A few weeks ago I was at a restaurant with a friend and although I was starving, I could not figure out what I wanted on the menu. As we started and stopped stories catching up in each other’s lives, my friend mentioned a vegetable dish that sounded good. I looked at the description on my menu and noted that it was gluten-free. My friend raised his eyebrows and proceeded to tell me just how ridiculous the new gluten-free diet craze is for those who do not need to cut gluten out of their life. After the health lecture, I got to thinking and stumbled upon new research that tells just how dangerous abstaining from gluten can be. So how bad is gluten-free for your body? A new study is aiming to answer that question.

Gluten is a special protein that is found in some grains like rye, wheat, and barley along with many types of cereal and most kinds of bread. Recently a gluten-free diet has become a bit of a fad, like the anti-bread campaigns of a decade ago. Gluten helps bread rise before the baking process. Gluten also keeps loaves firm, elastic, and filled with starch so the bread retains its shape. Many vegetarians rely on gluten’s absorbent quality to take the place of meat in their diets because it fills you up.

However, gluten isn’t always good for everyone’s body. In the case of celiac disease, those who suffer from this cannot break down gluten the correct way and become ill. Therefore, the cure for now is to rid the body of gluten in exchange for relative health. The good news is that not all grains contain gluten, and examples of celiac-friendly meals are made with wild rice, quinoa, sunflower seeds, soybeans, oats, millet, buckwheat and corn, among others. Gluten-free products are often labeled as such because they have less than 1 percent gluten and even though most of the gluten can be taken out of wheat flour, it cannot be completely void of this protein.

Unfortunately a new study has shown that eating gluten-free may not be as healthy as some people think, affecting what is inside your stomach as well as other systems in your body. Published in the April 2009 edition of the British Journal of Nutrition, researchers followed 10 healthy volunteers and tracked their progress with a gluten-free diet over a period of time.

Performed by the Spanish National Research Council, the trial took place over one month where the participants each ate a gluten-free diet and had regular check-ups. When the experiment was over, the levels of “good bacteria” in the stomach were measured against the first batch they took prior to the diet change. The levels of helpful stomach bacteria were significantly reduced as well as a number of markers that decide immune health.

The possibility that the immune system could be compromised comes as a surprise, and with the growing popularity of gluten-free diets, this may be harder to control. Many people think weight loss is akin to cutting out necessities in their diets, but in reality following a strict diet cutting out anything major without the consent of a doctor usually results in poor health. There are many more tests to be done because this was a randomized small trial, but the preliminary results were less than positive.

Aside from the .5 to 1 percent of the adult population living with celiac disease, a gluten-free diet isn’t a good idea for weight management or as a detoxifying plan as your immune system and bacterial health could be at risk. Remember that the good bacterias (called probiotics, which are found in yogurt, among other things) residing in your stomach are helpful and necessary for digestion. So next time you find yourself starving and pouring through a menu and happen upon a gluten-free item, you may want to order a pizza instead and give thanks for your health. I know I will.

Source : http://www.healthnews.com