Some gluten-free foods contain high levels of heavy metals, reveals study: How can you avoid these toxins?

By Divina Ramirez,

Gluten-free foods like nuts, seeds, grains and starches are beneficial for people with celiac disease, an autoimmune condition triggered by gluten intolerance.

However, a recent review showed that regular consumption of gluten-free products as part of a gluten-free diet led to higher concentrations of toxic metals like arsenic in the blood and urine.

Published in the NFS Journal, the review also revealed an association between gluten-free diets and the risk of chronic conditions like heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.

Gluten-free diet: Health benefits and side effects

Gluten is a type of protein found in most varieties of whole grains including rye and wheat. It allows bread to rise during the baking process. Gluten is also responsible for the soft, fibrous texture of most kinds of pastries.

Some people might feel abdominal discomfort after eating foods that contain gluten. This reaction might just point to a mild intolerance for the protein. In such cases, the discomfort can easily be avoided by restricting the consumption of foods that contain gluten.

However, severe reactions to gluten including sharp stomachaches, diarrhea, constipation, weight loss and anemia might indicate a more serious problem in the form of celiac disease. People living with this autoimmune condition have to avoid gluten at all costs since it triggers severe intestinal inflammation.

Prior to their purported weight-loss benefits, gluten-free diets were “created,” so to speak, for the benefit of people with celiac disease. But even though celiac disease affects just 1.4 percent of the global population, gluten-free diets grew to become one of the most popular weight-loss diets.

However, there is no evidence to support the reported link between gluten-free diets and weight loss. That said, a gluten-free diet can lead to proper weight management over time since it promotes the regular consumption of whole, unprocessed foods like fruits, vegetables, legumes and lean meat.

Despite this, gluten-free diets also pose certain health risks and potential side effects. A 2018 review published in the Gastroenterology & Hepatology journal found that the reduced consumption of beneficial whole grains following a gluten-free diet resulted in a higher risk of heart disease. Several studies also reported that adults on gluten-free diets failed to meet all nutritional recommendations due to the severe restriction of food choices.

To date, celiac disease remains the sole acceptable justification for permanent and strict adherence to gluten-free diets.

Some gluten-free products contain toxic metals

A team of researchers from the University of Hohenheim in Germany found that gluten-free diets might be responsible for elevated heavy metal concentrations in the blood and urine. Several studies suggest that the boom of manufactured, non-organic gluten-free products containing rice flour might be responsible for this disturbing health risk.

Most of the available gluten-free products in the market substitute grains with rice-based products. Rice is prone to accumulate toxic substances like arsenic, mercury, cadmium and lead since it is grown under flooded conditions. Experts believe that contaminated irrigation water is to blame for the presence of these toxic substances in rice paddies.

The researchers also found that several studies reported high arsenic concentrations in rice-containing gluten-free products. Arsenic poses serious health risks including skin cancer, bladder cancer, lung cancer and heart disease.

Rice from countries like China, Thailand and Indonesia were also found to be contaminated with methylmercury, one of the most toxic organic forms of mercury. Methylmercury is also responsible for most cases of mercury poisoning in humans. Minimal exposure to this organic compound can lead to neurodegenerative diseases, blindness and birth defects.

Cadmium, a chemical element linked to cancers of the lungs, liver and prostate, is also present in certain rice-containing gluten-free products. (Related: Papaya reduces cadmium-induced brain damage.)

In addition to these findings, the researchers found studies that reported elevated lead concentrations in people who followed a gluten-free diet. Although the studies failed to determine the link between the two, research on lead poisoning has long since established the harmful effects of lead including learning difficulties, hearing loss and birth defects. Lead exposure is also linked to a heightened risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Based on all of these findings, the researchers concluded that some gluten-free products on the market do contain toxic metals that pose serious health risks and consequences for patients with celiac disease and healthy individuals alike.

Unless you source your food from trusted organic farmers, you can never be certain if the available produce at the supermarket are 100 percent organic and chemical-free. To avoid food poisoning, steer clear of processed gluten-free products containing refined flour, sugar, sodium and other additives.

There are also several gluten-free grains like quinoa, buckwheat and oats that provide good carbohydrates and soluble fiber. Beans, lentils, peas and chickpeas are also gluten-free, as are most root vegetables like potatoes and squash.

For more stories on the dangers of lead, mercury and other heavy metals, visit

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2 thoughts on “Some gluten-free foods contain high levels of heavy metals, reveals study: How can you avoid these toxins?”

