Is a Gluten-Free Diet Worth It? Debunking the Myths and Examining the Facts

2023-07-07 09:31:21

“I asked myself a lot, why am I on this diet? In the past, I thought it was okay to eat dairy and gluten, but now I think we only have one life to live and I want to live it to the best of my health and vitality.”

American star “Kourtney Kardashian”, speaking about her and her three children eliminating gluten and dairy products from their diets (1)

Kourtney Kardashian is just one example in the list of celebrities who have come out to announce that they are gluten-free. Another prominent example is the Egyptian soccer player, “Mohamed Salah”, who confirmed, during a television interview, that he eats gluten-free bread during breakfast (2). You may be tempted by these statements, too, that a gluten-free diet supports your health and enhances your fitness, especially with these foods invading grocery and retail store shelves, but is it worth it? Do you really have to work hard and pay more money to avoid gluten in your food?

Food villain

The basic problem known as “gluten intolerance” is not a general problem, but is related to specific people who suffer from this type of disorder. (Shutterstock)

Gluten is a group of proteins found naturally in some grains such as wheat, barley and rye. Gluten proteins are very elastic, which is why gluten-containing grains are suitable for baking. Imagine a pizza maker tossing and stretching a ball of dough, without the gluten the dough would easily split (3)(4).

Many today present gluten as the nutritional villain of the 21st century, blame it for many diseases, and even suggest banning it entirely from the human diet. The main reason behind this is that our bodies do not have the proper enzymes to break down the complex proteins found in gluten.

However, these exaggerated warnings ignore the fact that humans have eaten wheat for more than 10,000 years without significant problems (5). Other than that, there is little published research that supports widespread claims about the harms of gluten. In fact, the basic problem known as “gluten intolerance” is not a general problem, but is related to specific people who suffer from this type of disorder.

The term “gluten intolerance” refers to 3 types of health disorders, the first of which is celiac disease or “gluten-sensitive enteropathy”, which is an inflammatory autoimmune disease caused by genetic and environmental factors (6). The second is wheat allergy, which is more common in children, but it can affect adults as well. The third type is non-abdominal gluten sensitivity (7). In these cases, removing gluten from the diet may reverse the damage, and in the specific case of celiac disease, a gluten-free diet is the primary medical treatment (4).

Untrue allegations

Some promoters of gluten-free foods claim that it causes unwanted weight gain, but the evidence suggests that levels of gluten consumption are neither related to daily caloric intake nor to body mass index. (Shutterstock)

But while avoiding gluten may be helpful in overcoming some conditions, many of the claims made about its risks to healthy people have not been scientifically proven. At the top of these claims is the claim that gluten peptides enter the bloodstream and cause systemic inflammation, a claim that scientific studies prove completely wrong.

A study published in 2021 aimed to determine the relationship between eating gluten and the risk of developing some inflammatory bowel disorders (IBD), especially Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, and concluded that there was no relationship between the two matters (11). This result acquits gluten, accordingly, of accusations of causing systemic inflammation, and the reason for this is simply that gluten peptides pass from the intestinal cavity into the blood in very low quantities, and once these peptides reach the blood, they quickly decompose and lose their ability to carry out any biological activity (7).

Also, some claim that eliminating gluten strengthens cognition and improves focus in general, but what evidence indicates is that only people who eat gluten and have severe sensitivity to it, such as patients with celiac disease, are more likely to develop cognitive impairment due to gluten, so the evidence About the state of poor concentration or what is known as “brain fog” is common only in people who have been diagnosed with celiac disease and have eaten a food containing gluten by mistake.

In the case of people who are not sensitive to gluten, avoiding gluten will not sharpen their mental abilities. This is confirmed by a large study that followed nearly 13,500 middle-aged women without celiac disease for 28 years to see if there were any possible links between eating gluten and mental abilities. The results of the study showed that there was no statistical evidence of any association between long- or short-term gluten intake and cognitive function. These results indicate that in the absence of celiac disease, dietary gluten restriction is not warranted to preserve cognitive function (12).

Some promoters of gluten-free foods also claim that it causes unwanted weight gain. A recent study investigated this claim and concluded that there is no evidence that gluten peptides affect appetite control centers in the brain or alter metabolism, emphasizing that the evidence indicates that levels of gluten consumption are not related to daily caloric intake nor to body mass index (BMI). 13).

Potential benefits

One study indicated that avoiding gluten led to people reducing their consumption of beneficial whole grains, which may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in the long term. (Shutterstock)

In contrast, the current scientific and clinical literature concludes that if a person is not sensitive to gluten, eating foods that contain gluten may be beneficial. In an article published on Psychology Today, Dr. Gary L. Wink, a professor of immunology and medical genetics at The Ohio State University, argues that the scientific literature, contrary to popular advice that insists that dietary gluten is absolutely harmful, concludes: He indicated that if you are not sensitive to gluten, eating foods that contain it may be beneficial to your health (6).

In fact, the authors of a study published in 2017 warned that “gluten-free diets” were promoted by insufficiently informed dietitians, and that there was not enough reliable evidence of the long-term benefits of going without gluten. The study specifically looked at the relationship between prolonged gluten consumption in adults without celiac disease and the risk of coronary heart disease, concluding that dietary gluten intake was not associated with the risk of these diseases.

On the contrary, the study indicated that avoiding gluten led to a reduction in people’s consumption of beneficial whole grains, which may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in the long term. The study concluded that promoting gluten-free diets among people without celiac disease should not be encouraged (8).

Similarly, several studies have linked whole grain consumption to improved general health. For example, a study found that people who ate a higher amount of whole grains, including wheat, between 2-3 servings per day, were less likely to develop heart disease, have strokes, and develop type 2 diabetes, compared to people who ate less than two servings per day. 4).

The potential benefits of gluten do not stop there, as studies have shown that it plays a role in feeding the “good” bacteria in our bodies (9). For example, there is an Arabinoxylan oligosaccharide, a compound derived from wheat bran that has been shown to stimulate the activity of Bifidobacteria in the colon. Bifidobacterium is normally found in the healthy gut of humans, and negative changes in its amount or activity have been associated with gastrointestinal diseases including inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal cancer, and irritable bowel syndrome (10).

Make a profit from “accusing” gluten

The “healthline” website indicates that avoiding gluten has become the most common health trend in the past decade (7), which has prompted millions of people to give up gluten in the hope of losing weight, improving mood and obtaining better health, despite the evidence presented on The harms of gluten have been confusing and controversial to say the least.

For example, data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) shows that gluten avoidance tripled in the United States from 2009 to 2014 (4). According to the “NDP” group, a market research organization, nearly 1 in 4 consumers in the United States believes that eliminating gluten is good for everyone, in addition to that about 11% of American families follow a gluten-free diet (3).

The first winner from these prevailing beliefs is not the health of the user, as some might think, but rather the companies specialized in the production of gluten-free foods and foods. The gluten-free food industry grew by 136% from 2013 to 2015, reaching $12 billion. Surprisingly, studies have shown that people without celiac disease are the largest buyers of gluten-free products (2).

So what about the repeated testimonials of people who report improved health, mood and weight loss after following a gluten-free diet? This is likely because avoiding gluten usually involves cutting back on processed foods, such as fast food, baked goods and sugary cereals. Not only do these foods contain gluten, but they are also high in calories, sugar and unhealthy fats. The health benefits reported by people avoiding gluten are likely attributable to excluding unhealthy foods and not to avoiding gluten itself as is commonly believed (6).

———————————————————————————-