Gluten-free food is often filled with processed sugars and fats... could be worse for your health than eating gluten!

Tuesday, May 24, 2016 by: Sarah Landers
Tags: Gluten, health risks, processed food

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(NaturalNews) It seems that everyone is going gluten-free nowadays in a bid to lose weight and get "healthy" by jumping on the latest popular diet. But, just because food is gluten-free doesn't necessarily mean that it is good for you. In fact, according to The Telegraph, if you aren't actually suffering from celiac disease and decide to eat gluten-free food on a regular basis, you could be doing serious damage to your health.

Eating gluten-free means excluding all food that contains grains from your diet – meaning no wheat, barley or rye, and no bread or pasta. Gwyneth Paltrow claims that cutting out gluten has boosted her health and helped her maintain a fantastic figure; meanwhile, Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic says that it helped him get the World No. 1 title, as reported by The Telegraph.

Gluten-free foods are often packed full of other additives to make them either have the same texture or same taste as food that does contain gluten. However, this could be raising the risk of obesity, diabetes and malnutrition, according to an expert from Columbia University Medical Center, Dr. Norelle Reilly.

Dr. Reilly's message is alarming considering the number of people jumping on the gluten-free bandwagon and expecting to get healthier. In reality, gluten-free products are often loaded with fat and sugar while being lacking in vital nutrients.

Dr. Reilly states that, "There is no evidence that processed gluten free foods are healthier nor have there been proven health or nutritional benefits of a gluten free diet. ... Gluten free packaged foods frequently contain a greater density of fat and sugar ... Obesity, overweight and new-onset insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome have been identified after initiation of a gluten-free diet," The Telegraph reported.

Gluten intolerance and celiac disease

Approximately 1 percent of the U.S. population suffers from celiac disease according to Beyond Celiac, and 83 percent of those are either undiagnosed or misdiagnosed as having other conditions. They note that the average person waits between six and 10 years before being correctly diagnosed, during which time their condition continues to worsen. However, Natural News has previously noted that the number of people suffering from celiac disease is not as low as reports suggest – and that everyone is actually intolerant of gluten to some degree.

According to The Telegraph, celiac disease is an autoimmune disease caused by intolerance to gluten, and causes damage to the lining of the gut. There is currently no cure for the condition other than a lifelong adherence to a strictly gluten-free diet.

The number of people who believe that gluten is bad for their health is on the rise, according to The Telegraph. Dr. Reilly believes that the growth in the gluten-free food market is far greater than the actual need, and warns that it could lead to people spending more money than necessary to actually eat less healthy foods than they previously did.

Signs of gluten intolerance include:

• Diarrhea
• Constipation
• Changes to bowel habits
• Abdominal pain
• Bloating
• Weight loss
• Nausea
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome
• Reflux
• Mouth ulcers
• Skin rashes
• Depression or anxiety
• Fatigue
• Limb numbness
• Lack of well-being
  

Dr. Reilly concludes that, "The gluten free diet should be recommended judiciously and patients self-prescribing a gluten free diet should be counselled as to the possible financial, social and nutritional consequences of unnecessary implementations."

That said, The Organic Prepper states that it is actually possible to go gluten-free without contributing to the billion dollar food rip-off, by making gluten-free foods such as bread yourself, and by looking for foods that are naturally gluten-free, rather than those that have been processed to be gluten-free.

Sources include:

Telegraph.co.uk

NaturalNews.com

TheOrganicPrepper.ca

BeyondCeliac.org

TruthWiki.org

Science.NaturalNews.com