There is enough good solid evidence to now show that gluten does cause the vast majority of us issues even if you are not celiac (an autoimmune condition associated with gluten sensitivity). Gluten is one of the biggest sources of damage and inflammation to our gut, and once you have inflammation there, you have it everywhere. Once you have it everywhere it can be a significant risk for other conditions from cancer to anxiety to heart disease as discussed in our recent post. So gluten and inflammation in the gut – not good! Unless you’ve been living in a cave the last few years you may have noticed that every product in the supermarket now has ‘gluten-free’ plastered all over the packaging and there are whole isles now dedicated to ‘free from’ products. But are these products actually a good alternative?

Going gluten-free is a good health choice, which is why we cut it out a long time ago, however here are 3 points which explains why you should be careful and avoid premade gluten-free products such as above..

1. Highly Processed

The main problem with trading bread with gluten-free bread or pasta with gluten-free pasta is that you are trading one processed product for another and often even more processed one. One of the main reasons we have an epidemic of chronic health disease at the moment is because we consume processed and refined food. The more humans tinker around, mix, heat up and refine a food, the worse it typically is for you. Bread and pasta do not grow on trees naturally – they have been man made which makes them processed. Once upon a time, before the food corporations industrialized the production of ingredients such as wheat to reduce costs and increase profits, these foods were not too bad and maintained their nutritional value. However, unfortunately, they are not the same anymore. They are packed with things to make them last longer and make them taste better, such as in point number 2 and 3.

2. Bad Oils

Next weeks blog will be all about oils – which are good, which are bad, which you should cook with and why. However, we’ll go over a few points because it relates to this case.

Oil is put into products to enhance flavour, texture and preserve. However, you may have noticed most products do not have extra virgin olive oil in them. Vegetable oils such as soy, sunflower, palm and rapeseed oil are stuffed into everything because they are cheap to produce mass scale.

Number 6 of the 6 Steps to Eating Well – know how your food is made. Most vegetable oils are produced by chemically leaching the oil from the plant/seed, and then have the chemical solvent heat evaporated off. Meaning that:

1. They may have toxic solvents remaining.
2. Heat processing makes them oxidised and unstable which produces an inflammatory effect on your body.

3) Sugar

Everyone now knows sugar is the enemy and fuels chronic disease. Gluten-free products are full of it. To balance out the removal of gluten, sugar is often added in. A study recently done which was published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics found that gluten-free products had more fat, salt and sugar than original foods, and were around 159% more expensive.

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So what to do?

Number 3 on the 6 Steps to Eating Well – read the label!! Don’t worry too much about the big complicated graph and grams etc – read the ingredients list and that will tell you enough about what is in the product. If you see sugar, a load of funny oils and even funnier complex names for something that sounds like it should be in a science experiment – put it down.

Number 1 on the 6 Steps to Eating Well – cook from scratch! For nearly every food, you will find a healthy natural vegetable alternative that serves the same purpose – just google it and you’ll be inundated with choices. In the summer we used to use cabbage leaves as a good alternative to wraps, however, winter calls for something a bit more hearty so we’re going through a phase of wraps made from carrot, eggs and flaxseed – sounds a bit more natural and healthier doesn’t it. Check out the recipe here.

Dr Jamie