The good news for those who are desperately avoiding gluten: It’s easier than ever to find gluten-free foods—even gluten-free beer, communion wafers, and matzoh. So you’re in luck, if you believe reports suggesting that gluten-related illness has quadrupled since 1950, that humans are not evolved to properly digest gluten, and that gluten is the main culprit in the obesity epidemic.
But many experts dispute those reports.
Gluten is the protein—actually a combo of two proteins, gliadin and glutenin—found mainly in barley, rye, oats, and wheat. (For those who really should avoid it, a helpful mnemonic device is BROW.) Gluten supplies necessary nutrients, and it gives bread and pizza dough their elasticity. In the digestive tract, it’s sticky, and it can trap minerals, proteins, and other nutrients so we don’t absorb them as well. But most of us eat way more than we need, so we’re not suffering from the lack. Gluten’s downside is that it can trigger an autoimmune reaction in those with celiac disease. It can damage their small intestine, prompting nutritional deficiencies and possibly leading to cancer. Medical researchers also have found that some people possess a gluten sensitivity that leads to diarrhea, cramps, and bloating.
For the rest of us, gluten is just fine, says Dr. Charlene Prather, professor of internal medicine at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. “Gluten is certainly not public enemy No. 1, unless you have true celiac disease,” she says. “Patients with celiac disease should not consume gluten-containing products for their lifetime.” For patients with gluten sensitivity, going gluten-free can often improve their symptoms of gas, bloating, and discomfort, Prather adds.
“Some people who suffer fatigue, skin rashes, depression, and even autism believe that avoiding gluten improves symptoms, but the data really don’t show any connection,” says Prather. “But there is a whole spectrum of gluten sensitivity. Who am I to say that if you feel better with a gluten-free diet—that if your depression is better—that you shouldn’t maintain it?”
She’s also reluctant to confirm increased incidence of celiac disease, saying, “Our recognition of celiac disease has vastly increased. I’ve been a gastroenterologist for more than 20 years, and when I was a student, we did not have a blood test to help us find people at risk for celiac disease. The only way we could make a diagnosis was with an intestinal biopsy or endoscopy. Many people who had symptoms didn’t want to go through that sort of inva-sive testing.”
Connie Diekman, director of university nu-trition at Washington University and past president of the American Dietetic Association, isn’t so sure, though. “The researchers I’ve talked to say that, yes, clear diagnosis is better, but also that likely incidences of celiac disease are also up,” she says. “Some people say it’s due to everything from GMOs to that we weren’t designed physiologically to consume wheat. But the researchers have no clear answer why.”
Diekman also says that while a gluten-free diet is helpful and healthful for those with celiac disease and gluten sensitivity, it can be bad for the rest of us. “A gluten-free diet can be very unhealthful, because it eliminates the nutrients in wheat-containing foods,” she says, adding that such foods are a good source of iron, fiber, and B vitamins for many people. “The belief that gluten-free is a healthier diet is based on perception, not reality.”
In some cases, people who thought they had a gluten sensitivity were actually feeling the effects of high-sugar, bleached, starched, or fatty foods. And a few scientists are now wondering whether the fermentable short-chain carbs in wheat, rather than the gluten, are to blame for causing bloating and other gut problems in people with nonceliac gluten sensitivity.
While people on gluten-free diets might report having more energy, it also could be because they’re eating more whole foods and fewer processed items. So far, there are no studies showing that gluten saps energy.
Diekman argues those who claim weight-loss success by going gluten-free may simply be eliminating calories from their diet and not replacing them.
“It sounds easy to blame gluten for [being] overweight,” she says, “but it’s not the gluten. It’s the portions and the choices.”
For those who do need to avoid gluten, life is getting easier and easier, thanks to a growing gluten-free industry worth an estimated $10 billion annually. Gluten-free products—from pizza dough to brownie mix—can be found on grocery-store shelves. Scores of breweries sell gluten-free beer; Anheuser-Busch InBev, for instance, offers Redbridge, which Prather says is “not bad.”And the U.S. Food and Drug Ad-ministration has finally approved gluten-free labeling guidelines, says Diekman, setting the bar at 20 parts per million or less of gluten in order to earn gluten-free status. (But both Prather and Diekman warn that certain nonfood items, such as lip gloss and vitamins, may contain gluten, commonly used as a binder and filler, that may not be listed among ingredients. They suggest it’s best to consult the manufacturer to be sure.)
Even some bakeries offer a range of gluten-free goodies. Kaylen Wissinger, owner of Whisk: a Sustainable Bakeshop, touts her bakery’s Nanaimo bar. “It’s a three-layer bar with gluten-free graham-cracker crumbs,” she says. “It’s chocolatey and buttery and custardy and really, really good—very rich and decadent.” The bakery also serves gluten-free strawberry cupcakes, peanut-butter cookies, crumb cake, and more.
“We got our start at the Tower Grove Farm-ers’ Market and had customers there requesting gluten-free items,” Wissinger says. “I had never done any gluten-free baking, so it was an adventure learning what worked well and what didn’t.”
She began experimenting with various glu-ten-free flours: tapioca, rice, sorghum, garbanzo bean… “It’s completely different baking when it comes to gluten-free flours,” she says. “The consistencies are different, and the leavening agents. I had to change ratios.
“We started slowly trying new things, be-cause I didn’t want things totaste gluten-free,” Wissin-ger explains. “I wanted people to enjoy them, whether they are gluten-free or not. I didn’t want a regular customer to come up and say, ‘This banana chocolate-chip muffin tastes like sand.’”
She apparently succeeded. “We have quite a few regular customers who come in just for gluten-free baked goods. We’re excited having those cus-tomers in here. It keeps me mo-tivated,” says Wissinger. “And we have people who try something because they like the way it sounds on the menu and are later surprised to learn it’s gluten-free.”
When St. Louisan Christina McHugh was 16 years old, she was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, an inflamma-tion of the digestive-tract lining that can cause pain, diarrhea, and malnutrition. She lived with it for years, until her symptoms suddenly grew worse.
“Two years ago, I was in excruciating pain. I couldn’t keep weight on. I was losing so many nutrients that my hair was falling out,” she says. “For the first time in 15 years, I went to see a chiropractor, who put me on an elimination diet, which included removing gluten. Within three months, my symptoms completely disappeared. My skin color was back, and I gained weight.”
That inspired her to read “a ton of literature” on nutrition and health. Once she was diagnosed with celiac disease, she became convinced that a key to good health is honest food without additives or chemicals.
“For me, it was getting back to basics,” she says, “to the beauty of food that can be enough on its own without adding all that stuff.”
It’s a principle that many people on gluten-free diets follow: Look for food that’s as natural as possible, and avoid processed options.
Now age 32, McHugh takes zero medications and her Crohn’s disease is in remission. “People are so often ready to take a pill,” she says, “but I think you will find that many health ailments can be cured by diet.”
Gluten-free or not.
