Gluten Allergies and Celiac Disease Are the Only Reasons to Go Gluten-Free
The gluten-free craze has hit the supermarkets and restaurants where most all restaurants now are offer gluten-free items, but a gluten-free diet isn’t healthier for most people.
Somewhere along the way, as with most diet crazes, a few people were helped with a gluten-free diet: they lost weight, saw an improvement in many of their health symptoms, and they generally felt better. So it followed that many others decided they would get the same benefit from doing the same. We’ve seen this happen before when chromium picolinate was all the rage, because a few people who were deficient in it took it and lost weight and felt better, so everyone else jumped on the bandwagon.
What it comes down to is this: for some people, gluten-free diets make a huge difference. For others, going gluten-free is not only not going to help anything, but it might actually make some things worse.
Celiac Disease and Gluten-Sensitivity
People with Celiac disease must avoid gluten to be healthy. In fact, someone with severe Celiac can become quite ill or even die when consuming sometimes even a small amount of gluten. These people generally cannot eat off the gluten-free menu in restaurants, because, unless the kitchen itself is gluten-free, cross contamination in a restaurant kitchen that does use gluten in other things is such a risk to their health, they can’t take the chance. Thus, gluten-free items on the menu of a regular restaurant really aren’t an option to someone who suffers from Celiac.
There are, however, some people who are not diagnosed with Celiac disease, but who have what some doctors think might be a precursor to it: gluten-sensitivity. Even if it’s not a precursor to Celiac, gluten-sensitivity is similar to any allergy or sensitivity in that, people who react to gluten will feel better when they reduce or eliminate gluten from their diets.
Benefits of Eliminating Gluten
If a person has Celiac, eliminating gluten from their diet can literally mean the difference between life and death. For people who are allergic or have a sensitivity to gluten, a gluten-free diet can make a big difference in health and how well a person feels. Gluten-free diets for these people can eliminate or reduce gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, irritable bowel, malabsorption and nutritional deficiencies, chronic fatigue, pain and much more.
The problem is, for people who don’t have Celiac or who are not sensitive to gluten, cutting out gluten from a diet eliminates an important food from the food group that can provide additional health benefits.
Gluten Free is Not For Everybody
The bottom line is, not every diet fad is health for everyone, and because a gluten-free diet does help those who are sensitive to this item and saves the lives of those who are Celiac sufferers, it’s not a good choice for a lifestyle diet for anyone else. Testing for gluten sensitivity is something your doctor can do, and everyone should always consult a doctor before starting a new diet, weight loss or exercise program. A gluten-free diet is something you should definitely discuss with your doctor or healthcare practitioner-regardless of your current health status-before you attempt it.