Why are so many people going gluten-free? Should you? If you are complaining with symptoms like weight gain, fatigue, sleep disorders, bloating, gas, high blood sugar and uncontrollable cravings (to name a few) you probably have a gluten sensitivity. This is not the same as celiac disease which is a very dangerous disorder that makes a person allergic to gluten (wheat, oats, barley or rye). We suggest that all our clients remove gluten from their diet at least during the weight loss phase and the results are amazing. Besides losing weight more easily, in just one week they are already feeling more energy, seeing a flatter stomach and sleeping better. This quite possible means that people should live without gluten but it does not mean that they live without carbohydrates, a necessary macronutrient.
We need fiber and eating vegetables and fruit are the best way we can get enough fiber in our diet. As an alternative, having non-gluten grains like quinoa, millet, amaranth, oat, teff and brown rice may be good alternatives if you are not sensitive to grains all together. People with heath concerns like Hashimoto's and who are having they symptoms listed above may do better without them all together, or at least minimally.
We also do not necessarily recommend the gluten-free products as most of them are filled with highly processed ingredients that are not helpful for weight loss or lowering blood sugar. If you would like more information about this subject, consider reading Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD or Grain Brain by David Perlmutter, MD.
~Some of the material for this post was taken from "The Metabolic Typing Cookbook for 3-A, Balanced" by Nancy Dale, CN.