  1. Morgelon’s disease is from GMOs because GMOs are made of Agrobacturium that allows foreign material – bugs, etc. – to attach to the cells of the human/animals, etc. There are pictures of human’s with trees growing out of their bodies. It is bad enough that humans are home to parasites, worm and mutilated e-coli that eat brain tissues, sold to the public by the slow-poison-fast-food industry but today vaccines are made with the tissues of animals and the very disease the manufacturer ‘pretends’ they are made for. Add to that, poor sanitary habits and sexual contact with males who don’t care. GMOs, Round-Up are creating female cancers even in the young.

    Don’t expect the medical profession to give you a pill because they just add to the toxic conditions that are creating the problems. Educate yourself and assume responsibility by detoxing to remove the source before it becomes a problem too great to handle.

  2. If I may throw in some gluten-free comment on a gluten-free diet, and, to be honest, in The Netherlands, where many young (yuppie) people are wealthy enough to go on a food journey, where gluten-free products, super-foods and natural supplements are collected, “on show” on the kitchen table, there’s a type of personality, usually thin, dry as a bone, very critical and fussy, that we describe as “… that gluten-free woman/man from next door…”, the allergy for gluten in wheat, which forced many bakers to use spelt flour to satisfy the customers with that allergy, began to show up when during the wheat harvest in the US, Round-Up was sprayed right before the combine gathered the wheat from the land.

    Since those American farms that grow wheat are often enormous, the choice to use Round Up secures the preservation of the product, after harvesting. Round-Up kills all living creatures on the plant and in the soil. It’s used to kill the weeds in gardens, hence the name.

    I’ve found 3 containers of this stuff in the garden-shed in Britain. In The Netherlands, it’s officially banned, due to its damaging effect, but producers have changed the name and garden-companies are happy to use the stuff, due to its effect of “finishing-off” weeds forever, in the gardens where they’re expected to perform the tasks in a minimum amount of hours. We’re living in the years of “time is money” and our physical health becomes more and more a matter of self-management and an autonomous choice of diet.

    Uhmm, returning to the subject: gluten-free, there’s a suspicion that the use of Round-Up during harvesting of wheat is the cause of gluten-allergy, affecting the digestive system of people. It’s appalling how messing with our food is happening these days.

    The Louis Bolk Institute in Driebergen, The Netherlands, publishes valuable articles, with studies and research all related to food. I’m fortunate to have finished a 3 years training for a holistic nutritionist in that village, where the teachers are informed about these studies, with experience on the land as well.

    I highly recommend visiting the Louis Bolk website, when you’re interested in this subject. The content is often published in English, and the quality of it is outstanding. Driebergen is the heart of the bio-dynamic agriculture, knowledge based on the views of Rudolf Steiner.

    The presence of heavy metals and other toxic substances in our bodies is studied by Harald Kautz Vella to a great depth. He has found a cure for the Morghellon disease, by advising patients to change their lifestyle and diet, moving from an acidic condition, caused also by heavy metals and other “alien” substances, to an alkalic condition.

    And, as many of you will know, chemtrails are causing rains of heavy metals for quite a long time now, forcing us to breath in the ingredients, such as aluminium, cadmium, to name a few. These heavy metals rain on rice-paddies as well, in fact, on the entire surface of planet Earth. I’m almost sure that the subject of chemtrails isn’t part of that study at the University of Hohenheim in Germany.

    And, as if it’s not enough, vaccines are manufactured with heavy metals as well, such as mercury. The number of toxic substances in vaccines is horrific, apart from the quantity injected in babies and young children. In the documentary VAXXED, you can find the info.

    There’s formaldehyde in vaccines too. Imagine, your body preserved for the rest of your life, just like those tissue samples and animal species, placed in bottles with that stuff. Preserved for eternity, in a grizzly-creepy-crawlies-cabinet, displayed on shelves in a museum.

    One of the helpful ways to detox one’s body from heavy metals is eating seaweed. Grown in clean parts of the oceans, as far as they ARE clean. I’m sure most readers of these pages are familiar with detox programs, such as using an ultraviolet lamp (on doctor’s prescription, at least, always using eye-protection) spirulina and Epsom salts, to name a few. With the internet at our fingertips, we’re free to do our own research and find a way to minimize the effect of harmful substances, present in our air, water, and soil.

    I’m sure, some of you have noticed the difference in air- and water quality, (en)during the worldwide pandemic, since March 11 this year. I certainly noticed the difference!


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