Should you be gluten free? What is gluten and how does it impact health, weight loss and fat loss? What foods contain gluten and how can you go about removing gluten from your diet? It is even possible? What risks does gluten pose to health & weight loss and what we should do about it? If you’re wondering about all the hype and if you should be gluten free, this is the episode to listen to!
Gluten is a major hot button in the nutrition & fitness world of late. It seems like most people are wondering if they should eliminate gluten or not and the grocery aisle of gluten-free products is growing by the second! Many people feel like they’re doing a “healthy” thing when they buy gluten free cookies or brownies. But what is gluten and who needs to be concerned about it? Is there a benefit to removing it? What do we risk if we don’t? Are gluten-free treats healthy? We’re going to cover all of that in today’s episode.
I want to emphasize that I am just sharing information with you. I’m not telling you that you should or shouldn’t cut gluten out of your diet. That is a personal decision and it should be based on your body and your goals. It should not be based on other people’s opinions – mine included. Instead, it should be based on how your body feels and reacts when you’re eating gluten vs. when you’re not. That is the only factor that matters. How your body works. That’s it.
You might be wondering why it seems like gluten is “all of a sudden” a problem. Well, it’s really just about how much more gluten we’ve been exposed to over the last 20 or so years with the advent and over-exposure to processed foods. Gluten is in almost all processed foods and those are a staple in the standard American diet. It didn’t use to be that way. Plus, grains (which contain gluten) have really changed. That’s why we’re seeing an estimated 400% increase in the presence of celiac disease just in the last decade or so! Our exposure is through the roof!
In this episode we talk about many issues that can be caused by gluten consumption. One of the big ones is inflammation. We’ve talked about inflammation before and how inflammation generates damage within the body. Inflammation diverts our body’s resources to go respond to the damage. When we eat anything that is proinflammatory, we’re repeating the damage each time we put the fork to our mouth. It’s kinda like getting punched in the face. Once is pretty bad, right? The healing process begins. But what if multiple times each day you’re getting punched in the face? Not only will the damage never heal, but what could have been a minor problem is now creating a major problem because you keep taking hits. The scary part is that unlike getting punched in the face, you might not initially feel this inflammation in your body. Someone who has celiac disease will consume gluten and have an immediate reaction. They stop eating it, of course. For those of us who aren’t celiac or who aren’t tuned in to the inflammatory reactions in our body or it’s not severe enough to notice, we just keep re-introducing the damage multiple, sometimes dozens of times each day – where will we be 10 years from now? What is happening internally as a result of inflammation that we just can’t feel yet? Remember that inflammation is the starting point for just about every disease we know of.
The Solution:
When we consider the question – should you be gluten free – there’s two factors at play here: health & fat loss. Both are very important, of course, because the healthier you are, the easier fat loss becomes. But that’s not to say that you can’t achieve fat loss while eating some foods that are on the “unhealthy” end of the spectrum. Gluten is not a healthy food. It’s just not. But, you know I’m not a fan of going “all in” to behavior change because I think it’s not sustainable. You must determine whether or not gluten is right for your body. In this episode we talk in detail about how you can make that determination.
Practical Implementation:
Gluten containing foods raise your blood sugar and therefore elicit an insulin response and will impair fat burning. If you are minimizing gluten-containing foods and seeing fat loss results, bravo. Keep doing what you’re doing. Eventually, as your body becomes less responsive, I’d encourage you to work towards eliminating gluten all together as a means of seeing further progress.
Are you curious to know if you’re sensitive to gluten? The best way to find out is to commit to eliminating all gluten from your diet for 7-10 days and see how your body responds. After 7-10 days, begin to re-introduce it slowly and note changes in your mood, energy, water retention, joint comfort, skin health, mental clarity and stomach comfort.
Symptoms that a lot of people experience when they consume gluten can include bloating, fatigue, skin problems or rashes, bowel irregularities like constipation, gas or diarrhea, depression & mood swings.
I feel strongly that whether or not you think you have a sensitivity, there is merit to removing all gluten from your diet for a week or two and paying attention to how you feel. If you feel AMAZING and better than you have in a while, continue to eliminate it. Does it accelerate your progress towards your fat loss goals? Are you less hungry? Are you experiencing fewer cravings? Let that be the indicator of whether or not gluten has a place in your diet.
Check out the list below of common gluten-containing foods. It is pretty extensive. The most straight forward way to eliminate gluten is to eliminate wheat and wheat products. The easiest way to do that? Move away from processed foods. That’s not a 100% rule, but it will make a MASSIVE difference in your consumption and exposure.
