Gluten free diet is becoming increasingly popular. The question is if going gluten free might be bad for you.
If you have celiac disease or a gluten allergy, then clearly you have no choice but to cut out gluten or suffer the consequences of a disturbed digestive system, lack of energy, brain fog, and a host of other symptoms.
But what if you have neither a gluten allergy nor celiac disease? Might you be missing something from your diet if you cut out gluten?
Gluten is found in wheat, barley, rye and oats. So think to yourself, are there groups of people around the world that rarely or never eat such foods?
The answer is yes. The indigenous peoples of South America lived on potatoes, amaranth, quinoa and other starchy, gluten-free foods. They did fine until the Spanish came along and decimated their population.
South Asia and South East Asia use rice as a staple, not wheat.
Africa, considered by some to be the cradle of the human race, has large areas that center around teff.
It seems there are lots of examples of huge populations that do not eat wheat, oats, rye or barley, and have always been extremely healthy.
While gluten-containing foods can cause major health issues for those who have a gluten intolerance, there are no known health problems arising from cutting gluten out of the diet. On the contrary, such people can become extremely healthy for two reasons.
For one thing, they have eliminated a food that was making them sick.
For another, they are forced to avoid most processed foods found everywhere from super markets to fast food chains and everywhere in between.
Refined carbohydrates are actually quite bad for you. Eliminating wheat from your diet cuts out a lot of such over-processed pseudo-food.
Going on a gluten free diet is a touch choice. Staying gluten-free is not easy. But it is not at all harmful and is extremely beneficial for many people.