I have heard rumors that say that people who go on a gluten-free diet, (for health reasons, or otherwise), tend to lose weight. I’ve also heard that eating gluten-free can cause a person to gain weight. Which one is true? It seems that they both are, depending on certain factors.
The gluten-free diet is not another fad diet, (although there are some people treating it like that). People who have celiac disease, or who are gluten intolerant, or allergic to gluten, need to eat foods that do not contain gluten. This is purely for health reasons.
If you have an allergy to a certain food, or if your body cannot properly digest a particular food, it makes sense that you should stop eating it. This is a “diet” in a nutritional sense, and not in the “this is how I will lose weight” sense of the word.
Will eating gluten-free make people lose weight? It seems that some celebrities are choosing to eat gluten-free believing that it will help them lose weight. This has lead other people to decide that “the gluten-free diet” is what will help them lose a few pounds.
In reality, there isn’t any good reason to avoid gluten if your body will tolerate it. Most people are not harmed by gluten. It isn’t something “bad for you”, unless you have celiac disease or an allergy to gluten.
There is potential that someone who starts eating a gluten-free diet will lose some weight. Part of the reason for this is because there are tons of foods that contain gluten. If you stop eating all those foods, then you end up restricting your diet. Suddenly, there are a bunch of foods that you can’t eat.
Most of the foods that contain gluten, (cookies, cake, bread, pretzels, bagels, pizza crusts), are high in carbs. By default, gluten-free means that you are not eating as many carbs as you were before you started this diet. People do lose weight when they are on a low-carb diet.
What is there left to eat? All vegetables are gluten-free. This means that people who switch over to a gluten-free diet generally end up snacking on carrots and tomatoes instead of cookies and cupcakes. People who make healthy food choices tend to lose some weight.
It is also entirely possible that a person will gain weight after starting a gluten-free diet. People tend to assume that if a package of food says “gluten-free” then that means it is a healthy food choice. You should always read the ingredients on the package, even if it claims to be gluten-free.
If the first ingredient listed is sugar, or corn syrup, or high fructose corn syrup, or some other form of sugar, then the food isn’t really very heathy for you. You could gain weight because you are basically eating “junk food”. People also need continue to maintain portion control while on a gluten-free diet. Eating too much causes weight gain.
Image by Wade Kelly on Flickr