Diets are a fashion and they are always changing. Almost without respite, we passed the liquids’ diet, the lingual mesh and many more. And now, it is the gluten’s turn.
It seems that the main guilty of all kind of fat problems is the gluten. But, is it true? For centuries, we have consumed bread, pasta and pastries. However, the ‘devastating’ gluten effects are more recent. We know some people who suffered stomachaches, headaches or other symptoms when they ate bread or derived products. When they asked their doctors, they said them that they were celiac or gluten intolerant, so they must consume a gluten-free diet. We have started to realize that our friends are losing weight with this kind of diet, and we have had the idea to prove it. But, is it so simple? Could you say goodbye to fatness without the gluten? I suspect not.
From the Spanish Celiacs Associations Federation recommend not start a gluten-free diet without having a bowel biopsy showing intolerance to gluten. Celiacs have to stop eating gluten because if they do it, lymphocytes attack the tissue of the intestine, causing the disappearance of the hair of it and having consequently poor absorption of nutrients.
Nutrition experts are cautious and they advise us against eating without gluten, because of the negative effects it could have on our health. Make a gluten-free diet, without professional assistance, can lead to an unbalanced and inadequate diet with more disadvantages than advantages.
Do you know that oats and barley (food with gluten) are high in soluble fiber?
Soluble fiber is formed by compounds which capture much water and are capable of forming viscous gels, help the growth of bacterial flora and decrease and slow the absorption of sugars and fats in food. This contributes to lower cholesterol and glucose blood. Therefore, it is necessary to consume foods such as oats and barley, which also have gluten. Here we only mention fiber, but foods rich in gluten also provide other essential nutrients for humans like proteins, vitamins and essential minerals.
For all these reasons, it is advisable to stay away from the pastries and the precooked and make a healthier lifestyle with a balanced diet. We must try to replace these products with other homemade foods and fewer calories and, as my mother said, eat a bit of everything but without excesses. In addition, it is important to relying on innovation to solve the problems of people with intolerances or special needs.
In CARTIF, we work on several projects in order to replace the use of industrial additives for other natural and animal fats for healthy compounds. These technological contributions work and help us to eat better. You may not have a perfect figure but, undoubtedly, you will be healthier.
Degree in Food Science. Her research lines are the development of extraction, purification and quantification procedures by HPLC, GC-MS and spectrophotometry methods of high added value natural products present in by-products of the food industry.
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