Gluten-Free Diet

Written by Lovelyn on March 25, 2009 – 12:16 pm -

More and more people are going on gluten-free diets these days. It seems like some kind of new dietary fad. Previously the diet was only adhered to by people with Celiac disease, but now many people are diagnosing themselves what a gluten intolerance and cutting gluten out of their diets completely.

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Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. It is sometimes found in oats and depending on your reasons for starting the diet you may want to cut out oats too. This protein is a binder that makes bread nice and chewy and makes pizza dough stretchy. It’s added to many processed foods in the form of binders and thickeners. This protein can be difficult for some people to digest.

Cutting gluten out of the diet is essential for people with Celiac disease. Their allergy to gluten causes inflammation of the intestinal walls and severe digestive problems. Celiac disease is an auto-immune disease. Cutting gluten out of the diet can help people with other forms of auto-immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia.

Gluten-free diet is also believed to benefit people with the following problems.

joint pain
brain fog
balance problems
neurological disorders
infertility
seizures
anemia
vitamin K deficiency
autism

My family is currently on a gluten free diet because my stepson has an autism spectrum disorder and we thought it might help. It’s easier for us all to be on it. There have been no large scientific studies that prove that a gluten-free diet will help children with autism. There have been small studies, but they were mostly inconclusive. There are many stories from parents of children with autism who say that their child off gluten dramatically changed their behaviors.

After being on the diet for several months, I see no difference in my general health. My husband claims to have less digestive problems though. As far as my stepson goes, we don’t really see much of a change. He says that he feels less foggy headed than he used to, but he still has the same conversation and anger management problems that he’s always had. I was hoping for a gluten-free miracle.

Trying out a gluten free diet to see how if it helps you definitely won’t hurt. If you tend to eat a lot of processed foods, it may help you just by forcing you to cut those things out of your diet.

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