Are Gluten Free Products Really Gluten Free?

Transcript:

MELANIE: Welcome to another episode of Dishing Up Nutrition where our goal is to help each and every listener achieve their health and wellness goals through educating about real food nutrition. By now on the topic of food nutrition, you've heard the term gluten free, I'm sure, and you probably know at least one person who's on a gluten free diet.

Maybe you've heard someone say that they're doing it to help with some digestive issues. Or maybe you've heard of it being touted as a weight loss diet. I don't really think that's accurate. Maybe you thought it's just the latest fad or maybe you yourself have attempted or are currently following a gluten-free diet.

Well, if you've been wondering if you would benefit from eating a gluten-free diet and you really didn't know where to start, today we're going to help you understand why gluten free diets have become so common, and who could benefit from taking gluten out of their diet, and maybe how to do it from a healthy real food approach, which is always the approach that we take.

So in addition, we'll be explaining why foods labeled gluten free aren't always a safe choice, and actually may be doing more harm than good. So let's take a minute to introduce ourselves. I'm Melanie Beasley and I've been a registered dietitian for over 35 years. And over the course of my career, I have seen diet trends come and go.

And early in my career, gluten free diets weren't even a thing. Like, no one even heard of gluten free. It was this rare outlier condition that no one… you had to look it up if you had someone who had celiac disease. So most people had never even heard of gluten. And now I have helped countless clients improve their health by eating a gluten free diet, focusing on real food nutrition, and I myself eat a strict gluten free diet for my own health needs.

My husband is pretty gluten free. He should be a hundred percent. And now let me tell you, I am far from deprived when it comes to food. I have plenty to eat. Joining me today as my cohost and fellow registered dietitian, Britni Vincent. Thanks for joining me today Britni.

BRITNI: I am happy to be here with you today. I think we all get lots of questions about gluten free and how to follow a gluten free diet. And whether or not you've attempted a gluten free diet before, you might have wondered if you should give it a try to see if it makes a difference in how you feel. And I, too, like Melanie, eat a gluten free diet and it's just improved my health overall.

MELANIE: 100%. I got a three prescription medications.

BRITNI: That's amazing.

MELANIE: And I went gluten free and years and years ago.

BRITNI: Wow.

MELANIE: Yeah.

BRITNI: Wow. Yeah, it really can do wonders. That is for sure. And I have many clients that also follow a gluten free diet. And they do so following that real food approach. I take time with each of these clients to educate them about how gluten is connected to their symptoms, and then how to heal themselves from the inside out to get back to feeling their best. Because the reality is gluten can be very damaging to the body, so there needs to be a time of healing while eating gluten free.

So, let me share an example of a common response I get when I recommend someone start eating a gluten free diet. Or even if I tell someone that I am gluten free myself. So a response might be, “I had never even heard of gluten up until a few years ago. Now it seems like everyone is on the gluten free diet and unless you have celiac disease, why would anyone need to be gluten free? Is it just another fad diet?”

MELANIE: Yep. I hear that as well.

BRITNI: Or well, “I've eaten bread since I was a kid. How come it's all of the sudden a problem?”

MELANIE: Sure.

What is gluten?

BRITNI: And these are all great, valid questions that we're going to get to the bottom of today during this episode. So first I think it's important to dive into what exactly gluten is, why it can be harmful to our health, and who could really benefit from eating gluten free?

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, spelt and kamut. And gluten proteins, they provide elasticity. So think of pulling apart a piece of bread and how that stretches. That's the gluten.

MELANIE: Yes.

BRITNI: Versus gluten free bread, different texture, crumbly because it's lacking that elasticity. And beyond, you know, the bread, gluten can be found in many different types of foods: pastas, crackers, baked goods, you know, anything with flour, basically, but other foods that contain gluten may be less obvious like sauces, marinades, gravies, salad dressing, soy sauce, beer, spice rubs, malts, even oats which are in theory naturally gluten free have a really high cross contamination with wheat from where they're grown or where they're manufactured. So usually those who are gluten sensitive, they really do better staying away from oats as well.

MELANIE: I agree. I agree. And it's interesting, my husband and I went out to eat Sunday after church and he was looking at the hash browns and I think they were cheesy hash browns and he tries to stay gluten free and they said, oh, well if you're gluten free, the cheesy hash browns have flour in the cheese sauce.

