A little over 1 week into our 30 day gluten free challenge and Mike and I have now gone grocery shopping a few times and we have also ordered staple ingredients online. These experiences have left me truly impressed with the wide assortment of gluten free foods available in stores, large and small, and certainly online. Almost limitless replacement products for everything from bread, pizza dough, cookies, crackers and even personal hygiene and makeup items. What I am not so impressed with are the ingredients used in these gluten free foods.
Wheat is relatively high on the glycemic index, higher than table sugar and most other foods. Eating wheat causes insulin spikes for most of us. This can lead to sustained elevated levels of insulin, which can eventually lead to decreased insulin sensitivity and diabetes. Not to mention that elevated insulin leads to elevated cortisol, which encourages your body to store visceral fat. That's the dangerous fat around your organs. And both of these can cause increased inflammation throughout your body leading to symptoms as wide ranging as headaches, arthritis and even symptoms associated with various auto-immune diseases such as lupus.
Given this information it would seem that substituting wheat with anything at all would be great for people who are sensitive to wheat, and still very beneficial for everyone else. Sounds like a good idea, except when the ingredients used instead of wheat are even higher on the glycemic index. And such is the case with nearly all widely available gluten free foods currently on the market. Most of these foods replace wheat with various gluten free grains and large amounts of various starches. Popular starches used in gluten free foods include tapioca, potato, rice, and others. Sometimes these starches are the first ingredients, and rarely are they less than 30% of the ingredients. These starches are higher on the glycemic index than wheat. Eating these foods will certainly help with gluten and wheat sensitivity symptoms, but may result in weight gain and increased inflammation due to them causing exaggerated insulin responses. This is like trading one set of problems for a different, but just as troublesome set of problems.
So what is a person to do? Find better options that are lower on the glycemic index, or lower net carb.
I searched the Internet and found sources that I feel are looking to help people navigate the gluten/wheat free lifestyle in the most healthful way possible. I am looking to these resources to help me learn how to create my very own gluten/wheat free future. The resources that I am using are listed below.
I am listening to their advice and soon I will be trying their recipes. Later, once I have more experience, I will tweak and adapt everything to meet my personal goals.
Resources
Wheat Belly, by William Davis, M.D.
Wheat Belly Cookbook, by William Davis, M.D.
http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/
http://mariahealth.blogspot.com/
http://www.elanaspantry.com/
Not as health focused as the others, but still very helpful.
http://glutenfreegirl.com/
And of course I have a pinterest board dedicated to our gluten free adventure.
http://pinterest.com/crazycaper/gluten-free/
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