Does Gluten Free Food Help You Lose Weight?
The gluten free diet is one of the most recent diets to become popular and it’s for good reason! Although a gluten free diet is the primary treatment for people with celiac disease, many people avoid gluten for other symptoms that are also related to gluten sensitivity. Many people wonder if gluten free foods help you lose weight, and we are here to say that it can! Here’s how.
Firstly, it’s important to understand what gluten is. Simply put, gluten refers to the protein portion of grains such as wheat, rye, barley, and spelt. It’s responsible for the glue-like texture in foods like bread and packaged foods and basically holds things together and/or gives food products desirable consistencies.
The most common food products containing gluten are beer, bread, cakes, cereal, cookies, granola, pasta, rice milk, condiments, soy sauce, candy, bars, crackers, fast food, processed meats, and more.
A large problem with gluten is that it can create a lot of digestive problems. This is important because a functioning digestion is essential for your body to properly utilize nutrients in order to function and thrive. Since the modern grains that we consume today are so heavily processed and sprayed with harmful chemicals like Glyphosate it can disrupt our natural gut lining.
This allows undigested fragments of food to pass through our intestinal lining, which alerts our immune system of what’s considered to be foreign invaders. These fragments are identified as allergens to the body so the autoimmune system goes into overdrive when these are present. When the autoimmune system is in overdrive it can create an array of symptoms. These can include rashes, lack of energy, migraines, inflammation, thyroid conditions, weight gain and more.
With this being said, it’s important to understand that the reason for weight gain can be more complex than just eating too much. Although that can be a reason, there can be lots more like the above-mentioned autoimmune reactions created from intestinal damage by gluten. By eating gluten free foods, you are allowing your digestive system to heal, which can result in weight loss.
Eating gluten free foods can also help you lose weight through balancing blood sugar levels. Grains, therefore foods containing gluten, are a carbohydrate. When we ingest carbohydrates, our body breaks it down into particles called glucose. When glucose is present the pancreas releases insulin, a hormone that signals our cells to suck up the glucose out of our blood and into our cells so that we’re fuelled and energized.
When processed grains hit our system it causes a rapid rise in blood sugar, which can result in an excessive release of insulin. Over time this can damage insulin’s cell walls and generally puts our blood sugar on a roller coaster ride. This can create internal chaos, which manifests as symptoms such as hypoglycemia, diabetes, mood problems, inflammation, obesity, and more.
By eating gluten free foods you are asked to eat less packaged and processed foods, which forces you to eat more natural whole foods. These foods are full of fibre and nutrients such as vitamins and minerals that do not put your blood sugar levels on a roller coaster ride like processed foods do. When this is the case, you can feel balanced because there is less internal inflammation and chaos, resulting in healthy weight loss among other things!
If you are thinking of following a gluten free diet with the hopes of losing weight and live in Vancouver, Festal Cafe, the best gluten free restaurant in Vancouver, is here to help you! Our menu is entirely gluten free as we wholeheartedly believe in the benefits of consuming a diet rich in nutritious whole foods. We have an array of tasty gluten free comfort foods such as pasta dishes, burgers, breakfasts, pizzas, sandwiches, desserts, smoothies and more. Whether you are following a gluten free diet, trying to lose weight, or not, our food is sure to be tasty AND nutritious.