BRITNI: I know there's…

MELANIE: You have to really be an investigator.

BRITNI: Yeah. There is even a breakfast restaurant around here and they put pancake batter in their omelets to make it fluffier. I mean, who would think?

MELANIE: You think you're just having some eggs.

BRITNI: Yeah.

MELANIE: It pays to ask questions.

BRITNI: It really does.

MELANIE: To make sure you’re comfortable with it. Well, it's really a good question that you brought up though. For many of us, we've never heard of a gluten free diet until recent years. And not only that, but bread, pasta, and other wheat products were always a main staple on our plates for most of our lives. And as dietitians for many years, we were taught to use the food pyramid;

I shudder; as a dietary guideline, which told us that grains were the most important food group and that we should be eating up to 12 servings of grains a day. Well, most of that came from wheat.

BRITNI: Yikes, that’s a lot.

MELANIE: No wonder when the food pyramid came out, the health of America went down. So how come the messaging has changed so much?

Do we get important nutrients from gluten or grains in general?

BRITNI: That's a great point. You know, often I get the question, “If I eliminate gluten, am I actually missing out on nutrients?” Because we have been made to believe that grains are such a crucial part of our diet.

MELANIE: Yes. That was hooey.

BRITNI: Yeah. Yeah. So you are not going to be missing out on any nutrients at all.

MELANIE: No. In fact, yeah, you're probably removing a nutrient robber from your diet when you remove the gluten of today.

How has wheat changed from previous generations & how does that affect health?

BRITNI: That's true. That's very true. And so you mentioned the gluten of today. That is a very important point because the wheat today is not the wheat of previous generations. It has changed a lot. For example, gluten proteins are in much higher concentrations in today's wheat compared to 60 to 70 years ago.

Also, maybe it was a slice of bread or two a day. Now people are eating so much gluten. So thinking about the wheat contains more gluten, people are eating more processed gluten containing products. It's a lot. It's a lot of gluten for the body.

MELANIE: Here's my challenge to our listeners is when you are watching television and they have a food commercial come on, hopefully they'll have a food commercial. Now it seems all pharmaceutical drugs, but if you're watching television and food commercial comes on, look at what they're advertising and see how much has been battered and fried.

BRITNI: Mm hmm.

MELANIE: So much of that battering, of course, is gluten because it's cheap. Wheat flour is a cheap way to bulk up everything and make it look like you're getting a lot of food when in fact you're really just getting a bunch of flour in various forms.

BRITNI: Very true. Yeah. Very true. In addition to the wheat plant itself actually changing, conventional farming uses chemical herbicides like glyphosate to control crop reads and these herbicides help farmers produce crops and much higher yields, but they come at a huge cost. Eating those crops are not friendly to our gut or just our overall health, and wheat crops are especially saturated with toxic chemicals like glyphosate

MELANIE: Which is roundup.

BRITNI: Yep. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup.

MELANIE: Yeah.

BRITNI: The International Agency on the Research for Cancer has even listed glyphosate as a possible carcinogen or cancer causing agent. And again, as the key ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate disrupts beneficial gut bacteria, causing inflammation and damage to the intestinal wall. And this damage and inflammation could lead to something called leaky gut.

And leaky gut is when there's little microscopic holes in the lining of our intestinal tract. So the bacteria, food particles, toxins can escape from our intestinal tract into our bloodstream where they're not supposed to be, creates a lot of inflammation, creates an immune response.

MELANIE: Almost a sick syndrome.

BRITNI: Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, it affects the body systemically. So hopefully that gives you a bit of an explanation as to why there are so many gut related health problems and why people feel so much better eating a gluten free food. And we're going to touch on this a little bit more, but even if you don't have digestive symptoms, that does not mean that you wouldn't benefit from eating gluten free.

MELANIE: I'm glad you brought that up. I've had clients who've were diagnosed with fibromyalgia. We removed gluten and all their pain went away. MELANIE: Not saying that's everybody, just saying I've seen that with arthritis pain, I've seen it with fibromyalgia pain, migraines, I mean, the list goes on and on and on. So, it's worth a shot if you're not feeling well, because most of us have some degree of leaky gut or inflammation in the intestinal lining.

