What’s Gluten?

Day 345 / 365

There are plenty of new diets out there. Gone are the simple days when we just had veg and non-veg. Now we have vegan, paleo, keto and what not. Another such diet that has gained a lot of popularity in recent years is the gluten-free diet.

What is gluten anyway? I went to gluten.org to find out. Gluten refers to some proteins found in wheat, rye, and barley. Some people who suffer from a disease called celiac are allergic to gluten, which is why they need to have a special diet that doesn’t have gluten in it.

Given the popularity of the gluten-free diet, you would think that it’s quite common to have gluten sensitivity. In fact, only about 1 in 100 people worldwide have celiac disease. And to the people who are not gluten sensitive, a gluten-free diet serves no purpose.

That’s right, the idea that a gluten-free diet is good for everyone is a myth. Your health would depend on the overall diet that you consume. For example, if a regular decides to give up on gluten and switch to more fruits and vegetables, that would surely improve their health. But the improvement would be because of the added vegetables, not the lack of gluten.

On the other hand, if they just switched to gluten-free bread, cookies and whatnot, they might actually be worse off as many gluten-free processed foods are low in fibre, vitamins and minerals.

This post is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog — New Beginnings