Gluten: Friend or Foe

Gluten free has been a booming trend lately, but what is this “gluten” that is making its way out of every American’s diet?

I found myself asking that same question when my sister discovered she had a thyroid disease. Due to the complications of the disease, she had to avoid eating foods that contained gluten. The months leading up to the removal of her thyroid, my family and I had to become more aware of what foods contained gluten and learn more about this key ingredient of wheat.

Webster Dictionary states that gluten is a “substance present in cereal grains, especially wheat, that is responsible for the elastic texture of dough.” Basically my sister could not eat any grain or wheat products, unless they were gluten free. After her thyroid was removed, she was free to go back to her normal diet and she could once again eat all her favorite cereals.

My sister’s illness made me more aware of what was happening in the gluten free trend. While stocking shelves in the grocery store where I worked, I noticed things that had “gluten free” labels. What confused me the most was that some of these foods wouldn’t have gluten in them in the first place, such as strawberries. And later, I came to college, where I lived with many girls who ate gluten free diets; some girls have Celiac disease, others are very allergic to gluten, and some just choose to eat gluten free foods. I found myself wondering what was so harmful about gluten, so I did some research.

I found that choosing to eat a gluten free diet can actually be dangerous if not done carefully. Foods that contain gluten are a huge source of fiber, vitamins, and minerals. This is when I decided that gluten isn’t a terrifying entity that is ruining the health of Americans, as some articles will lead you to believe. While it’s okay to choose to eat gluten free, for whatever reason, it’s important to be knowledgeable. The Scientific American tells us that before we go gluten free, we should be checked out by a physician and make sure to replace gluten-containing foods with other foods that are naturally gluten free and contain the nutrients that your body needs.

However, gluten isn’t detrimental to your health if you don’t have a gluten intolerance. In fact, gluten-rich foods are a fantastic source of nutrients that keep you healthy. So before you go gluten free, make sure that you’re informed and stay healthy!  

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/most-people-shouldnt-eat-gluten-free/

Your bread-loving friend, Danielle.

Common Food Myths Exposed!

Readers,

Every so often, you hear about the newest diet trend...one year it is Atkins, the next it is the Paleo diet. Or the experts will try to tell you that you need to 'cleanse' and 'detox' to get all of the harmful toxins out of your body.

We all know that most of these diets, including veganism and vegetarianism, have some purported benefits, and that they also come with sacrifices. Simultaneously, I think that we all know that half of it goes back to someone trying to push an idea or sell a product so that they can make a dollar off of someone else. It's no different than the next clothing trend, designers and fashion-experts going to extremes to make a new look in vogue...it helps them sell more items as consumers have to change their wardrobe to fit in to popular culture. We all participate in it, and we're all victims of these marketing efforts.

So as long as we are on the same page and can be honest with ourselves, I think it is fair to remind everyone of some 'food myths' that many of us believe that have since been disproven. Some of these were quite surprising to me as well! While I'm going to focus on the highlights, feel free to check out the original source at ViralNova.

Myth #1: Chicken skin is bad for you

     Seriously though, who hasn't seen someone who peels the delicious skin off a chicken breast because of this myth? I don't, but I inwardly think to myself that I probably shouldn't eat it. In fact, the breading on a piece of chicken soaks up a lot more oil than the skin has itself. We always think chicken skin is bad for us because it is greasy and delicious, but from a nutrient standpoint, over 55% of the fat in chicken skin is the heart-healthy kind: mono-unsaturated fat.

 

Myth #2: Avoid whole milk

Well, no one can argue that this is still a very active food myth, judging by the aisles of 1%, 2% and skim milk at the grocery store. The funny thing is, there is peer-reviewed scientific evidence showing that if you drink whole milk, you are at a lower risk for heart disease!

 

                            

Myth #3: Sea salt is better for you than regular salt

Sodium chloride is the elemental name for table salt. Do you know what the elemental name is for sea salt? Oh yea, it is also sodium chloride! While it may be processed differently, sea salt still contains the same amount of sodium, which everyone is trying to regulate their intake of, despite shaky scientific evidence on that front as well.

Myth #4: Gluten-free living will benefit everyone

For the 1 in 133 people who suffer from celiac disease, consuming gluten is not in your best interest. But for everyone else out there, going gluten-free really won't accomplish much from a nutrition standpoint. Check out this review paper on whether non-celiac gluten sensitivity even exists.

 

 

Myth #5: Avoid high-fructose corn syrup like your life depends on it

There has recently been quite a stir about the superiority of table sugar versus high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). While critics point out that it's not a natural form of sugar, the inclusion of HFCS in nearly everything helps keep food prices low and is deemed "safe" by the US Food and Drug Administration. In comparison, table sugar is 50% fructose and 50 percent glucose, so HFCS only contains 10% more fructose than regular sugar.

 

I suppose the big takeaway for me is don't believe everything you hear about one food being the root of all of our country's problems around obesity. If you can't get through the day without drinking six or seven cans of soda, then you are probably getting way too many calories from soda, whether it is sweetened with HFCS or table sugar. Don't be duped simply by clever marketing and sales campaigns to make you pay a premium for a product that may not have any real nutritional benefit.

 

As with most things in life, moderation goes a long way. If you complement a moderate amount of protein, carbohydrates, fats, and sugars with a healthy lifestyle and regular exercise, you're probably going stay relatively fit and healthy.

 

I hope you enjoyed the reading, and this is just the tip of the iceberg! If you want to fact check on some other 'food myths' including MSG, the real nutritional content of potato skins, and whether carrots improve your eyesight, don't forget to check out the details at ViralNova!