We can't tolerate foods like we used to, hence the rise in food sensitivities. Well, back several decades ago, it was less common for someone to have a food sensitivity. You just had that outlier in school, the one kid who couldn't eat peanuts or something. But nowadays it's almost the norm, especially as we're seeing in children, our gut health has been compromised from generations of industrialized food crops and other environmental factors.

Kids sometimes they don't, they don’t know enough to tell you that this food hurts. They just know that they hurt. So you have to be the detective for your children in that regard.

BRITNI: Yeah; really good point. And I think it's also important to note that the foods we consume now are not the same quality as the foods that our grandparents in generations before consumed.

MELANIE: Yes.

BRITNI: So even a carrot is not the same nutritionally as 50 or a hundred years ago. Corn isn't the same. An orange nutritionally isn't the same. And as we mentioned, wheat is most definitely not the same wheat, and our bodies, it just did not evolve to know how to tolerate modified foods or these chemicals that have been sprayed on them. So they're just wreaking havoc in our body.

MELANIE: And I remember I was able to eat bread and flour products for years. And then there was a big hybridization of wheat in the 90s. And that was when I personally started developing heartburn and urinary tract infections and achy joint pain and headaches, fatigue, bloating. And it was that hybridization where I lost gluten.

BRITNI: Wow.

MELANIE: And I thought I've been eating this for years. This can't be. How could this be?

BRITNI: But now it makes sense.

Our real food message is naturally gluten free

MELANIE: Now it makes sense. So the good news is that the real food message that we always teach here on Dishing Up Nutrition is naturally gluten free; real grass fed meat, pasture raised poultry and eggs and wild caught fish are naturally gluten free. Real fruits and vegetables: naturally gluten free. Real raw nuts and seeds are naturally gluten free.

Real natural oils like olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, sesame oil: gluten free. So real dairy products like butter and heavy cream and whole milk yogurt are naturally gluten free if you can tolerate dairy. And eating this way makes it easy because you don't have to think about gluten with exception of what you're putting on these foods, such as marinades or spices or dressings. But the main food themselves are naturally gluten free. So real food, if you can hunt it, fish it or pluck it, is going to be gluten free.

BRITNI: Beautiful way to think about it.

MELANIE: Yeah.

BRITNI: Well, it is already time for our break, and we will be right back. And when we return, we will talk more about gluten and how to eat gluten free.

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MELANIE: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. Before break, we were discussing how real food is inherently gluten free.

BRITNI: And, if you are deciding to try a gluten free diet, or maybe you are new to eating gluten free, I really encourage you to think of all of the delicious food that is naturally gluten free instead of thinking of the list of foods that you need to avoid.

MELANIE: Or the special foods you need to buy.

BRITNI: Yeah. Yes. Good point with that too.

What is the problem with many packaged, processed gluten-free products?

MELANIE: The special foods are processed and that's not a real food message that we're trying to get across: crackers, bread, cereal, pasta. None of those are real food. They don't occur naturally in nature. So we're not saying run out and buy a bunch of expensive gluten free products.

BRITNI: No just eat the real food. And it's delicious. You can enjoy your food just as much and you're going to feel so much better.

MELANIE: And it's healing to the body.

BRITNI: Yeah. You know, a common response when I'm first working with somebody starting a gluten free diet is that they are asking about those gluten free products like you were talking about. “So what kind of gluten free bread do you recommend? Where would I find this gluten free…?” I mean, the list goes on and, you know, it's nice that there's options out there for, something occasionally or a special occasion.

But these foods are not what we're recommending for daily consumption because at the end of the day, they're really processed. Generally, they are higher in carbohydrates than their gluten containing counterpart. And remembering those carbs all break down to sugar.

MELANIE: Which is inflammatory also.

BRITNI: Yep. Yep. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Rules, packaged foods labeled gluten free can still contain some wheat if they have been processed to remove gluten and contain less than 20 parts per million of gluten.

So, for those very intolerant to gluten, or those with celiac, these foods labeled gluten free could still potentially cause some issues because they could contain trace amounts of gluten. My general rule of thumb is if it's processed, packaged food advertised that it’s gluten free on the packaging, it is generally still a very processed food that you're going to probably want to avoid.

