What the Heck is Gluten?

What is Gluten? Well most of the time when you ask people, their answer is, gluten is bad. Gluten makes you fat. Gluten is in bread. Gluten hurts my tummy. All of the above, in my opinion, very true. By removing gluten you remove a huge amount of carbs which an over indulgence of carbs can aid in weight gain. And yes for any of you who said gluten is in bread, yes indeed it is (other than gluten free bread of course!). And for a lot of us, gluten does hurt our tummies. But WHAT is gluten???? Wouldn’t you like to know?

what is gluten 3
Here’s a video that you must, must watch. A guy friend of mine who knows of my gluten intolerance sent me the link to this video and I loved it and had to share.

So, what is it?

There you have it. Wasn’t that simple? Google the definition of gluten and it tells you exactly what it is. (Not sure why more gluten free people can’t do this? Even my kindies know what google is and how it works. Come onnnnn GF people, lets not make ourselves look bad!!) A mixture of two proteins. Mind you I’m sure that definition will also soon say “also makes people fat, and makes people uncool if they eat it” right?! Gluten free diets have become a huge fad for sure, I’m the first one to admit it. But I also have been tested twice and both times have shown a strong intolerance to gluten. So why all of a sudden is your mom, cousin, neighbour and girlfriend all allergic to gluten? Well as my research has found, the reason for the recent abundance in gluten free diets is that of two things.

What is glutenFirst, scientists have only recently been able to prove that you can have  an intolerance to gluten without actually being celiac. Before, people would be tested for celiac disease or IgE-mediated allergies and if it came back negative they would be told to continue eating gluten as it was not the cause for their uncomfortableness. It was only in 2012 when scientists discovered that people can actually be tested and have just an intolerance. This means, for many, many years there were a lot of people living in discomfort and not knowing why or able to solve the issue. (For all us Gluten intolerant peeps, we owe scientists a huge thank you for saving us from years of discomfort…. And years of pooing a crazy amount. Sorry guys, too much info?) For more detailed information check out this website, more info.

Believe it or not, but this CAN be true!! It is possible to have food full of flavour with zero gluten. I swear, I'm not lying!! (Although if Ryan or my Dad read this, they would totally disagree. Pfff what do they know.)
Believe it or not, but this CAN be true!! It is possible to have food full of flavour with zero gluten. I swear, I’m not lying!! (Although if Ryan or my Dad read this, they would totally disagree. Pfff what do they know.)

Second, this is not due to research but purely based on my opinion, “gluten makes you fat”. This is the second reason for all the gluten free peeps out there. People see their friends and cousins with actual gluten intolerances losing the pounds like crazy and decide to do it in order to look good. There’s many opinions on this, mine personally, I don’t believe carbs are necessary so if you’re gluten free by choice, you’re good in my books. I think everyone would feel better by not stuffing their face with bread, pasta, cookies and cakes. BUT, this also means, even if cookies say they’re gluten free does not mean you can eat 8 or even 2. If you’re going to go gluten free to be healthy, then be healthy. Many gluten free products are actually a lot worse for you than gluten full products. Read the labels.

If someone asked you what gluten was, now you should know an answer. And please, please don’t say “gluten is what makes you fat”. That makes all us gluten free peeps look so bad!

-tal xo


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