Choosing to avoid gluten can deprive your body of necessary nutrients and lead to adding more sugar and fat to your diet
The gluten-free movement has become increasingly popular in recent years, with individuals who are not allergic to gluten choosing to cut it out of their diets to lose weight.
Peter Green, director of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University, said: “There’s very little evidence to support the benefit of a gluten-free diet in anything except celiac disease.”
“We actually think that a gluten-free diet is not a very healthy diet, and that’s for a whole bunch of reasons. On a gluten-free diet, individuals have to avoid wheat, rye, and barley, and anything that’s derived from them.”
Dietitian Anar Allidina also criticized gluten-free diets, saying: “It is not a smart idea to follow a gluten-free diet to lose weight since gluten-free packaged foods have more sugar and fat to make up for the gluten that is being removed.”
“The problem comes when people rely on gluten-free products. If people rely on packaged gluten-free foods this can actually end up with weight gain.”
Dietitians state the gluten-free diet is the latest food to be stigmatized in the media
Dietitian Andy De Santis stated: “We are always looking for a villain or a scapegoat instead of focusing on the bigger picture.”
“The problem is, once you’ve heard something overwhelmingly negative about a food or food component, it can be very difficult to reverse your perception.”
“At the end of the day, if going gluten-free will make you happy, do it. Just make sure you do it in a proper, balanced way,” De Santis cautioned.