In this episode we’re look at the good, bad, healthy, and dangerous of dairy. We’re diving deep into the pros and cons of dairy consumption. It is important to understand that certain forms of dairy carry significant risks while others can potentially deliver health benefits. Ultimately, everyone responds differently and we talk about how you can assess your own tolerance of various types of dairy products.
The Problem: People are always asking about the pros and cons of dairy consumption looking for a definitive answer. The only definitive answer comes from assessing your own tolerance of dairy products. With that said, we need to establish that all dairy is not created equal. Some dairy products are downright dangerous when it comes to our fat loss and health goals while others can deliver nutrients and potential health benefits.
The Solution: Understand the difference between optimal dairy production/consumption (Bessie roams in a green pasture, Pa milks her, Ma churns the milk) and how is actually happens: Bessie is fed corn & grains. Bessie is treated with hormones & antibiotics which make their way into the milk. Bessie’s feed is very high carb and contaminated with pesticides & herbicides which make their way into her milk. Bessie’s milk is highly processed, stripping it of essential nutrients and making the essential fats less stable. The resulting product is often flavored or sugar and other stabilizers are added. We want to avoid those “conventional” dairy products. We want to actively limit our exposure to hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, herbides, oxidized fats, sugars and stabilizers. In this episode we talk in detail about which of these things actually pass through the milk and how they can make their way into our system (and how certain individuals are more susceptible). Exposure to these components can trigger an auto-immune response.
Beyond that, lactose (milk sugar) and casein (protein found in milk) are common dietary irritants and allergens.
Make the best dairy choices you can by shopping at a local farmers’ market or health food store where you can get higher quality, less processed products (see below).
Practical Implementation:
Consider a 7-14 dairy elimination to assess how you feel without dairy.
Pay attention to how different types of dairy impact your digestion, skin health, energy levels, hunger, cravings, water retention, focus, immunity and more.
Minimize your exposure to hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals in dairy products by choosing products that are:
Hormone free (rbgh/rbst free)
Antibiotic free
Pesticide free
Grass fed/pasture-raised
Organic
Raw
Avoid other dietary irritants (gluten, phytates, etc) that increase your vulnerability to dietary toxins by increasing the permeability of your GI tract
Avoid highly processed dairy products especially those that are low fat or fat free
Limit your exposure to sweetened and flavored dairy products
In this episode we’re talking about how fruit today is VASTLY different from fruit even just 50 years ago. We’re talking about the changes in agriculture & how they impact our food. Then we dive into fructose, the sugar naturally found in fruit, and how it is the single most LIPOGENIC carbohydrate. What does that mean? It is most easily converted to fat when compared to ALL other carbohydrates. We discuss how fructose accelerates the aging process and what you can do about it.
The problem: Today I want to talk about fruit. It might seem like an odd choice because this certainly isn’t one of those nutritional big rocks that are either making people fat or preventing people from losing weight. However, I believe that the particular form of sugar within fruit, fructose, IS. So we’re going to talk about fruit and the sugar it contains, known as fructose. People have always viewed fruit as a healthy snack, but our fruit has changed. It hardly resembles the fruit our grandparents enjoyed – in flavor, size & nutrient composition – so IT has changed, but we haven’t changed our perspective. Not only that, but we have taken fructose, the powerful sweetener naturally found in fruit, and essentially used it for evil. Evil that is making us very sick and very unhealthy.
Our fruit has changed. It hardly resembles fruit from 50 years ago, nevermind 100 or 1,000 years ago!! In this episode we talk about the changes that have reduced the nutrient composition of our fruits including premature harvest, transportation, soil depletion, genetic modification and cross breeding. The end result is this: our fruit just doesn’t deliver as many nutrients as it used to. Now, it has much more water and much more sugar.
Fructose, the naturally occuring sugar found in fruit is now being used in almost all processed foods as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). HFCS is the #1 source of calories in the standard American diet! Ahhh! That’s horrifying!!! You can find it in soda, cookies, soup, yogurt, salad dressings, bread, cereals, protein shakes & bars, ketchup, bacon, peanut butter, mustard, beer….the list goes on and on. If you’re eating processed foods, you can’t escape HFCS.
The solution & the facts:
Fructose is THE MOST lipogenic carbohydrate. In plain English: when compared to allllll other carbohydrates, fructose is the most easily and readily converted to fat.
Fructose encourages muscle and fat cells to become insulin resistant. Remember that insulin dictates fat storage/fat release.
Fructose is 20-30x more glycating than glucose. What does this mean? We explain it in detail in the episode, but essentially, it accelerates the aging progress, leads to fine lines and wrinkles & impairs blood flow.
Fructose does not trigger satiety signals.