MELANIE: Yeah, and they're finding more and more that we're not really guaranteeing that they're low in gluten or gluten free or even less than 20 parts per million. I think the testing is very loose. On that same note, I want to share an alarming article I read recently and as we shared earlier, there's been a correlation between the rise of gluten sensitivity and celiac disease in our population and the increase of glyphosate herbicide on crops.

Recent studies have discovered that gluten free processed foods often have glyphosate in them, the very same chemical that likely contributed to their condition in the first place. So in June of this year, an article came out about many popular brands of gluten free products being tested in a lab for levels of glyphosate.

44 out of 46 of the samples in this study of gluten free products came back positive for glyphosate. Let me repeat that. Researchers found that 44 out of 46 of the samples of gluten free products came back positive for glyphosate.

BRITNI: That is so alarming.

MELANIE: Very alarming. Even more alarming is that 21 percent of these samples exceeded the threshold for acceptable glyphosate residues. Glyphosate has been found in organic gluten free products. That's criminal. So even buying organic gluten free pasta does not mean you're in the clear from these harmful chemicals. In this study, a certain gluten free pasta made with chickpeas contained the highest amount of glyphosate out of any human food that has ever been tested in a lab.

BRITNI: Wow.

MELANIE: Yeah. And it's the most popular chickpea pasta. So given that the rise in glyphosate is correlated to the rise of gluten sensitivity, it really wouldn't make sense that eating this gluten free pasta would be a healthier alternative to regular pasta. It would still cause inflammation and damage in your intestinal lining, possibly putting you at risk for cancer. And this is one example of why we don't encourage eating gluten free wheat replacements at all.

BRITNI: And, we're talking about gluten free products here. There have been studies that have revealed high amounts of glyphosate in gluten containing products as well. So it's everywhere, unfortunately. And in the same study that you were mentioning, Melanie, several gluten free products contained higher amounts of gluten than the allowed threshold of 20 parts per million. In fact, one gluten free bagel at a popular grocery chain was found to have gluten levels over 10 times the threshold allowed by the FDA.

MELANIE: Wow.

BRITNI: That could be so harmful for somebody with celiac.

MELANIE: So harmful and they're trying to understand why they're sick.

BRITNI: Yeah. Another popular gluten free baked good brand tested over the allowed gluten threshold for several of its products. And these products are all marked certified gluten free by the gluten free certification organization. The study was so alarming and concerning to read and really just another example of why we want to stay away from processed, gluten free products like bread, crackers, and baked goods, because clearly we just don't know what we're always getting.

MELANIE: Another main reason to stay away from these foods is pretty simple. They are still ultra processed foods. Gluten free breads and the like contain minimal, if any, nutrient value. And they're high in carbohydrates, which you mentioned, Britni, they turn into sugar in our bodies, whether or not they contain gluten.

So gluten free pasta turns into sugar. Gluten free crackers turn into sugar. Gluten free chips, guess what, turn into sugar. And of course, baked goods and cookies, muffins and bagels, all convert to sugar. These foods are not healthier just because they're labeled gluten free. And now we know they could potentially be even more harmful, given that these new findings about glyphosate and the gluten content in some of these popular gluten free foods.

So, circle back, we want you eating real food. So food companies know that putting a gluten free label on their food products makes it look like a healthier choice, so consumers are more likely to feel good about buying them. And now we know that's simply not the case. Shame on them.

Who might benefit from a real food gluten free diet?

BRITNI: Yeah. Now that we've discussed natural gluten free versus processed gluten free foods, let's talk more about who a real food gluten free diet might benefit. So as we mentioned earlier, a common misbelief I hear people say regarding a gluten free diet that it is only necessary for those with celiac disease.

Just as a review, celiac disease is an autoimmune disease characterized by an inflammatory immune response in gluten protein. So, essentially, when someone with celiac disease ingests gluten, their body responds with a very strong immune reaction, causes inflammation throughout the body and the body will actually attack something called our villi in our intestinal tract. And those villi are necessary for absorption of nutrients.

MELANIE: Yeah. If you think like a shag carpet inside your digestive system.

BRITNI: And those can get completely flattened from celiac. But, you know, non-celiac gluten sensitivity also causes an inflammatory reaction and can damage the villi, just not, you know, as extreme.

