without gluten isn’t as enjoyable and in some ways may be even unhealthier.

Here’s two probiotics that have good reputations for helping people that struggle with digestive disorders that may be celiac related: http://www.candida-yeast-problems.com and http://www.candidayeastsupport.com