Unless you live under a rock, you've probably seen these everywhere:

Just take a look around your kitchen, you'll probably find a lot of things that say "Gluten-Free"

Now, I'm a little annoyed. Let me explain why.

Lately, I've been hearing a lot of people saying things like

"I've switched to a gluten-free diet!"
"I heard a gluten-free diet is healthier!"
"That isn't gluten-free? No, don't buy that one!"

I work with food, and the number of people worried about gluten is just plain annoying.

So here I am asking

DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT GLUTEN IS?

If not, let me explain:

Gluten is a composition of proteins that are found in wheat, grains, and oats.

It is responsible for giving these foods their shape and giving dough that unique consistency.

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So why is Gluten an issue? Here's why:

1% of the worldwide population has a disease called Celiac

People with this disease cannot ingest anything that contains gluten.
To do so would be life threatening.

Celiac disease is a serious autoimmune disorder that can occur in genetically predisposed people where the ingestion of gluten leads to damage in the small intestine.

Read more at https://celiac.org/celiac-disease/understanding-celiac-disease-2/what-is-celiac-disease/#KBiJf18fi1gqgwOD.99

Basically, when the body detects Gluten, the immune system attacks the small intestines, damaging the little fingerlike Villi which lines the small intestine.

Once these Villi are damaged, the small intestine will be unable to absorb nutrients into the body.

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So why do people chose Gluten free when they don't have Celiac?

I've summed it up to two conclusions.

A:

People heard, saw or read somewhere that it's unhealthy by some inexperienced source, so they decided to make the switch without even researching it.

Just because a Kardashian decided to publicly go gluten-free (most likely for marketing purposes) doesn't mean you should too! They don't know what they're talking about! Neither does your Cosmopolitan magazine! They aren't nutritionists.

Wanna hear something interesting?

A gluten-free diet is likely an unhealthy choice if you don't have Celiac!
By cutting gluten out of your diet, you are most likely cutting out essential vitamins, minerals, and fibers from your diet as well!
Gluten itself doesn't have any nutritional benefits on its own, but the vast amount of whole grain foods that contain gluten do!

B:

Much like the FAT-FREE and SUGAR-FREE trends, people are jumping on the GLUTEN-FREE trend as well, simply because when it's placed on the front of a food package, you instinctively think it must be bad for you if it's being removed.

This is not a good trend to jump on. Much like the sugar-free trend, they might be removing something like sugar and replacing it with artificial sweeteners like Aspartame, which are much much worse.

You see, people might say that foods containing gluten upset their stomach, and this may be true, but it is much more likely to be the fact that these foods are HIGHLY REFINED and BLEACHED.

But NOOOOOOOO it's definitely not the fact that all these foods are highly processed!

IT'S THE GLUTEN!

* EATS GLUTEN *

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References:

-Balch, Phyllis A. Prescription for nutritional healing: a practical A-to-Z reference to drug-free remedies using vitamins, minerals, herbs & food supplements. London: Penguin, 2011. Print.

https://celiac.org/live-gluten-free/glutenfreediet/what-is-gluten/

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/all-about-gluten

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THANKS FOR READING Stay Awesome -Zey