MELANIE: Another thing about the flattening of the villi is at the very tip is where we make the enzyme that breaks down milk sugar. So a lot of times by the time someone with celiac is finally diagnosed, they're not tolerating dairy either because they don't tolerate, they can't break down that lactose.

BRITNI: Very interesting point.

MELANIE: Yeah.

BRITNI: Yeah.

MELANIE: And the next level of flattening is fructose. So I'll have clients that were diagnosed, but the good news is, is once you remove that gluten, many times they can gain back as the regrowth of the villi, they can gain back the tolerance, but you've got to be gluten free.

BRITNI: Yeah.

MELANIE: Yeah.

BRITNI: Reactions to gluten can show up as a lot of GI symptoms, gas, bloating, chronic constipation, or diarrhea. But as we mentioned earlier just because you don't have digestive symptoms does not mean that you don't have a gluten sensitivity because your reaction could be joint pain, skin issues, mental health concerns like brain fog, depression, ADHD.

MELANIE: Migraines.

BRITNI: Yes, trouble concentrating.

MELANIE: That brain fog is a big deal.

BRITNI: Yeah.

MELANIE: I hear that a lot; brain fog and migraines.

Overviewing celiac disease & non-celiac gluten sensitivity

BRITNI: Celiac disease can run in families. So if you have somebody in your family, especially your immediate family, and you've never been tested, highly recommend that.

MELANIE: I do too.

BRITNI: I recently started to see a woman and her mother got diagnosed with celiac last year. And I said, have you ever been tested? And she hadn't. She got tested. Her numbers were very, very high. And she has a little bloating, not major digestive issues, but she has chronic migraines.

MELANIE: Oh my goodness.

BRITNI: So you know, fingers crossed that this is the answer for her. And then the tricky part is to be tested for celiac, you do have to have been consuming gluten.

MELANIE: Yeah.

BRITNI: So that's tough.

MELANIE: And sometimes I believe that you can get some false negatives even with the testing. And I tell clients, especially if they're type one diabetic to get tested for celiac just because type one diabetes and celiac disease seems to really go hand in hand.

BRITNI: Yeah. Good point.

MELANIE: That's not the only population to get celiac disease, but the odds are higher with type one diabetes.

BRITNI: And again, if you've been tested for celiac and you're negative, doesn't mean that you don't have a gluten sensitivity.

Going gluten free can dramatically improve health in various ways

MELANIE: I think the mental health piece is something people are surprised about when starting a gluten free diet. And I remember I had a client who was a college student and he was very intelligent, but was apathetic towards school. And he was having a hard time focusing on his coursework, completing his assignments and his grades were suffering.

And when I suggested a gluten free diet, he said, he was really willing to give it a try and he reported back to me that after about three days on a very strict gluten free diet, he didn't play with it at all, his brain fog had started to lift and he was already feeling better than he had in over a year.

All of a sudden he was able to focus on his study and his homework assignments. He actually became interested in coursework. I think there was some mild depression that lifted. He said it was like a fog had been lifted from him and it didn't take much to convince him to stay on a strict gluten free diet.

So that's one example of how gluten sensitivity can show up in an unsuspecting way. It does create anxiety. So for this client, it was more of a mental health issue. He didn't really have digestive concerns, so he didn't even know it was a gluten sensitivity. How would he?

BRITNI: Yeah, that's an amazing story.

MELANIE: Yeah. It was great.

BRITNI: And I've experienced similar reactions with many, many clients over the years, just dramatic improvements in their health. You know, even after being gluten free for a few weeks, you can feel so, so much better. And it often surprises people that gluten could be the cause of their symptoms and how much better they actually do feel.

Go gluten free 100% to know if it’s helping

Sometimes people are resistant to giving up the breads, pastas at first, but the results are worth it. And I always pose it as it's an experiment. Let's see. Do a gluten free trial 100 percent for three weeks if you could do that. And if you don't feel any better and you reintroduce it and nothing happens, then there you go. But more times than not, people do feel so much better that they don't even want to try it.

MELANIE: Yeah. Yeah. I would agree. It's that challenge, because it's always good to know.

