DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT GLUTEN IS!?

illestbambi (54) in food • 8 years ago (edited)

Unless you live under a rock, you've probably seen these everywhere:

Just take a look around your kitchen, you'll probably find a lot of things that say "Gluten-Free"

Now, I'm a little annoyed. Let me explain why.

Lately, I've been hearing a lot of people saying things like

"I've switched to a gluten-free diet!"
"I heard a gluten-free diet is healthier!"
"That isn't gluten-free? No, don't buy that one!"

I work with food, and the number of people worried about gluten is just plain annoying.

So here I am asking

DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT GLUTEN IS?

If not, let me explain:

Gluten is a composition of proteins that are found in wheat, grains, and oats.

It is responsible for giving these foods their shape and giving dough that unique consistency.

So why is Gluten an issue? Here's why:

1% of the worldwide population has a disease called Celiac

People with this disease cannot ingest anything that contains gluten.
To do so would be life threatening.

Celiac disease is a serious autoimmune disorder that can occur in genetically predisposed people where the ingestion of gluten leads to damage in the small intestine.

Basically, when the body detects Gluten, the immune system attacks the small intestines, damaging the little fingerlike Villi which lines the small intestine.

Once these Villi are damaged, the small intestine will be unable to absorb nutrients into the body.

So why do people chose Gluten free when they don't have Celiac?

I've summed it up to two conclusions.

A:

People heard, saw or read somewhere that it's unhealthy by some inexperienced source, so they decided to make the switch without even researching it.

Just because a Kardashian decided to publicly go gluten-free (most likely for marketing purposes) doesn't mean you should too! They don't know what they're talking about! Neither does your Cosmopolitan magazine! They aren't nutritionists.

Wanna hear something interesting?

A gluten-free diet is likely an unhealthy choice if you don't have Celiac!
By cutting gluten out of your diet, you are most likely cutting out essential vitamins, minerals, and fibers from your diet as well!
Gluten itself doesn't have any nutritional benefits on its own, but the vast amount of whole grain foods that contain gluten do!

B:

Much like the FAT-FREE and SUGAR-FREE trends, people are jumping on the GLUTEN-FREE trend as well, simply because when it's placed on the front of a food package, you instinctively think it must be bad for you if it's being removed.

This is not a good trend to jump on. Much like the sugar-free trend, they might be removing something like sugar and replacing it with artificial sweeteners like Aspartame, which are much much worse.

You see, people might say that foods containing gluten upset their stomach, and this may be true, but it is much more likely to be the fact that these foods are HIGHLY REFINED and BLEACHED.

But NOOOOOOOO it's definitely not the fact that all these foods are highly processed!

IT'S THE GLUTEN!

giphy (9).gif

* EATS GLUTEN *

References:

-Balch, Phyllis A. Prescription for nutritional healing: a practical A-to-Z reference to drug-free remedies using vitamins, minerals, herbs & food supplements. London: Penguin, 2011. Print.

https://celiac.org/live-gluten-free/glutenfreediet/what-is-gluten/

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/all-about-gluten

THANKS FOR READING Stay Awesome -Zey

food health nutrition life blog

8 years ago by illestbambi (54)

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itchykitten (59) · 8 years ago (edited)

hey Illest!! It's kind of wild how many people don't even know what it is they're trying so hard to avoid, I suppose it's an unfortunate byproduct of the industrialized food system. People have no real connection with their foods...

There's actually a really scary process for 'dessicating' wheat that is almost exclusively used in the united states, it's totally normal to spray a lethal dose of glyphosate on wheat about a week before harvest to 'finish it off' and dry it out. Farmers do this because it's easier on their machines, but also in the plant's death throes it will pump all it's remaining energy into the kernels, giving the farmer a 5% to 10% increase in their harvest across their fields. It's really messed, and I wrote a post all about it if you want to read more.

I now believe that a lot of people that claim 'gluten allergies' are experiencing the longterm effects of the glyphosate on their system. Thanks for writing about this! I love the rocket cock, lol i keep watching it over and over, it never gets old

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illestbambi (54) · 8 years ago

I checked out your post,
I'm glad to see that we share some common interests
and that you know quite a lot about the subject.

I agree a lot of what happens in the food industry is messed up, but if awareness isn't spread, nothing will change.

Glad you got a laugh out of the gif too :D
There was no way I could not add that to this post.

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condra (67) · 8 years ago

Gratzi! Bambino! I uppa voted a you!

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1 vote

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creativesoul (59) · 7 years ago

I have celiac disease and it annoys me to no end that people who do not have it choose a gluten free diet because it's a trend! Most of the time people actually think I am only trying to follow the trend when I ask for something gluten free.

Gluten free foods are insanely expensive because manufacturers and grocery stores know it's a fad and they charge anything they want to make a profit off this trend. They are actually even more unhealthy than the 'regular' over processed versions.