By Emily Miller
Selecting the appropriate diet plan and exercise plan can be overwhelming, as recently new diet and exercise plans have been sprouting up like crazy. Diets can range from the raw food diet to weight watchers to a five-day juice cleanse and everything in-between.
One of the latest diet trends has been cutting out gluten from one’s diet, as about 63 percent of Americans believe a gluten-free diet will improve their physical or mental health. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye and has become the latest dietary villain, second to carbs.
The ideal gluten-free diet consumer is someone who has been diagnosed with celiac disease – an autoimmune condition in which gluten causes potentially life-threatening intestinal damage – or gluten sensitivity.
An estimated 1 in 133 Americans – or about 1 percent of the population – has celiac disease, according to the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness.
Individuals who have a sensitivity to gluten only accounts for less than 6 percent of the US population.
Despite its growing popularity, the January edition of Consumer Reports shows that cutting out gluten isn’t always more nutritious or better for most people. They also address the issue that converting to a gluten-free diet may do more harm than good.
The reports points out that a gluten-free claim doesn’t necessary mean the product is healthier for you; in fact, it may be more unhealthy as it increases your exposure to arsenic, a chemical found on the earth’s crust. While consuming arsenic is unavoidable, as it is a naturally occurring element, consumers should aim to limit their exposure to the potentially harmful chemical.
Another key highlight is that an all gluten-free diet may actually cause weight gain, not promote weight loss. And, most gluten-free based diets are more expensive than their counterparts due to the ingredients needed to replace gluten.
A quarter of the people CR surveyed thought gluten-free items had more vitamins and minerals than their counterparts but instead revealed that gluten-free items are a mixed bag in the terms of nutrition.
Many gluten-free foods aren’t enriched or fortified with nutrients such as folic acid and iron as many products that contain wheat flours.
Finally, according to the survey, more than a third of Americans believe that going gluten-free will help them lose weight, but there’s very little evidence to support this theory.
In fact, the opposite is often true.
Ditching gluten often means adding sugar, fat, and sodium, which are often used to pump up the flavor of these foods. This results in the foods being higher in calories and unnatural ingredients.
Healthy weight loss not only betters your health but also increases your chances of qualifying for a lower health insurance rate, as you are a lower risk for the insurance company. You are also less likely to fall pry to common conditions associated with being over-weight or obese – such as heart disease and stroke, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis and certain types of cancer.
