Gluten free diets can be beneficial to people with certain conditions

It has always stood to reason that we’re fat because we eat too much of something. What we perceive that something to be changes over time.

When fat was the alleged culprit, a slew of reduced-fat products hit grocery-store shelves. In the years that followed, we got low-calorie, sugar-free and no-carb products. Healthy food wasn’t healthy unless something had been zapped out of it.

More recently, gluten, a protein found in some grains, including wheat, rye and barley, has come under fire as the diet hurdle du jour that prevents us from whittling our middles and firming our flab.

Reminders are everywhere. Grocery stores are devoting more space to gluten free breads, pastas, pretzels, crackers and brownie mixes. Restaurants boast gluten free fare on their menus. And when celebrities reveal the secrets behind their great bodies to magazine journalists, they’re talking about giving up the grain.

So should you?

Many health care professionals say it depends.

“There is no evidence that cutting gluten out of your diet, if you are not suffering from celiac” disease, “has any benefit,” said Matthew Bechtold, a gastroenterologist at University of Missouri Health Care.

At least not in a way people think.

Kristy Lang, a registered dietitian and diabetes educator at Boone Hospital Center, said it’s not that gluten is inherently bad for most people. Rather, gluten tends to show up in foods that are bad for us.

“Foods that are highly processed tend to contain gluten. If you cut all that out and are eating lean protein and lots of fruits and veggies and, overall, a cleaner, more healthful diet, then you feel better,” Lang said.

“Your blood sugar is more stable, which makes you feel less lethargic. You tend to have more energy; you’re losing weight, and that makes you feel good. People think, ‘Oh, I am feeling better; I must be allergic to gluten.’ ”

But that might not be the case.

For one thing, celiac sprue — an autoimmune condition that damages the celia, the hair-like projections responsible for absorbing nutrients on the inside of the small intestine — is rare, affecting just more than 1 percent of people in the United States, according to Consumer Reports’ supplemental On Health publication.

Second, Lang said gluten intolerance is not the same as a true allergy.

“It has which has nothing to do with your immune system, but rather your body has trouble simply digesting gluten, which may cause gas, bloating and/or diarrhea,” Lang said.

William Trumbower, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Women’s Health Associates who has an interest in nutrition, said from an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense for some people to have a hard time with gluten because grains weren’t part of early man’s diet.

“We evolved as hunters and gatherers. We eat meats and vegetables, a little bit of fruits, nuts, seeds berries and a little bit of bugs,” Trumbower said.

Our digestive systems, he said, simply weren’t designed to handle gluten.

“Gluten is able to penetrate the gut lining and enter your systemic system as an undigested protein. The only difference in someone who gets really sick with this is your immune system and how you react to that,” Trumbower said.

Trumbower has been adhering to the paleo diet, which emphasizes the sorts of foods our early ancestors would have eaten, for the past six years. Since then, problems he’s had that some researchers have linked to gluten sensitivity — asthma, osteoarthritis, canker sores and allergies — have cleared up.

“I have not had one canker sore; I’m functionally no longer asthmatic; my seasonal allergies are gone; and you see me working out at Transformational Fitness Coaching. My knees are doing well,” Trumbower said.

So who should cut it out? And when?

For those experiencing symptoms of celiac, which include abdominal discomfort, diarrhea, anemia and unexplained weight loss, it’s best to wait until after an official diagnosis, Bechtold said.

There are two tests doctors use to diagnosis celiac. One is a blood test, which seeks out certain antibodies. The other is an endoscopy of the small intestine.

“It’s looking at diminished folds, any signs of inflammation,” Bechtold said.

However, eliminating gluten from the diet before these tests are performed can skew the results.

“If you are on a gluten free diet for a period of time, both the small bowel recovers and the blood tests become normal, so any test you get might be normal and normal,” Bechtold said.

Furthermore, Bechtold points out that other conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome, bowel bacteria overgrowth and Whipple’s disease, have similar symptoms.

“You want to know what you’re dealing with so you can confront it,” Bechtold said. “If you have the symptoms, it’s probably a good idea to get tested for it.”

Additionally, Lang said parents who have a child with celiac might want to get tested themselves as there often is a genetic component to the disorder.

As for those who don’t have symptoms of celiac but still don’t feel well after consuming a lot of gluten rich food, Lang said an elimination diet is an easy way to identify problem foods.

“They eliminate all potential allergens, then slowly add back in one at a time to see where things flare up again,” Lang said.

This did the trick for Jeff Powell’s daughter, Lily.

When she was 2, she started experiencing dyskinesia, or involuntary, seizure-like movements.

“We were told we could put her on some really powerful drugs, or we could just deal with it. Neither one of those options sounded very good, but my brother read an article about a doctor who had a daughter who had been having dyskinesia. When they found out she had celiac, they took her off gluten, and the dyskinesia went away, too,” said Powell, owner and therapist at RecoverFast LLC.

When Powell and Lily’s mother omitted gluten from Lily’s diet, her dyskinesia stopped as well, Powell said. When they tried to reintroduce it, it started up again.

Today, Lily adheres to a gluten free diet. She hasn’t been officially diagnosed with celiac or any other gastrointestinal disorder, but Powell said his daughter is a healthy, happy kid.

As for Powell, he has been cutting gluten out of his diet for the same length of time as his daughter, though he considers himself gluten-light, not gluten free.

“I keep it low, but I’ll eat stuff with gluten sometimes,” Powell said.

For Powell, this means avoiding most grain products, though he doesn’t buy the breads and pastas from the gluten free section of the store.

Occasionally, Powell will treat himself to his favorite pizza or cookies, and if social occasions with family and friends call for eating a food containing gluten, he goes along with it.

Still, since cutting down on the amount of gluten in his regular diet, Powell said he has seen a number of health benefits, including easier digestion and decreased allergy symptoms.

Lang said, for some, a moderate take on gluten-rich products is a sensible way to go about it.

“You don’t necessarily have to give up gluten. Give up really heavily processed foods. Cut them out of your daily diet and make them once-a-week foods, and see if that helps. If you really think you have an issue with gluten, then give your doctor a call and follow up with that,” Lang said.

Gluten free Recipes with Bill & Sheila
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