Imagine driving to your favorite local donut shop: rustic look to the four walls, glimpses into the hordes of dough and sugar being tossed and baked in the back, laughing out loud at the crazy and creative names on the menu. Then you realize there’s a gluten-free menu, and your happiness is tenfold. You just read this new health blog on “The ten reasons to stop eating gluten” and feel you can finally eat guilt-free donuts. Insert the craze that is, gluten-free foods.

I know many people who think they are eating “healthier” simply by deciding to have gluten-free pizza or gluten-free brownies. It’s almost as if they believe they have a free pass to eat whatever they want. But yet, they haven’t changed their eating habits. Society has currently marketed to us that anything gluten-free means “guilt-free.” For those of you with Celiac Disease, I am deeply sorry. You all have to be gluten-free for the rest of your life, so the occasional beer, brownie, or pizza has to be gluten-free, or else you know what happens.

As for the rest of us, I’m writing this article to say that just because something is labeled gluten-free does not mean you can have as much as you want of that food without consequences. I once had a “cheat day” several years back where I ate nearly 8,000 calories of gluten-free desserts and thought it was healthy since it was all gluten-free. I probably gained some weight that day, caused some gut distress, and felt my blood sugar going on a roller coaster.

It’s possible to “loss health” by eating gluten-free foods, just like it’s possible to “get healthier” by only eating gluten.

Gluten-Free Market

The market for gluten-free products is snowballing. The gluten-free market is projected to be valued at $7.59 Billion in the U.S. by the end of this year (1). In 2017 alone, more than 33,000 different gluten-free health-related products were launched worldwide. General Mills, the famous cereal maker with nearly $17 billion in sales, is starting to invest more in the gluten-free market.

Before the year 2010, gluten-free was barely relevant. As you can see from this Google Trends Graph, the term skyrocketed after that, peaking its popularity around November 2013.

It again hit peak popularity in December of 2019, and I’d say it’s posed for another peak coming up during this year’s holiday season. Any way you slice it (gluten-full or gluten-free), we consumers want gluten-free products, and there’s no shortage of people willing to sell them to us. That begs the next question, why do we want them?

Gluten and Health

Back in the early 2000s, a researcher out of Harvard, Dr. Alessio Fasano, was studying the effects of a harmful type of bacteria called Cholera on the human gut. He found that this bacteria produced toxins that caused our gut lining to become leaky — he essentially discovered leaky gut. Leaky gut (intestinal permeability) has been linked with conditions such as autoimmunity, obesity, and type II diabetes.

He also found that gluten could cause our gut to become leaky.

Then people inferred that because gluten could cause a leaky gut, which could lead to autoimmunity, that gluten leads to autoimmunity. In other words, A causes B, and B causes C, so A should also cause C. In math, that’s pretty straightforward. In the human body, not so much. Those with Celiac will likely get a leaky gut if they ingest gluten, but that’s less than 1% of the population (2). You could also be someone with Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS), commonly called gluten intolerance or gluten sensitivity. These people have non-allergenic, less severe immunologic reactions to gluten, such as gas, bloating, or brain fog. But that only represents between 0.6% to 10.6% of the population (3). That still leaves nearly 90% of us to decide the ultimate choice: gluten or no gluten….. or occasional gluten.

The fact that gluten is used in many processed foods adds to our culture’s demonization of gluten. That’s only part of the issue with gluten. Many foods that contain gluten (donuts, cookies, pizza, cakes) are also high in sugar and calories and low in fiber and protein. But even many gluten-free alternatives are still high in calories and sugar and lacking in protein and fiber.

Tale of the Tape

Oreo now has gluten-free Oreos. On the top, you’ll see the nutrition information for regular Oreo cookies. Below, you’ll see Glutino gluten-free chocolate vanilla creme cookie nutrition facts (basically knock-off Oreos).

What do you notice?

Calories? The same. Carbohydrates? The same. Protein? The same. Sugar and fiber are also essentially the same. For calorie counting/weight loss purposes, these cookies are identical.

If you overeat on the gluten-free ones, you’ll gain weight. If you undereat the gluten-full ones, you’ll lose weight. As we touched on earlier, if you have Celiac or NCGS, you’ll likely have less digestive discomfort from the gluten-free ones — however, some gluten-free alternatives can still lead to gut flare-ups for those with sensitive digestion. Adhering to a longer-term gluten-free diet makes sense for that subset of people. For the rest of us who eat gluten-free cookies and think we’re “healthier” because of it, maybe we need to rethink that.

What’s the Approach?

For some people, going gluten-free means, they stop eating as many processed foods and start eating more fruits, vegetables, and minimally processed meats — I’m a massive fan of this reason. What worries me is people who don’t have Celiac or NCGS and think gluten is the sole reason they’re unhealthy. If the only dietary intervention they did was to replace the Oreos they were eating with gluten-free Oreos, I would bet they wouldn’t see any difference in their health. Gluten-free is not a panacea.

Suppose you think you have an issue with gluten. In that case, I’d recommend you seek a Functional Medicine Practitioner who can help you determine whether your gluten reactions are caused by Celiac, NCGS, or potentially something else (IBS, FODMAP sensitivities, etc.).

As always, Trust in Your Gut.

Disclaimer: The contents of this article are for educational purposes only and are not intended to diagnose or treat any condition. Do not apply any of the information in this article without first speaking with your doctor.

References

1. Wunsch, N., 2020. Global Gluten-Free Food Market Size 2020–2025 | Statista. [online] Statista. Available at: <https://www.statista.com/statistics/248467/global-gluten-free-food-market-size/> [Accessed 18 December 2020].
2. Rubio-Tapia A, Ludvigsson JF, Brantner TL, Murray JA, Everhart JE. The prevalence of celiac disease in the United States. Am J Gastroenterol. 2012;107(10):1538–1545. doi:10.1038/ajg.2012.219
3. Catassi C, Alaedini A, Bojarski C, et al. The Overlapping Area of Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS) and Wheat-Sensitive Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS): An Update. Nutrients. 2017;9(11):1268. Published 2017 Nov 21. doi:10.3390/nu9111268