Gluten Free

Gluten Free

Whether it’s the Free-From range at your local supermarket or gluten-free cakes in your favourite café, gluten-free seems to be all the rage at the moment but is it a necessity or just the next ‘fad’ that’ll fizzle out?

Firstly, what is gluten and where is it found?

Gluten is a family of proteins found in wheat and other grains such as rye and barley. It is commonly consumed in the form of breads, pasta, cereals, pizza, beer, cakes and anything else where the aforementioned grains are used.

If you do have a sensitivity to gluten, how would you know?

Symptoms as a result of food intolerances/sensitivities can be quite obvious such as abdominal pains, bloating and diarrhoea. However, they can also be more subtle and wouldn’t make you think of it being linked to food, this can include feeling generally tired and lethargic, struggling to lose stubborn body weight when you’re doing everything else correctly or even depression.

What to do now?

If you have any of the above symptoms and believe that it could potentially be a reaction to gluten what should you do? The best way to self-test is to go on an exclusion diet; these are really helpful with finding food intolerances and work really well with dairy too. All that you need to do is go for 30 days without consuming anything that contains gluten and see how you feel. If you feel better then that is a good indicator but to really test you would then add a gluten containing meal back in and see how you react to it, if you are fine then try a different one and see how you react to that. If you don’t have any adverse reactions from adding the gluten containing foods back in then there is no need for you to go gluten-free; however, if you do have a reaction then a gluten-free lifestyle may be a good option for you.

Summary

So to summarise, if you suspect that you may have a sensitivity to gluten then complete a 30 day exclusion diet, reintroduce the foods and see if you have a reaction to them. If you don’t then great but if you do then you have two sensible choices to choose from:

1. If you felt a lot better during your exclusion diet and want to stay that way then do!
2. If you can’t see yourself realistically going totally gluten-free but you have some issues after eating it then go mainly gluten-free but have one or two meals a week where you let yourself have the culprit foods.

If you have severe symptoms or are worried that you may have something more than a food intolerance, then consult your GP who can carry out further testing if they feel it necessary.

For those of you who have no problems with gluten then feel free to continue to eat it and don’t feel guilty when you next read in the newspaper that gluten is the ‘Devil’s food’!

Matt Smallacombe

Nutrition Coach and Personal Trainer

www.mattsmallacombept.co.uk or email  mattsmallacombept@hotmail.co.uk