Demystifying the Gluten Free Diet

May is Celiac Disease Awareness month so I’ve decided to dedicate my latest post to the culprit: Gluten.



Going gluten free? The top 2/3 of the food pyramid have now become your bff.

 Gluten-free (GF) items are popping up in grocery stores and restaurants across the country. PF Chang’s has an entire page of GF items on their menu and Olive Garden has just recently jumped on the bandwagon. Despite this rapidly evolving gastronomic phenomenon, there are plenty of people who don’t know what gluten is so let’s start there.

Gluten is a protein composite found in grains such as wheat, barley, and rye. Unfortunately, for reasons the medical field still really doesn’t understand, some people mount an immune response when they ingest gluten. In the case of Celiac Disease (CD) the immune system begins attacking the small intestine producing diarrhea, abdominal pain, bloating, fatigue, and headaches along with a mosaic of other symptoms. Ultimately the undiagnosed individual becomes malnourished and will begin losing weight.

Within the past few years the medical field has slowly recognized that people can have a gluten sensitivity without having CD. The sensitivity can present as a variety of symptoms including fatigue, brain fog, pain, acne, or it can just aggravate the symptoms of other ailments. It’s estimated that 3 million (1/133) Americans have CD and that nearly 20 million Americans have a gluten sensitivity. However, the majority in both groups have not been diagnosed which is unfortunate as uncontrolled inflammation keeps your immune system unnecessarily preoccuppied.

Earlier this year I became suspicious that I might have a gluten sensitivity as I had very little energy despite being well rested and I had a really stubborn case of acne. I went cold turkey. I cut out what had been the culinary staples of my diet: pasta and bread. I’m not going to sugar coat this experience. It was traumatic and not to mention, heartbreaking. Those who know me best know that my favorite meal is either a meatball sub or a pot pie, but I was determined to see if I could fix this problem without spending hundreds of dollars at a dermatologist.

I set out to the grocery store and wore blinders as I passed by the bakery. In the beginning I didn’t even buy GF packaged food or canned food for that matter. I was afraid that I would not know what red flags to look for on the ingredient labels. I stuck with fresh produce, rice, quinoa, and meat. I started to notice a difference almost immediately. I was no longer randomly falling asleep like a true narcoleptic and although my acne had not disappeared, it had significantly improved. Curious if this had just been a coincidence, I cheated and had a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs about 3 weeks into the experiment. Simply put, that meal was heaven-sent, but within hours my acne flared up again. That incident was enough to make a believer out of me, well almost at least. I still wanted more proof that I had to say adios to the American staples once and for all and that opportunity came to me this past week. I’ve been working 2 jobs and I’m not the least bit exhausted. It’s Friday and I haven’t even had a cup of coffee yet.

I am not advocating that people go Gluten Free for the heck of it. (That’s Oprah and Gwenthy Paltrow’s job.) For me it has been great because it’s made me feel so much better! Not to mention I’m eating healthier. Sure it’s more expensive to eat healthy but I like to think of your health in terms of a balance. If one skimps at the grocery store now and buys unhealthy items, decades later that money will be scooped up by the medical field and pharmaceutical companies as a result of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, etc.

If you suspect that you might have a gluten sensitivity you do not have to cut pastas, breads, and desserts completely out of your life. There are GF pastas made with corn and quinoa and Bob's Red Mill offers a line of outstanding flours, pancake mixes, cake mixes, pizza crusts, etc. Sure you'll have to do the baking yourself but for me that has been therapeutic. What has been even better is browsing the Internet for GF Food Blogs. I've stumbled upon some pretty incredible recipes. 

This would not be a fair post without some mention of the downsides of going gluten free. Here it goes:

Buying groceries
Reading the labels of everything you put in your cart becomes tedious really quick as you make sure the items do not contain wheat, food cornstarch, barley extract, etc. Not to mention the GF alternative products can be very pricey. If you're looking for a grocery store that really caters to their GF customers check out Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. They VERY clearly label their products.

Alcohol
GF means no more beer for me. There are GF beers out there but I’ve heard they’re terrible. I also have to pay close attention to the liquor I drink. Tequila and wine are absolutely fine, but alcohol extracted from grains (i.e. vodka) is another story. Supposedly it is safe as long as it has been distilled because gluten is too big to make it through the distillation process.

Eating out
Some chain restaurants have caught on to the GF trend, but there are still a lot of restaurants who do not cater to the GF crowd. My best advice? Choose a Mexican restaurant and make sure to order corn tortillas rather than flour.

Explaining why you’re GF
Some people assume going GF is the fashionable food trend of the moment--the Atkins diet of 2011. They do not realize that there are underlying symptoms that you’re trying to alleviate. When you explain this to them all you see is a look of skepticism as they stuff their faces with a heaping plate of spaghetti.

Here’s to Food allergy/sensitivity awareness—lc.