Gluten free: fashion trend or truth?

Before we start, let me scare you with some unpleasant truths:

• 99% of people with coeliac or gluten insensitivity are never diagnosed

• there has been a 400% increase in coeliac disease compared with 50 years ago

• 30% people of European descent have the gene for coeliac disease

• over 55% diseases are linked to gluten

So what is gluten?

Gluten is a protein found in some grains (see full list below). It is actually made up of two peptides: gliadin and glutenin. I remember watching my grandmother when I was a child making traditional Romanian cheese pies and I can visualise even now how the dough would be so sticky, airy and fluffy. Gluten literally acts like a glue! In plants, gluten actually holds together the plant nutrient stores!

Gluten breaks down your barriers… literally!

In the walls of our gut, we have tight junctions formed by cells to prevent large molecules from passing through to the blood. Gluten produces a substance (called zonulin) which triggers these junctions to loosen, and bigger molecules of undigested foods and toxins pass through to the blood causing an immune response. Now, in a healthy individual, these junctions repair again, however, nowadays we are overexposed to gluten (plus a myriad of other factors like stress, viruses etc) and these junctions do not get a chance to repair. This causes our gut to become “leaky” and our body to be on alert due to this immune response. This happens in everyone - not only if you have a sensitivity or intolerance or diagnosed coeliac. Even if you tolerate gluten, you’re causing yourself a cascade of inflammation every time you eat that slice of toast or crumpet.

Gluten sensitivity and intolerance

Gluten sensitivity is neither an allergy nor coeliac disease. If you are sensitive to gluten, your body will start an immune response and produce antibodies (called IgG antibodies), similar to when something foreign invades it. Gluten sensitivity can manifest as: foggy brain, anxiety, depression. It could also manifest as bloating, gas, diarrhoea. Gluten causes the immune system to go into alert due to its highly inflammatory nature. Inflammation could look different in everyone: swollen joints, headaches, fluid retention etc.

To see if you are gluten sensitive, eliminate all gluten containing grains for at least 6 weeks, then slowly reintroduce one by one noting down if there are any changes in mood, bowel motion, digestion, sleep.

What is Coeliac disease?

Coeliac disease is an autoimmune condition where the body starts attacking its own cells (often in the small intestine) after ingesting gluten. This layer of cells in the small intestine are necessary for the absorption of nutrients and therefore due to the destruction of this microvilli, those with Coeliac are not able to absorb nutrients from their food. So you could be having the most perfect diet that exists filled with plants, vegetables and delicious fruit, but you can be malnourished due to not being able to absorb any of these nutrients! You could have Coeliac and not know about it! To get diagnosed, it’s a long and unpleasant process that many don’t want to go through.

What foods contain gluten?

Gluten is found in any food sources with wheat, semolina, spelt, Kamut, rye, barley and oats (due to cross-contamination) such as: bread, cakes, cereals, pasta, pies, waffles, muffins, pancakes, crackers. This does not mean you shouldn’t have these - there are plenty of gluten free options and recipes.

Gluten is also found in some: alcohol candy, meats, corn chips, dry roasted nuts, stock cubes, sauces/condiments. To be sure, always check ingredient list of all the foods you buy. You’d be surprised at how many foods have gluten in them. Another tricky thing is that some foods contain gluten but on the ingredient list you’ll see things like “hydrolysed vegetable protein” or “food starch” and even “natural flavours” - all these could be derived from gluten. But don’t panic, just do your best and avoid buying processed foods!

So what should you eat instead?

A lot of the “gluten-free” foods in the supermarket are actually just as bad, if not worse, than your gluten containing ones. Things like gluten free breads, waffles and biscuits are filled with sugar, preservatives, additives. This is also junk and if you’ll be gluten free and eat these instead then you’re doing yourself more harm.

Gluten free grains include rice, maize, buckwheat, quinoa, millet, teff, sorghum, amaranth, gluten free oats. You can make your own bread using buckwheat, you can substitute white pasta with lentil pasta, or use cooked quinoa instead. Learn how to make your own crackers and bread - it’s easy and if you follow my page, I’ll be sharing with you plenty of easy recipes.

To summarise…

It is clear that the grains are not what they used to be - the processing methods have changed, the origins have changed and the preparation has changed. The agricultural methods of processing wheat and grains has changed meaning even the organic ones are sprayed with chemicals in the drying process. High demand means our food is quickly processed to cater for so many, the grains are not fermented anymore and products are filled with chemicals. On top of that, our diets have changed: we no longer eat grains a few times a year, but daily. There is an increase in toxins that the body has to process from pollution, to our lifestyles, diets and the high stress environments. Gluten not only opens up the tight junctions in your gut, but also adds to the toxic load of our bodies, increasing inflammation. It’s easy to make the switch if you decide to do it - it takes some adjusting but it’s worth it for your health and longevity.

FAQ

Our ancestors and us have been eating gluten containing grains for years without an issue - why are we suddenly worried now?

Some argue that we as species have evolved eating grains and that our ancestors thrived on wheat. But this is not true. The bread we are consuming nowadays has a lot more gluten than the bread we had 100 years ago. Wheat as a grain has changed and it now contains more gluten. On top of that, the bread most people consume nowadays is highly processed and loaded with additives, sugar and other chemicals. It goes without saying that gluten-free breads in the supermarket are also packed with processed chemicals.

New strains of wheat have been developed over the years to make baked goods even lighter or fluffier. Our bodies simply do not recognise these new forms artificially created. The other problem is that 100 years ago gluten was not processed in the same way. This modern process of “deamination” is where amino acids are removed from gluten-containing grains in order to make gluten more water soluble and also improve the appearance and texture of baked goods. 100 years ago, the soils were cleaner, the wheat was not hybridised and deaminated and I am sure that our ancestors enjoyed a baked good once a year for Christmas perhaps, and not three times a day for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I don’t get any bloating or digestive issues after eating gluten so why should I reduce it in my diet?

A gluten intolerance might not show up for at least 72 hours after ingesting gluten - that is at least 3 days. So if you eat gluten on Monday, you might have no symptoms until Thursday or Friday and by then you’ve forgotten that you had gluten not realising the foggy brain and low moods are in fact caused by it. Remember, an intolerance is not necessarily bloating or digestive issues, it could come as a runny nose, a swollen finger or a headache!

Reference and further reading:

Lerner, A. Yehuda, S. and Torsten M. (2017). “Adverse effects of gluten ingestion and advantages of gluten withdrawal in nonceliac immune disease”, Nutrition Reviews, 7 (12). Online (https://academic.oup.com/nutritionreviews/article/75/12/1046/4675264)

Catassi, C. and Fasano, A. (2016). “Tempters and Gluten-Free Diet”, Nutrients, 8 (12), (Online https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/8/12/786.

Volta, U et al. (2013). “Non-celiac gluten sensitivity: questions still to be answered despite increasing awareness”, Cellular & Molecular Immunology, 10, Online (https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/8/12/786).

Myers, A. The Autoimmune solution, 2015.

Goodman, J. Staying Alive in Toxic Times, 2020.

Mercola, J. Fat for Fuel, 2017.