It can be hard to start a gluten-free diet, but it doesn’t always have to be that way. No matter your reason, it can be easy to follow a gluten-free diet if you do a little work and plan. This guide will examine some of the most important rules for eating gluten-free.
People eat a lot of grains all over the world, but especially in North America. Before the farming revolution around 10,000 years ago, most people ate a Paleolithic diet. Our bodies haven’t had enough time to get used to eating a lot of grains like wheat, barley, and rye since we went from hunting and gathering to farming.
Based on a timeline of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, agricultural foods are relatively new and foreign to our bodies. Because of this, many people still can’t eat gluten-filled foods like grains. Because of this, eating grains, especially wheat, can be very bad for the body.
What is Gluten?
Before starting a gluten-free diet, we must discuss what gluten is. Gluten is the name for a group of proteins that are found in food, like wheat, barley, and rye. Gluten is what makes bread and dough stretchy and spongy. Most people can eat gluten without having any bad effects at all.
This is because gluten itself is not bad for you. Gluten can make people sick if their bodies think it is a harmful foreign substance, making their immune systems use chemicals to fight off poisons and toxins. Some people only have a mild gluten intolerance, while others have more serious problems and are diagnosed with celiac disease.
What You Must Understand About a Gluten-Free Diet
First, you must know which foods you shouldn’t eat on a gluten-free diet. These are some examples of foods that have gluten and should be avoided:
- Wheat
- Semolina
- Cake flour
- Couscous
- Barley
- Malt
- Rye
- Cereal
- Cakes
- Cookies
- Pasta
- Pizza crust
The list above is incomplete, but it is meant to give you an idea of what foods to avoid. Switching gluten ingredients for alternatives is one of the easiest ways to begin a gluten-free diet. You could use sunflower seed flour instead of regular flour if you don’t want to eat gluten.
What’s the difference between a wheat allergy and a gluten sensitivity?
It’s easy to mix up a wheat allergy and a problem with gluten. Because gluten and wheat intolerance could indeed cause similar physical symptoms, many people think that a reaction to wheat is caused by gluten. Both gluten intolerance and wheat intolerance cause the body to make immunoglobulins, antibodies that attack the foreign substance eaten.
Symptoms of this reaction include nausea, a rash that itches, stomach pain, swelling, and anaphylaxis. Even though they are similar, wheat allergy and gluten intolerance are two different conditions. Wheat proteins cause wheat allergies, but celiac disease or gluten sensitivity is caused by gluten, which is found in wheat and other foods.
How to Treat Gluten Intolerance
Even though some treatments can assist you in dealing with gluten intolerance, they are not preventative. Avoiding foods with gluten is the best way to deal with the impacts of gluten intolerance or celiac disease. Switching to a gluten-free diet might be scary at first, and it might take you a while to get used to it. It’s normal to have trouble initially but remember that this new diet will become easy over time.
How Do You Begin A Gluten-Free Diet?
You can be gluten-free from day one if you prepare your kitchen and buy a few packaged foods. This can be particularly crucial if you have celiac disease and are on a gluten-free diet. Cleaning your kitchen well can help ensure it is gluten-free and keep gluten-containing foods from spreading from one place to another.
This could mean throwing away or giving away packaged gluten-containing foods or condiments such as malt vinegar or soy sauce. Gluten can often be hidden in a toaster with bread crumbs or porous surfaces for cutting or cooking. Sticky gluten can get stuck in colanders, muffin tins, sieves, and cast iron pans.
If you buy some gluten-free packaged foods, you won’t feel like missing out on your favorite foods in the first few days and weeks. Gluten-free bread and pasta can be comforting when going gluten-free for the first time. You can also get ideas for more gluten-free recipes from gluten-free baking products. You do not need to be Martha Stewart to make gluten-free cakes or cookies that taste great.
Don’t Make These Mistakes
Large food companies like Kellogg’s, General Mills, and Nestle are trying to cash in on the gluten-free market by making more gluten-free products than ever before. Gluten-free is no longer a niche market. It makes $3.5 billion in sales around the world. When you first start a gluten-free diet, it can be tempting to go to the grocery store and buy many gluten-free products now on the market.
There may be gluten-free versions of your favorite foods, such as gluten-free macaroni and cheese, gluten-free Sara Lee cakes, gluten-free Corn Flakes, and even gluten-free pizzas. Studies have found that most gluten-free products are, on average, 242% more expensive than their regular counterparts that don’t have gluten.
You may need to consider how many calories it will cost. Many of these products are produced with refined grains and have a lot of sugar, so they have more calories than gluten-based products. If you are trying to lose weight and are on a gluten-free diet, this will make you gain weight.
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