Is Gluten Free Diet Perfect?

People try to keep themselves up-to-date by following the ongoing trends. They learn new ways of living and try to adopt new food practices just to prove how "health conscious" they are! Gluten-free diet is one such new concept that emerged recently. It gave birth to a lot of questions in people's minds. Gluten-free diets were also targeted to serve the purpose of weight loss. But, before proceeding any further, we need to understand what is gluten.

What is Gluten?

Gluten is a fraction of protein, which is naturally present in wheat, rye, and barley and foods containing those grains (like breads, cereals, and pasta). Basically there is no harm in eating gluten, unless you are specifically sensitive to gluten (celiac disease also known as gluten-sensitive enteropathy). Celiac is a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. In such a case, gluten molecules show resistance towards complete digestion by the gastrointestinal enzymes. Their interaction with the immune system of the gastrointestinal tract can trigger an inflammatory response against the small intestinal mucosa. This is accompanied by a general systemic response.

Celiac disease may be triggered by gastrointestinal surgeries, stress, pregnancy  and viral infections. Some of the classic symptoms observed are diarrhea, steatorrhea (fat in stools), abdominal bloating, apathy and poor weight gain.

What if You are Sensitive to Gluten?

When an individual cuts down on gluten right away, more than 50 percent of the symptoms get treated with dietary changes and the person's intestines go back to the normal functioning mode. But the results might differ from one individual to the other.

A new approach to digest the normally resistant gluten peptide is by using an endopeptidase enzyme, either in the diet or in the food that contains gluten. Initial studies show that the enzyme works to some extent, and the digested product does not produce the same response. But it is not yet confirmed as to what degree the gluten peptides might escape digestion.

What does Gluten-Free Diet Consists of?

The basic gluten free diet consists of:

• Milk and milk products like cream, buttermilk, curd, cheese and cottage cheese.
• Grain products like amaranth, arrowroot, cornstarch, flax, sorghum (jowar), millet (bajra), ragi, rice and sago in any form.
• Meat, fish, poultry, eggs.
• Fruits and vegetables in fresh, frozen and canned forms and fruit juice.
• Fats in the form of butter, margarine and vegetable oils.
• Beverages like tea, coffee, soft drinks, rum, gin, vodka and wines (avoid whiskey and beers as they may be made up of wheat, rye or barley).
• Gluten-free products like gluten free biscuits, cookies, wheat flour (atta) and semolina (rava). The base of such products is either sorghum (jowar) or millet (bajra), both of which are high in fiber and good for health. These gluten-free products are easily available in the market.

Use of Gluten Free Diet for Weight Loss

Using Gluten free diets is a smart way for weight loss, if it is used for a short time span (not more than a week). Cutting down gluten leads to indirectly cutting down on the quantity intake. This, in turn, leads to change in the normal food intake. Both these features help in losing weight to some degree. Hence a gluten-free diet can be practiced once in a while, just to change your body's routine and to gear up your metabolism. Practicing a gluten free diet for a longer period of time can lead to the deficiencies of vitamin A, vitamin D, B vitamins, iron and zinc.

Thus, gluten free diets can contribute towards weight loss only if practiced for a shorter period of time, but it cannot be taken as a life-long solution to your weight problems. Rather, you should opt for other healthy options like exercises and intake of balanced diet to meet your weight loss objectives.