ARE GLUTEN FREE PRODUCTS REALLY BETTER FOR YOU?

Gluten is a complicated issue.  As this subject gets more and more attention, there is more and more research pointing to the fact that it may be the lectins in foods that cause the problems and not as much the gluten protein. (I’ll discuss this in a future blog).  Obviously, if you have celiac disease, gluten is deadly, but if you do not I wonder if the things we are substituting for the gluten could possibly be worse for us.  I think we need to remember that the food industry is always trying to get us to spend money and has jumped on the gluten free craze…but does this make it healthy? 

My favourite is when they market foods as “gluten-free” that never had any gluten to start.  To market a bag of fresh green beans as gluten free is ludicrous. 

To be clear, gluten is a group of proteins, termed prolamins and glutelins, stored with starch in the endosperm of various grains. The only foods that naturally contain the gluten protein are;

Wheat

Wheat germ

Rye

Barley

Bulgur

Couscous

Farina

Graham flour

Kamut

Matzo

Semolina

Spelt

Triticale

I would also be remiss if I did not mention that grains are important sources of many nutrients, including fiber, B vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and folate) and minerals (iron, magnesium and selenium).

 The other problem is that most often, when baked goods are made with gluten free products, they lack fiber and have excess sugar that raises blood sugar levels, which triggers a release of insulin which in turn tells our bodies to store fat.

 As an example, I bought a cauliflower pizza crust at Whole Foods (which sounds really healthy right?) and this is the list of ingredients; cauliflower, brown rice flour, rice flour, corn starch, sunflower oil, evaporated corn syrup, whole powdered eggs, baking powder, tapioca flour, yeast, salt vinegar, and xanthum gum.

 Let’s look at some of these ingredients.  Xanthum gum is a thickening agent and food preservative which may cause gas and flatulence.  I’m pretty sure that the reason many people don’t eat gluten is to avoid this specific side effect. Corn starch is derived from corn, and most likely GMO corn, so I’m not sure we want that.  Evaporated cane syrup is basically white sugar with molasses. And this is a relatively healthy gluten free choice. There are far worse choices out there.

 Luckily, it’s actually quite easy to make a cauliflower crust from scratch, without any of these additives, and I have included the recipe.

Don’t get me wrong, I think we all need less bread and cereals in our lives and more vegetables, fruit and lean wild caught or pasture fed protein. Unfortunately avoiding gluten doesn’t always mean increasing these things but rather finding substitutions for the breads, pastries, snacks and cookies that many are addicted to. I just believe we need to think about what we are substituting gluten with….

Let’s not let the gluten free craze be the same outcome as the demonization and elimination of all fats, good and bad, from the North American diet.  That did not work out very well nutritionally for anyone at the end of the day.