Are Gluten-Free Products Just Another Food Fad?

Before doling out extra cash for a healthy-sounding food product, realize it may be causing you more harm than good.

Not unlike the fat-free, sugar-free, trans-fat free, high-fibre, all-natural, and low-carb diet fads that have taken turns in popularity in supermarket aisles across the country, companies have latched on to a new one: gluten-free foods. During the last five years, gluten-free food products have shown tremendous growth, with sales increasing on average 26 percent. Many avoid gluten in search of a way to slow down aging and achieve premier fitness. But do you really need such foods, given they’re usually more expensive than the alternatives? What advantages do they have for your health, or are you simply paying more for an advertising gimmick? Let’s look at the facts.

What Is Gluten?

It’s important to understand what gluten is before you decide to remove it from your diet. Gluten is a storage protein found in the starchy component of many grain products such as wheat, rye, and barley. These grains all contain varying amounts of gluten. Gluten is responsible for the pleasing texture of bread products, which makes them enjoyable to eat.

Gluten is also found in a huge variety of foods outside of the basic carbs you likely think of. Items such as salad dressings, cream-based soups, candy, and even beer can have gluten. For this reason, those with gluten intolerances need to read food labels very carefully!

Who Should Remove It?

There are medical reasons some people should remove gluten from their diets, such as those diagnosed with celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity. With celiac disease, the immune system reacts adversely to gluten, causing damage to the inner lining of the small bowel. This causes physical symptoms such as bloating, pain, diarrhea, and fatigue, but can also lead to difficulty absorbing nutrients. This can create malnutrition, anemia, and stunted growth in children. Non-celiac gluten sensitivity is a broad category for those whose celiac tests come back negative but experience the same physical symptoms after eating gluten.

For these individuals, following a gluten-free diet is advised for their well-being. However, they should consult a dietician or nutritionist to ensure they’re meeting their daily nutritional needs.

According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, celiac disease is diagnosed in approximately one percent of the population, equalling around 350,000 Canadians. But of that one percent, an estimated 90 percent of cases go undiagnosed. Non-celiac gluten sensitivity is found in approximately 6 percent of Canadians, or 2.1 million folks. Although these two groups need to remove gluten from their diets, a whopping 7 million Canadians purchase gluten-free products, meaning a much larger number of people are buying products they don’t need!1

Why Gluten Is Good

For those without a medical reason, removing gluten from their diets can prove to be problematic. Gluten-free foods may lack vital nutrients including fibre, iron, folate, and riboflavin, which are necessary for overall health. Specifically, a study published in Gastroenterology & Hepatologycomparing men who ate gluten-free to those who didn’t found that those eating a gluten-free diet consumed less carbohydrates, fibre, niacin, folate, and calcium, but more fat and sodium. The same study found similar results for women, where the gluten-free group had higher levels of fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol in their diets.2

Gluten has also been found to be beneficial for the immune system and gut flora. After a week of added gluten, an increase in natural killer cells activity was observed. These cells fight infection and work to keep the body healthy.

Gluten-Free Junk Food?

One problem with the gluten-free craze is the abundance of processed “treat” foods lining the shelves of stores. Labelling cookies as “gluten-free” doesn’t make them healthy, which seems to be a common misconception. In fact, the nutrition facts of a gluten-free chocolate and vanilla sandwich cookie are similar to its gluten-filled counterpart. For those living gluten-free voluntarily, relying on processed options may result in an expanded waistline, which probably isn’t what they hoped for when they removed gluten in the first place.

Eat for Health

A significant number of people need to follow a gluten-free diet for health reasons. However, for those without problems processing gluten, you may want to think twice and do a little more digging before removing it from your diet. At the end of the day, if you opt to go gluten-free, make sure you’re consuming ample nutrients from a wide selection of foods to stay healthy.