You’ve got to be very, very aware of all the places you’re introducing HFCS into your diet and start to eliminate it. You don’t need to eliminate fruit, but also don’t view it as this holy grail of health & fitness. It’s not.
Practical Implementation:
Choose locally grown, seasonal, organic fruits
Treat fruit as it is – a carbohydrate. For maximum fat loss, limit your consumption of fruit to your dinner time meal or post workout
Read labels. Look for HFCS in unexpected places like processed meats, condiments & protein bars
Limit or eliminate processed foods. THIS IS CRITICAL for health & fat loss.
Resources:
For detailed information on carbohydrate strategies for fat loss including more on fruit, wheat, oats, gluten plus strategies for improving your carbohydrate tolerance, check out the comprehensive carbs & fat loss ecourse! Follow the link below and use the coupon code Primal10 to get lifetime access for only $69 (including troubleshooting help from me on demand!) https://www.udemy.com/carb-strategies/?couponCode=Primal10
I get a ton of questions about gluten and weight loss. I wrote about it here but I felt like I needed to take a deeper dive and consider not just the fat loss implications but also the overall health implications. I could sum it up pretty simply: we don’t need to eat gluten. It isn’t providing any nutritive value that we can’t get from other foods that don’t carry the same potential adverse health effects. With that said, there are a lot of tasty foods that contain gluten and many people don’t want to miss out on things like bread and pasta unless they really have to. I get it. I really do. And if ever make my way back to Italy I certainly won’t skip the pasta out of fear of gluten. But….we need to understand the risks. We need to understand what gluten is, what it does in the body, the potential health risks and how gluten impacts our ability to burn fat and reach our health goals.
If I were to take it only a little bit further and make a recommendation without diving into the nuts and bolts of gluten, digestion, & inflammation, I would say this: your body holds the answer to what you should do about gluten. Your body is the most powerful resource there is. Not science, not blogs, not expert opinions, just your body. Some of you might already know that you have an adverse reaction to gluten. You might experience bloating, fatigue, acne or joint pain when you consume gluten. For you, it’s a no brainer. Avoid it. But for others, you might not know if gluten is a problem for you. Maybe you’ve lived for so long with chronic fatigue that you just think it’s your body’s standard operating procedure. Or maybe that eczema you’ve had just seems like your lot in life and you have no idea that it’s actually tied to your dietary habits. There’s no harm in eliminating gluten for 1-2 weeks and monitoring how you feel. That will provide you with every answer you need and will prove to be far more valuable than anything I could write here or any research you could find. Pay attention to how the elimination impacts your hunger, cravings, mood, bloating, body weight, fat loss, skin health, respiratory health, focus, attention span….Just start paying attention. If you feel a lot better then there is your answer. You don’t need to add it back in. If you aren’t really sure, slowly add in a small amount and monitor how you feel. Assess any changes. That is really the most impactful way to assess your own body and what is best for you. The only information that matters is the information your body will provide you.
I feel like I would be doing you a disservice if I didn’t say that just because you don’t feel symptoms of gluten sensitivity doesn’t mean that you aren’t gluten sensitive and doesn’t mean that gluten isn’t potentially causing a problem within your body. Gluten could create a problem that you just can’t feel yet. Here’s a good example: There’s been a lot of research demonstrating that consuming gluten increases the presence of an enzyme called “zonulin”. Zonulin is in charge of your intenstinal permeability – determining what is allowed to pass through your intestinal walls. Now, if something gets through that isn’t supposed to, that can be bad news for your health. Your body can launch a counter attack, identifying that foreign substance and creating an immune response to annihilate it. Elevated levels of zonulin are associated with higher incidences of auto-immune diseases – diseases of the immune system that can potentially originate from excessive intensintal permeability – stuff getting through that shouldn’t. It might take years for you to feel that or experience those impacts.
Gluten consumption can also decrease blood flow to areas of your brain – specficially to the frontal and prefrontal cortex – parts of the brain that allow you to focus, manage emotions, plan/organize, and understand the consequences of your actions. It’s this particular mechanism – this impaired blood flow to the brain – that is the focus of a lot of research on why people with autism or ADHD often see major improvements when they remove gluten from their diets. (By the way, next time I do something stupid or that I regret I might totally blame it on gluten….just saying…it’s worth a shot?)
So what is gluten and where is it? Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barely, rye and other grains. So essentially, it is a protein found in many carbohydrates and almost all processed foods. Due to modern food processing, it’s also in most oat products. Knowing how widespread gluten is, you might be wondering why it seems like gluten is “all of a sudden” a problem. Well, its really just about how much more gluten we’re exposed to over the last 20 or so years with the advent and infiltration of processed foods. Gluten is in almost all processed foods and those are a staple in the standard American diet. It didn’t use to be that way. Our exposure and consumption are through the roof!!!
