Gluten Free Diet Plan
This website's Top 100 Weight Loss Tips continues in reverse with article 58 in the series. Of course, we are bringing you a total of one hundred different tips for achieving your greatest wish, which is to lose weight.
This post continues in the current vein of looking at different types of diet plans by taking a look at the gluten free diet plan to see how it can be used to help with losing weight as well as with the obvious health angle.
But first of all, before we get into the mechanics of the diet itself...
What is Gluten?
Gluten is a substance made up of the plant proteins gliadin and glutenin, which exist with starch in grains such as wheat, barley and rye. Gluten is water soluble meaning it can easily be removed from the grain, although this is not generally done as it is a good source of protein.
Unfortunately, as much as fully one percent of the population of the United States have an immune system response problem to gluten which results in the condition known as Coeliac Disease. This is a problem that can leave sufferers with a variety of digestive conditions involving the absorption of complex carbohydrates and other nutrients.
The only currently known effective treatment for Coeliac Disease is by cutting out all foods containing gluten.
Gluten Free Diet
A gluten free diet plan can be highly effective as it has been shown in sufferers of Coeliac Disease who lost weight when they switched their diet from foods that contained gluten to those that do not.
It involves cutting out all foods that are made from wheat, barely and rye as well as any processed foods that have gluten added artificially to boost their protein content. The list is extremely long, as wheat products make a such a large part of the general Western diet.
It includes all regular breads except those made from ricemeal or oatmeal, all biscuits and cakes and all candies that contain anything with biscuit, wafer or other wheat products. It pays to read the labels on food so you don't inadvertently buy something that contains gluten.
Processed Food
Processed foods include just about all of them that are pre-packed and on sale in supermarkets. These include foods such as most convenience foods like ready meals and microwave meals (they contain breadcrumbs as a bulking agent), pizzas, burgers, hot dogs, fish or meat or anything else covered in breadcrumbs. Desserts containing cake or biscuit, soups and stews that are thickened using breadcrumbs or barley, anything that contains malt extract.
All breakfast cereals derived from wheat or barley (which is just about all of them aside from rice based cereals) contain gluten, as well as cereal bars and don't forget most things that you eat out at restaurants, especially fast food... the list is long and it goes on for a very long time.
The sheer amount and variety of foods that someone would have to go without to stick to a successful gluten free diet is so large and varied that many people find it far too restrictive. That is unless of course they have no choice in the matter as with sufferers of the already mentioned Coeliac Disease.
Going gluten free is not a diet for everyone. It will take a hefty dose of will power to stick to it, which is why so many people give up on it and try something else. But if you're determined to give it a go, by all means try it as the switch in your diet to mainly fresh fruits, vegetables, fish and meats will mean you will almost certainly lose weight if you can rigidly stick to it.
100 Weight Loss Tips number 57 follows in the next post!
[BACK TO TOP]
Posted on Wed, 26 Aug 2009 in Top 100 Weight Loss Tips | 5 Comments
5 thoughts on "Gluten Free Diet Plan"
Terry says:
It must be hard to be forced to have such a strict diet, I can only imagine what it's like. Thanks for sharing Bryan and I hope you don't get caught out too often with inaccurately labeled food.
Bryan says:
That's a great post on the gluten free diet plan and one that I have to follow in most of those ways. Its very hard to stick to, as you rightly said that there are so many foods that are made from wheat, barley or rye or their derivatives. It is very hard to identify foods that contain them sometimes and I often get a bad reaction to something I ate and was not aware it contained any gluten.
Thanks for the info
Bryan
Angelina says:
me and my sister are both allergic to Gluten and we were always on a gluten-free diet ever since we were teenagers.
David says:
I have needed to lose weight for years but have not found that golden key that will allow me to lose weight easily. Gluten is a problem for me but I wonder whether the intolerance is as much for gluten as it is for a certain herbicide that's increasingly sprayed on genetically modified wheat these days. Looking forward to more insights on my return so I can move on in my life and my health. David
Uranga says:
I think gluten free foods are very helpful especially for those people that have very bad allergies to it.