BRITNI: It is. It is. And it's too hard to pinpoint if gluten is the cause of some of your symptoms without actually eliminating it. Cause the reaction could occur hours or the next day or two days after you consume it. So it's really difficult to kind of weed everything out.

MELANIE: Once you do the challenge, and I tell clients that and not a little bit, you know, like a crusty roll or that pull apart, you know, sticky something that is high in gluten. And I tell them, wait, do one day, but wait three days before you decide whether or not this is a problem. Personally, I get joint pain two days later.

BRITNI: Hmm. Interesting.

MELANIE: So hang in there before you decide, I'm okay, I can eat gluten. Yeah. If it tells you anything on our website, we have a lot of recipes.

BRITNI: All of our recipes are gluten free.

MELANIE: All of our recipes are gluten free, if that tells you how we feel.

BRITNI: Yep. And in, I mentioned earlier, a hundred percent gluten free trial because I've had people have like a slice of bread once a week during this trial. That one slice of bread, I know it seems harmless, but that could be enough to create a huge inflammatory response.

MELANIE: That's a really good point.

BRITNI: So then you're just not giving it a fair experiment.

MELANIE: No nibbles. No bits. It has to be 100 percent gluten free, which it sounds daunting until you circle back to what we were saying about real food is gluten free unless you happen to be eating those particular grains.

BRITNI: Yep. A group of individuals that we would recommend following a gluten free diet is anybody that has an autoimmune condition. We always recommend being 100 percent gluten free because gluten sensitivity is so highly correlated with these conditions. This includes celiac disease, of course, also MS, rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto's thyroid condition, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn's or ulcerative colitis. Don't forget about constipation and diarrhea.

BRITNI: Yes. If you have chronic digestive issues that you've not figured out the cause.

MELANIE: Heartburn is a huge tell that you need to be gluten free. And I think I would say almost every third client struggles with heartburn that we see.

BRITNI: It is so common.

MELANIE: Yeah. Anxiety and depression. As I mentioned with my client earlier, people might not think to connect mental health conditions related to gluten sensitivity. You know, most of our neurotransmitters, those feel good brain chemicals are made in our gut. So, there's so many teens and adults that are dealing with anxiety.

So, if you have an unhealthy gut caused by damage from gluten, your mental health can suffer. I had an adult client, married, and he struggled with ADHD. It was a problem with his, it was affecting his marriage. It was affecting his work. We removed the gluten. We added in a couple of key supplements there. I think DHA was one of them. And it was magic. He could focus. He could attend when his wife was talking.

BRITNI: Amazing.

MELANIE: It was amazing. It was that gluten connection. I had another client, I've mentioned him before, 10 episodes of watery diarrhea a day.

BRITNI: Ugh. I can't even imagine.

MELANIE: Young; young; from the time he was a small child. We removed gluten. He didn't know he could have a normal stool. It was gluten was the culprit, but he just thought that was normal for him. But it's not. Constipation; I just saw a client today. Constipation is a problem. We remove the gluten. Now she can have a normal stool every day, which is what we want.

Constipation is also very common in symptoms with children with autism, well, a gluten free diet can help with those regular bowel movements, but also with some of those autism acting out symptoms. So it protects the brain from inflammation when you remove gluten.

BRITNI: Yeah. And what do you have to lose to, to just do that gluten free trial for a few weeks? And if you feel better, it's so, so worth it. And again, go to our website, weightandwellness.com and you can find so many delicious gluten free recipes that, you're not even going to be missing the gluten.

Check Out Our Website for More Information!

MELANIE: And if you don't know where to start, how to put a diet together for yourself, how to put a plan of what am I going to eat together, we have a plethora of ideas. Just make an appointment with one of us. We'll walk you through it. And it's pretty much how we all live.

Schedule Nutrition Counseling

BRITNI: Yep. Yep, absolutely. Well, we hope you have learned something today about why we recommend eating a gluten-free diet and how to do it in a safe way. We say it all the time. Real food is always the answer. Real meats, real fruits and vegetables, and real natural fats. No gimmicks, no substitutes. It is a simple but powerful message and like we've mentioned several times today, we are there for our clients to guide them to feel their best.

So if you are interested in meeting with one of us, you can visit our website, weightandwellness.com or give us a call at 651-699-3438. And we look forward to working with you and thank you so much for listening today.

MELANIE: Thank you.