If you want to cut way back on gluten, the simplest way to do that is by avoiding wheat products & processed foods. That right there will drastically cut your intake. Completely removing gluten takes a lot more work. Gluten is in so many things these days! Seriously! Gluten is in salad dressings, soups, beer, grain alcohols, ketchup, sauces, spice mixes, processed meat & sausages, cosmetics…the list goes on! If it’s not a fruit, vegetable, non-processed meat or raw dairy product, you might as well assume it contains gluten unless specifically labeled “gluten-free”. A quick note about “gluten free” snack foods like cookies, chips, crackers and brownies: Gluten free junk food is still junk food. Just because it is labeled “gluten free” doesn’t magically make it good for you. Treats are treats, gluten free or not, and should be limited. I know, I know, that makes it really hard to eliminate. However, if you’re following primal diet principles – eating primarily meat, seafood, poultry, game-meats, fruits and vegetables, you’ll avoid it pretty easily. You can try to do this for a couple of weeks and closely monitor how you feel and what kind of progress you make towards your fat loss goals.
Remember – there is no nutritional advantage to eating gluten. The fiber, vitamins and minerals can be easily obtained via fruits and vegetables. That is now, however, an argument for going gluten-free. The best way to make that decision is by paying close attention to how gluten impacts YOUR health and YOUR body.
For detailed information on carbohydrate strategies for fat loss including more on fruit, wheat, oats, gluten plus strategies for improving your carbohydrate tolerance, check out the comprehensive carbs & fat loss ecourse! Follow the link below and use the coupon code Primal10 to get lifetime access for only $69 (including troubleshooting help from me on demand!) https://www.udemy.com/carb-strategies/?couponCode=Primal10
It is not just about the QUANTITY of your sleep. The QUALITY of your sleep might be preventing your weight loss. That’s right; when we don’t get into those deepest stages of sleep we are making weight loss an uphill battle. We talk about how sleep deprivation leads to insulin resistance and how stress, light exposure, food & exercise can impair our ability to get good, quality sleep. We also go through concrete steps you can take TODAY to allow your body to get into those deeper phases of sleep.
The problem: We aren’t getting enough total sleep but, more importantly, we aren’t getting quality sleep. Our diet & lifestyle habits are preventing us from getting deep, healing, restorative sleep. A lack of this deep, restorative sleep leads to major hormonal imbalances, hunger, cravings, lack of satiety, mood swings, depression, fat storage and more.
Even mild, short term sleep deprivation creates MAJOR insulin resistance, keeping your body in fat-storing mode and out of fat-burning mode for longer.
The Solution: Understand how your body is supposed to work. Understand your natural cycles of cortisol and melatonin and how diet and lifestyle choices are throwing that off and preventing your body from getting deep sleep, regardless of the quantity of sleep you’re getting. Our cortisol levels naturally peak in the morning to help us wake up and be ready to tackle the day. Melatonin, the sleep & relaxation hormone, peaks at night helping us to rest, fall asleep and get into these deep stages of sleep. However, we mess up this balance, suppressing melatonin at night and elevating cortisol. While we might be able to fall asleep, this keeps us from getting restorative sleep that we need. Here are some of the things that suppress melatonin or elevate cortisol:
Exposure to light, especially blue light from TVs, tablets and cell phones, suppresses melatonin
Late night eating elevates cortisol
Chronic stress elevates cortisol
Chronic consumption of sugar and processed foods elevates cortisol (remember, everytime we elevate cortisol we are suppressing melatonin)
Practical Implementation:
Minimize blue light exposure once the sun goes down
Consider downloading the free software f.lux
Consider orange-light glasses
Exposure yourself to natural light during the day time and avoid excess light once the sun goes down
Get blackout curtains and cover all sources of light in your bedroom – the photoreceptors in your skin can sense the light and this will supress melatonin production
Don’t exercise within a couple hours of bedtime (this will increase cortisol and suppress melatonin)
Practice stress management techniques such as meditation or leisure walking
Control your blood sugar. Limit or eliminate processed foods
Stop eating within a couple hours of bedtime
Lower the temperature in your bedroom by a couple of degrees (the ideal temp for sleeping is 60-68 degrees. Wear socks.)
Limit your caffeine after lunch time. Caffeine will elevate cortisol and suppress melatonin
For more on hormones and fat loss, check out the Primal Potential Fat Loss ebook Research:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22850476
http://www.jneurosci.org/content/21/16/6405.long
http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1379773
