You probably hear something about gluten five times a day. What is all the hype about? You feel ok eating bread every day and you don’t have a celiac disease.
Gluten is a form of protein that forms from wheat flour while it is kneeded during the bread making process. People have eaten bread for hundreds of years, so why has all the panic popped up now? Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder, like an allergy, that is triggered by gluten. Modern science has lead us to the most sanitary conditions humans have ever known. The theory is that our bodies don't have enough exposure to normal levels of dirt and bacteria, and so it becomes so sensitive it begins to overreact to anything, even the food you eat.
Remember, even if you don’t have an autoimmune disorder, you might still have still have non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Your body might have a hard time processing gluten. And that, my friends, can lead to low-grade systemic inflammation, hormone imbalances, headaches, joint and muscle pain, chronic fatigue, foggy mind, body mass loss, anemia, ADD/ADHD, depression, nausea, diarrhea, or constipation – pretty bad, eh?
If you have any of these symptoms on a regular basis, try cutting gluten out of your diet for a couple of weeks and see if your symptoms clear up.
You can perform a little experiment: eliminate all gluten from your diet for a week or two (the longer you cut it out, the more accurate your results will be), then eat several meals with gluten in one day and then see how you feel over the next few days.
If your symptoms get worse – the solution is pretty obvious, isn’t it? Try to avoid gluten or even cut it out for good. I’m pretty sure that even if you don’t have any gluten associated diseases, your gut will say thank you!
