Your favourite food that’s making you sick
Published:Wednesday | July 19, 2023 | 12:05 AMKeisha Hill/Senior Gleaner Writer
GLUTEN SEEMS to be in just about everything, from bread, pasta and beer to cosmetics and nutritional supplements. There is a lot of buzz around avoiding gluten, but what is this common ingredient and is it really bad for you?
Gluten is a protein naturally found in some grains, including wheat, barley, and rye. It acts like a binder, holding food together and adding a stretchy quality. Think of a pizza maker tossing and stretching out a ball of dough. Without gluten, the dough would rip easily.
Oats, though naturally gluten free, often contain gluten from cross-contamination when they are grown near, or processed in the same facilities as the grains listed above.
Gluten is also sold as wheat gluten, or seitan, a popular vegan high-protein food. Less obvious sources of gluten include soy sauce and modified food starch. Gluten is most often associated with wheat and wheat-containing foods that are abundant in our food supply.
Dr Orlando Thomas, medical doctor and functional medicine practitioner at Thomas Medical Centre, said flour, which is high in gluten, is known to cause constipation. You may end up with fissures or haemorrhoids which may give you bleeding of the anus.
“Flour does have a high glycaemic index, that indicates how much food raises your blood sugar by. Sugar has a glycaemic index of 100, and flour is even worse with 105, depending on what reference you read. If you are diabetic, it raises your blood sugar more than, for example, the tea that you are drinking it with,” he said.
Flour also contains gluten, a protein that has become a buzz word because it has been linked to so many diseases.
“Gluten has been linked to certain diseases including rheumatoid arthritis. You will find that eliminating sugar will help you get rid of your pain. Gluten has also been linked to low thyroid, low energy, difficulty losing weight, hair falling out and brain fog,” Dr Thomas said.
“Maybe it is the gluten in your food that is causing you to have autoimmune thyroiditis, and if you stop eating it maybe you can improve. Gluten has been linked to allergy conditions, eczema, psoriasis, skin issues that are very annoying. Gluten has also been linked to various sinus related conditions, hair loss, memory loss and psychiatric issues,” he added.
There are also other problems too. Bowel issues, like irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel diseases, gas, bloating, constipation, Crohn’s disease are all made worse by the consumption of gluten. Maybe you want to consider removing flour from your diet.
We have digestive enzymes that help us break down food. Protease is the enzyme that helps our body process proteins, but it cannot completely break down gluten. Undigested gluten makes its way to the small intestine. Most people can handle the undigested gluten with no problems, but in some people, gluten can trigger a severe autoimmune response or other unpleasant symptoms.
An autoimmune response to gluten is called celiac disease. Celiac can damage the small intestine. Some people who do not have celiac disease still seem to feel sick after eating foods that contain gluten. They may experience bloating, diarrhoea, headaches or skin rashes.
Research suggests that some people could have small intestines that do not work properly. The lining might be too permeable, allowing some undigested gluten, bacteria or other substances to go through the lining and into the bloodstream, causing inflammation.
Gluten in itself, especially gluten found in whole grains, is not bad for healthy people whose bodies can tolerate it. However, grains like wheat are often stripped down to make processed foods such as snack crackers and potato chips. These refined products have very little resemblance to the actual wheat plant, which is actually highly nutritious. They tend to contain things like white rice, flour and starches, but not whole grains.
Many people who adopt a gluten-free diet but still eat processed foods find they continue to have weight gain, blood sugar swings and other health issues. So, sometimes, it is not the gluten in foods that is causing their health issues, but the sodium, sugar and other additives in processed foods.