We consume food with gluten on a daily basis. Gluten can be found in the simplest of the ingredients. Flour based food such as bread, pasta, noodles is some of it. While gluten does not have a reaction for many people, some of them are allergic and are sensitive to both gluten and non-gluten protein.
What is Gluten?
Do you know what consists of gluten? Before we talk about gluten-free food, you should first know what gluten is and what it contains. Gluten is a protein which is found naturally in grains such as wheat, barley, rye.
What is gluten used for?
Gluten acts as a binding agent for many of the recipes. It adds elastic-like quality. A basic example is a pizza. Without gluten, the dough would rip easily as the chef tries to stretch it.
Why is gluten bad for your health?
Celiac disease and more
An autoimmune reaction to the gluten causes celiac disease. However, wheat problems are not just restricted to celiac disease. In recent times there has been non-celiac gluten sensitivity and will cause you inflammation because of an immune disrupting protein called wheat germ agglutinin.
Inflammation
A natural response to an injury in your body causes inflammation. The protein in gluten is gut irritant, leads to an inflammatory response. This causes a problem called intestinal permeability.
Damage to gut biome
Gut biome or gut flora are the friendly bacteria that live in the gut. Regulating the immune system, controlling intestinal permeability, digesting your food, send hunger signals to your brain are some of its functions. Gluten reacts with bacteria hence making it a hindrance for all the above bodily functions.
Brain damages
Brain fog and fatigue are one of the effects if both celiac and none celiac diseases. One of the risk factors can include vulnerability to dementia and Alzheimer’s diseases.
Skin problems
Celiac disease is one in which your skin gets troubled. Dermatitis herpetiformis is one of the skin disease caused due to celiac diseases. This skin disease can even be affected by non-celiac diseases too.
Gluten-free food
The following food items are gluten-free foods:
corn, milk, eggs, meat, fish, poultry, legumes, fats, oils, rice, wild rice, millet, brown millet, soy, sesame, flaxseed, hemp, potatoes, vegetables, fruit, nuts, etc.
Gluten-alternatives
Flour alternatives:
Almond flour, quinoa flour, banana flour, coconut flour, hemp flour, chickpea flour, soy flour, chestnut flour, lupine flour, guar gum, arrowroot flour, tapioca flour.
Gluten-free thickners
guar gum, xanthan gum, carob bean gum
Other everyday alternatives
- Instead of Pasta, you can use rice, buckwheat, millet or corn noodles
- Instead of semolina, you can use polenta
- Quinoa is a good alternative for couscous
- You can purchase specialized gluten-free bread from the supermarket
- Instead of wheat-flakes you van consume rolled oats, rice flakes, soy flakes, and millet flakes.
- There are many places which you can purchase even gluten-free beer
So let’s try out this gluten-free diet and get you healthy again!
