Owner: Anthony Borsellino, Naturopathic Doctor, PICP 2, BioSignature 2
Naturopathic Doctor
-offers:
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Gluten: Healthy Protein or Destructive?
Gluten, or Celiac disease, has been a hot topic around the industry. Is it harmful or not? Should we be eating gluten at all? Can we have even the slightest amount? But I like my bread, my pasta, my beer, my chips, etc. Little do people know about gluten or actually understand the causes and effects. Most people believe that if you are not allergic or have Celiac disease then it is okay to have gluten because nothing will happen to your body. This is completely false! If someone tells you that, tell them to recheck their studies again because even 1mg of gluten that you ingest causes a reaction to the body, which means the immune system has to work on overdrive in order to get rid of that gluten. You may be intolerant/sensitive to gluten but you don’t even know it because your body is so immune to it that you don’t develop any symptoms. There are many and many studies that keep arising and teach us the harmful effects of gluten that we should eliminate it completely from our diets.
Gluten is a protein that our bodies are unable to digest or process. The reason that the body is unable to digest this type of protein is because it requires considerable amounts of acid in the stomach to break down the protein chain molecule. Eating an excessive amount of gluten that the body is unable to digest, due to the amounts of acid the stomach needs to produce, will cause what is known as the Leaky Gut Syndrome. Leaky Gut Syndrome is where the villi in the stomach, more specifically small intestines, gets damaged and tears apart, creating spaces and making the villi permeable (making it easy for other proteins or unfriendly bodies to pass through the villi) for foreign bodies to enter the blood stream. When the stomach or intestines become too permeable, they are unable to process foods and nutrients properly and because of the unwanted foreign bodies passing through the villi membrane, the stomach becomes inflamed and irritated.
How do we define gluten exactly? As mentioned previously, gluten is a protein molecule found in most grains such as wheat, barley, rye, spelt, kamut and 98% of oats (due to cross-contamination) . Gluten is actually made up of two composites: gliadin and glutenin. Gliadin is an alcohol soluble, as glutenin is only soluble in diluted acids or alkalis. “Gluten literally means “glue””. The first time I heard of gluten being known as “glue” was back 3 years ago when I attended a conference with Can-Fit Pro (my very first certification as a trainer), where the guest speaker in the room (whom I cannot remember her name) said to “Think of gluten as a sponge, and when you drink water that sponge gets bigger because it absorbed all of the water. When you mix gluten and water together not only does the sponge get larger but it acts like a glue, more like a paste, that remains stuck to the intestinal walls. As each foreign body passes through the permeable membrane they attach to the gluten, making the process of eliminating or digesting gluten even harder”. Gluten is what gives rise to bread/dough as it helps keeps the shape of the bread and gives a chewy texture to the product . Hence, demonstrating its use as glue”. For those who don’t know, gluten is also found in some cosmetics products.
As stated before, people are either intolerant or sensitive to gluten or have an allergy known as celiac disease. Although, being sensitive/intolerant and having celiac disease have more or less the same symptoms and it is hard to distinguish when someone is sensitive/intolerant or has celiac disease. The main difference between the two is that being diagnosed as having celiac means that your intestinal villi has been damaged . Celiac disease, which can hit every 1 in 133 people, has been diagnosed in patients on the basis of autoimmune reactions, as the gluten attacks and damages the lining of the small intestine and the villi membrane . When I say that gluten creates autoimmune reactions, it means that gluten does not destroy the intestinal lining. Gluten is what destroys the receptors between the gut and the brain, which then creates a reaction to the gluten protein and instead of attacking unwanted foreign bodies, the body’s immune system will turn on itself and mistakenly attack its own organs and tissues because it thinks that the gluten is the “good guy” . Due to this condition, celiac can cause other disruptive problems to the body such as osteoporosis and in very severe cases cancer . There is a reason why we as naturopaths or healthcare practitioners want to get rid of gluten all together in one’s diet because we know of the damaging effects it causes in the long run if you continuously eat gluten products. The more you damage your intestinal lining, the more your other organs will take a hit because the organs will overwork to compensate for the damaged intestines. As well you will be more prone to diseases because the foreign bodies will have not only penetrated the intestinal lining but as well attack the organs and immune system. Also, the more your gut is more permeable and filled with gluten (as well as sugar, but that’s another topic), the more the infection or disease that you have grows because bacteria grows on gluten and sugar.
If you are sensitive/intolerant to gluten, your body reacts a little differently to gluten than with a Celiac patient. Instead of the body attacking itself, the body will attack the protein as if it were an invader and to protect itself, the body will fight in the form of inflammation both outside and inside the digestive tract . Now this is where people should finally stop and realize that there is a possibility of developing certain harmful conditions even though they are not diagnosed with celiac disease. Ask yourselves this, after eating something like bread or pasta, do you feel tired? Maybe even bloated? If the answer is no, it is not because it is still “okay” to eat your second plate of pasta, rather it could be a sign that your gut or body is so inflamed that you don’t even know the difference anymore between feeling good or bloated. Your body has reached a point where it is so inflamed that it cannot defend itself anymore, as this is where leaky gut syndrome arises and other medical problems. By continuously damaging your gut, you can actually develop an allergy to gluten and actually be diagnosed with Celiac disease. But hey, it’s fine, go ahead and continue eating 5 plates of pasta! You are not a celiac patient so its “okay”! As discussed, being sensitive/intolerant to gluten, the symptoms still arise just as they do with Celiac patients. These symptoms include headaches, joint pains, brain fog, fatigue, diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain and bloating. So the next time you have a headache ask yourself what you ate that day and see if it happens to you again.
What are some ways of determining your gluten sensitive or intolerant?
The best way to see how gluten is truly bad for us, is to eliminate it completely from our diets for a long while, then reintroduce it into our diets slowly. If you get a reaction, such as bloating or abdominal pain or even a headache or feel constipated, then you should eliminate it again completely from your diet because your body does not want to have it.
There are always exceptions to the rule. IF someone has been treated for gut repair and has been building up their intestinal line again and their practitioner feels they are ready to have gluten again, but moderately, then maybe once a week you may incorporate bread and pasta into your diet. Although I would strongly suggest if you really do crave and want that bread and pasta, substitute it with gluten free bread or pasta as much as possible to have the less damaging effects on the gut.
I for one always tell my clients they are allowed ONE CHEAT MEAL A WEEK typically at night because it helps reset the body and if someone has been following the diet to the tee, then that gluten will be evacuated from the body quicker than it got in. At night because it helps the person sleep better due to the fact that if someone is craving, example a strawberry shortcake, serotonin (feel good hormone) will drop, therefore making someone eat something they crave will elevate their serotonin levels making them able to sleep better during the night. This is also provided if the person has a healthy gut. Although, if you ask many of my clients they will tell you that even after a cheat meal with gluten they still feel sluggish. This is why I say stick to gluten free as much as possible.
So there you have it. Try out the gluten test for yourself and see how you feel. Start by taking it out completely for a month, then reintroduce one gluten product into your diet weekly (example bread one week, pasta another week etc.). Write down a log of how you feel without the gluten and then when you reintroduce the gluten you will see a drastic changes. Especially when you wake up in the morning you will have more energy, seeing that you will be eating only fruits, vegetables, healthy fats and the right proteins.