 

 

Cheers,

 

Hyatt Frobose

 







Gluten May Not Be Viable Option for New Method of Execution

We all know at least one of them. You know the person I’m talking about – the “I have the biggest gluten sensitivity and ever since I went gluten free, I feel SO much better” person.  They usually go on to share a delightful array of bathroom related anecdotes and narratives to support their newly discovered hatred for a loaf of Iron Kids.  Being the glutton for confrontation and gluten that I am (a gluten glutton…..that sounds nice), the first thing that flies out of my big mouth is, “Oh, so you’ve been diagnosed with celiac disease by your doctor? I’m sorry to hear that!”   Would you be shocked if they hadn’t in fact been diagnosed with Celiac disease, seen an allergist or gastroenterologist, or even mentioned something to their primary care physician about it?  I’m sure not.

It seems that in today’s society full of WebMD-self-diagnosing-hypochondriacs, gluten, a composite protein found predominantly in wheat, barley and rye, is all the rage. Celiac disease, a hereditary autoimmune condition of the small intestine triggered by eating gluten, makes the Top 50 most searched diseases on Google ….nestled right below gonorrhea and ovarian cancer.   Let’s be clear – Celiac disease is a very real problem for people unlucky enough to be affected by the disease and its symptoms (it appears that ≈ 50% are asymptomatic) which include bloating, pain, chronic diarrhea, vomiting, pale & foul smelling stools, fatigue, idiopathic iron-deficiency anemia, and arthritis, to name a few.

A recent article by Business Insider’s Jennifer Welsh points out that, although the true prevalence of Celiac disease in the US is around 1%, 18% of adults now buy gluten-free foods and 30% of people want to eat less gluten…and they’re willing to pay big for it; sales of gluten-free products are expected to reach $15 billion by 2016.

You can now buy sparkling water that has been genetically modified to remove the gluten. Thanks, R.W. Knudsen.

So, what’s the deal with all the bread boycotting? It turns out that a study was published in 2011 which provided seemingly sound evidence that gluten caused “gastrointestinal distress” in patients who did not suffer from true Celiac disease. This was termed non-celiac gluten sensitivity, aka gluten intolerance, and may have led to a large volume of self-diagnoses and diet modifications.

However, as any good researcher and true disciple of evidence based medicine knows, an experiment must be repeatable in order for one to make sound decisions based on the data which the experiment has produced.  The lead researcher, Professor Peter Gibson of the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, decided to conduct another experiment. This time, he enrolled 37 patients who all reported that consuming a gluten-free diet relieved their gastrointestinal distress symptoms but were NOT suffers of the true autoimmune Celiac disease.  After enrollment, the patients were given a baseline diet that cycled through 3 different diets for a week in length and, most importantly, the patients had no knowledge of which diet they were consuming at any particular time (aka blinding).  Treatments consisted of one diet containing a large amount of added gluten, one containing a lower amount of gluten and whey protein, and one containing only whey protein. Each patient consumed all three diets over the course of the experiment to balance for the individual effect of each patient, regardless of which treatment diet they were consuming.  As a follow up, they also enrolled 22 of the original 37 patients on a similar study where they consumed another high gluten diet, whey protein only, or the original baseline diet in the same experimental design as the first, except for a period of only 3 days on each diet. 

The results of the 2 new trials?  “In contrast to our first study, we could find no specific response to gluten,” Gibson wrote.  Specifically, regardless of the diet the patients were on, they reported worsening GI symptoms (nausea, pain, bloating, and gas) and to relatively similar degrees.  The most interesting find came from the secondary trial in which patients reported worsening symptoms when the baseline diet was used as the control. Let’s put that in slightly less Big Bang Theory-esque terms: They reported that their symptoms worsened when absolutely nothing changed about their diet.  So, what gives?

Well, the researchers believe that the results were mostly a function of nothing but the good ol' human brain, in all its glory, and what is called a “nocebo” effect.  In other words, the patients thought they were going to feel bad, so they did. The researchers, however, did grant that there could be other factors that are yet to be elucidated at play in non-celiac gluten sensitivity, perhaps poorly absorbed short chain carbohydrates  (FODMAPs), but for now, it seems gluten is not a causative factor.  Might be time to rename that, eh?

As for the army of bread-bashing-bandwagon-hoppers out there, aside from the scientist in me who gets annoyed about every item you can buy at a grocery store that’s supposedly killing us all (unless the grocery store has the initials W.F., then you’re good), it upsets and perplexes me when I hear non-Celiac suffers brag about how their newly found life elixir is solely attributable to a wheat withdraw. The people I know who actually do have Celiac disease would like nothing more than to eat a non-cardboard crust pizza and wash it down with a frosty mug of Boulevard Wheat. 

For now, this data seems to support my hypothesis (and bias belief) that there is a large group of scone scorners out there that are full of a lot more than rice cakes, and personally, I think common sense goes a long way with most things at the intersection of food and health. If, for example, your daily habits include going Adam Richman on a baker’s dozen from the local hipster donut shop and you aren't an Ironman athlete, you’re going to have a bad time.  If something is really wrong, talk to your physician sooner rather than later and don’t rely on Bev, your dog walker’s, uncle’s, ex-wife whose only qualification is that she looks great in a cocktail dress at age 48, for life changing medical advice. For most people who would like to make a change of some sort, enlisting the help of our long lost friend, moderation, is likely a good place to start.

Regards,

Gluten Glutton