Everywhere I look these days I see the words gluten free. Many people I talk to tell me they are gluten intolerant or have decided not to eat gluten for their health.
So I decided to investigate why there seems to be this huge increase in both the gluten free and type 2 diabetes community.
There was a time not too long ago when doctors only told people with celiac disease or gluten intolerance to eliminate gluten from their diets.
There was also a time when most people who had diabetes had type one diabetes and were most often born with it.
gluten intolerance
Celiac disease used to be primarily associated with a genetic disposition and then certain factors triggered the symptoms of the disease. The main severity and symptoms of celiac disease is that gluten sticks to the intestinal walls and shuts down the body’s ability to absorb nutrients. This causes malnutrition. If essentially left unchecked, a person can starve, even though they are eating a lot of food.
Gluten intolerance has to do with the body identifying gluten as a pathogen and causing symptoms such as digestive disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, fatigue, and other uncomfortable allergic reactions. When gluten is removed from the diet, the symptoms disappear.
Another group of people stop eating gluten due to sensitivity, they don’t always have severe symptoms but they just don’t feel well, they can be irritable, they have low energy.
The final group are people who choose to follow a gluten-free diet based on their own personal perception that they will gain health benefits, weight loss, better energy, increased athletic performance, etc. by eliminating gluten.
All of the groups listed above must be gluten-free, with the exception of the last group that opted to go gluten-free for perceived health benefits.
History
Since the 1950s there has been a steady increase in the number of people developing celiac disease and gluten intolerance. In the last 40 or 50 years, the numbers have become an epidemic. Another widespread disease, type 2 diabetes, has also become an epidemic during the same general period. Both conditions are related to nutrition and food consumption.
This parallel can be attributed to another constant increase, which is the industrialization of food. People are eating far more gluten than ever before, often without realizing it. Wheat, rye, and barley, which is the main source of gluten, have been industrialized to the point that these grains don’t even resemble what they originally were in nature. Wheat derivatives are now used as additives not only in a large percentage of processed and packaged foods, but also in a wide range of other products that we use on our skin and take as medicines and drugs. These wheat-based additives have names that most people don’t recognize and therefore don’t know they’re eating gluten.
The nutritional quality of all this industrialized processed food is very low, it is full of bad fats, processed sugars and salts, which has led to the obesity epidemic and subsequently to many people developing type two diabetes.
Another cause of gluten intolerance that was brought up while doing my research is the problem of feeding children gluten-containing grains too early in life, such as before three months. There is also evidence that cereal-fed babies at seven months had a higher chance of developing celiac disease or gluten intolerance. This could also have to do with the fact that the baby foods and cereals fed to these babies are highly processed and have wheat-derived and chemical additives that may be a contributing factor.
Some solutions
Stay away from eating too many processed packaged foods, change your diet to include a much higher percentage of fresh fruits and vegetables, including a certain amount of raw vegetables, eat whole grains. If you need to be gluten-free, replace the gluten grains with other healthy whole grains like brown rice, quinoa, millet, or amaranth. Read labels and be very conscious of knowing the exact ingredients of what you plan to eat, you may even have to call a manufacturer to make sure there is no gluten of any kind in the product.
Gluten intolerance and type 2 diabetes are two unfortunate consequences that are linked to the industrialization of our food supply today. Consider adopting a natural, whole food diet, and limit or eliminate processed and highly refined foods from your diet.