Does Going Gluten-Free Really Benefit People Who Don't Have Celiac?

Are you a little overweight, or bloated, or often fatigued and sluggish, or a trend-follower who is simply committed to living a healthy lifestyle? Are you struggling with a medical condition and interested in trying an alternative remedy, or does that perhaps apply to a child of yours? If so, you may just be tempted to go gluten free — as 21 percent of Americans are already trying to, according to a 2015 poll.

Increasing awareness of celiac, gluten sensitivity, and gluten intolerance means that gluten-free products are now appearing everywhere, both in restaurants and within the ever-growing gluten-free product aisle in your grocery store. That's a great thing for those who truly need to be gluten-free, as well as for the gluten-free industry now worth a steady $9 billion a year. What does it mean for people not diagnosed with medical conditions that make avoiding gluten a smart choice, however? Do you have any reason to go gluten free at all if you find yourself in any of the questions above? Perhaps more importantly — do you have any reason not to?

Who Needs To Go Gluten Free?

Gluten is a protein found in grains such as wheat and rye that finds its way into surprisingly many processed foods. That salad dressing, for instance, might well contain gluten. When people who have celiac, an autoimmune disorder, consume gluten, their body's immune system wages an attack on the small intestine that ultimately leads to damage of the vili, the small hair-like structures within the intestine that aid digestion. Once that damage is done, nutrient absorption becomes a real problem.

The National Institutes of Health estimate that around one in 133 people suffer from celiac disease, a figure that certainly doesn't even come close to the approximately 21 percent of Americans currently trying to eliminate gluten from their diets. It's not only people with celiac who are medically advised to go gluten-free, however. Those with non-celiac gluten intolerance or sensitivity don't end up with damaged intestinal vili when they consume gluten, but they do experience headaches, fatigue, abdominal bloating, and diarrhea after consuming foods that contain gluten.

Yep, That's Me: I'm Bloated And Fatigued!

If those symptoms sound familiar to you, I'm sorry — it's not nice to live with any of them. While browsing the web or talking to friends, coworkers, or that health nut at your kids' aikido class, you may somehow get the idea that going gluten free will help you feel better, that going gluten free will lead to you lose weight, be rid of your headaches, and give you more energy. It's even possible that you'll come across the idea that gluten-free diets will cure autism. Really, I've read it with my own eyes.

READ Barley And Wheat And Rye, Oh My! Women And Celiac Disease

Here's the thing. It's not neither possible nor advisable to try to DIY-diagnose yourself with celiac disease or a gluten intolerance. If you think you have either of these conditions, you need to see your physician, describe your symptoms, and get referred for a full medical examination that includes blood tests and an intestinal biopsy. (Here's an interesting tidbit, by the way: in order to get diagnosed properly, you need to be eating gluten during the process!) If the end result is that you are neither celiac nor gluten intolerant, you don't need a gluten-free diet. Could you still benefit from one?

Before You Go Gluten Free

The rise of the gluten-free market has been excellent news for celiac sufferers and those with gluten intolerances, who now have access to many foods they previously had little choice but to eschew completely. The steady increase in availability of processed gluten-free products has, however, had one unfortunate side effect: gluten has now gained a bad reputation.

That's a shame, because if you're not celiac or otherwise sensitive to gluten — something which, remember, can only be verified by medical professionals — gluten is actually pretty good for you. Gluten itself is a protein, and we all need proteins. It's also high in carbs and iron, again both things that we need, and a cheap source of nutrients.

There are plenty of grains that don't contain gluten, including quinoa, buckwheat, and amaranth, and going gluten-free may also cause you to replace a lot of the processed foods you are probably eating at the moment with healthier things like, you know, fruits and vegetables. If we're honest, we could probably all do with more of those. Going gluten-free may also cause you to reduce your calorie intake quite naturally.

There's a downside though. If that multi-billion dollar industry of processed gluten-free products becomes your go-to source of food, replacing the gluten-containing processed grains you previously relied on, you could end up with serious health issues. Such products are frequently lacking in iron, folate, calcium, vitamin B12, phospherous, niacin, thiamine, riboflavin, and fiber. Steer clear of nutrients you genuinely need for long enough, and the end result is blatantly obvious: you'll end up malnourished.

Whole grains, in their unprocessed form, can form the foundation of a healthy diet. Gluten-free products may have gained the reputation of being healthy, but remember that something certified gluten-free isn't certified "really good for your body, meeting all your nutritional needs" by any stretch of the imagination!

There is no evidence that people who do not have celiac or a gluten sensitivity benefit from going gluten free at all, no evidence that it causes weight loss, certainly absolutely no evidence whatsoever that it can treat autism, and plenty of evidence that doing so can cause nutritional deficiencies when done wrong.

READ Celiac Disease Vs. Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity

People who are suffering with the symptoms that frequently lead people to try to cut down on gluten or eliminate it from their diets altogether — bloating, overweight, fatigue, and headaches — might to well to, instead, see if introducing more nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables into their diet and eating fewer processed foods helps them at all. They could take a good, honest look at their calorie intake and cut down on the amount of food they eat if they need to, and start an exercise program.