Why All the Fuss about Gluten Free?

WELLNESS-Gluten has been getting lots of attention lately, most recently with headlines stating that gluten free diets may be a tax write off. I think it’s doubtful that your tax return will be greatly affected by gluten, but it’s quite possible your health will.   

Gluten is a protein made up of the peptines glutenin and gliandin and it is found in wheat, rye, barley and other grains. It is the compound responsible for making bread fluffy and it helps the dough stick together when baking.  

The problem with gluten is that it breaks down further into other chemicals like  gliandin. This compound has been found to cause intestinal irritation, inflammation, and an auto-immune response in people with digestive diseases like Celiac Disease and Chrones or Colitis.  These people specifically need to be more intentional about cutting gluten from their diet in order to limit or eliminate any inflammatory response from the body. For the rest of the population it may not be as urgent to cut gluten from the diet, but studies do show that too much of this molecule is not great for any of us. 

Genetically modified wheat of today holds a different chemical makeup than the wheat of the 60’s and earlier did. It is estimated that 1 in 120 people have celiac disease today as compared to 1 in 600 50 years ago. People with Cecilac is a disease where the small intestine is hypersensitive to gluten leading to difficulty in digesting food. While it is difficult to prove, many people suspect genetically modified organisms or GMO’s in our bread products may be a big part of this problem. Modern crops have increased and in many cases altered the chemical composition of foods, and gluten is no different. 

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As far as gluten goes, I tell my patients the same thing I tell them about similar foods. There is no need to be drastic about our diets. If you are someone that does not notice a response when eating gluten, it is still a good idea to eat less gluten; something we call gluten selective. For those of you with a sensitive gut or with obvious digestive issues, it probably is a good idea to go gluten free all together. 

If you are not sure if you are sensitive to gluten, try eliminating it from your diet for 14 to 21 days. If you do not notice any change you may not be overly sensitive to gluten. If you are gluten intolerant, use some creativity with your diet and you will probably find that you don’t miss the gluten after a while. For those items you must have, they do have gluten free options, albeit they tend to be a bit more expensive. 

Who knows, with this new gluten tax write off information, maybe you can write off your new gluten free diet.

 

(Christian Cristiano is an acupuncturist, TV host of Wellness for Realists and writes on wellness regularly for CityWatch. Christian can be reached at 323.935.3420.)

-cw

 

 

CityWatch

Vol 13 Issue 19

Pub: Mar 6, 2015