Why EVERYONE can benefit from breaking up with gluten

Ten years ago, when I was first diagnosed with celiac disease most people didn’t know about gluten or what a gluten-free diet was. Today we have supermarket sections dedicated to gluten-free products and restaurants offer gluten-free menus.

But are celiacs the only people who should be on a gluten-free diet? If I don’t have celiac then what’s the problem? People have been eating bread FOREVER.

Well, even if you don’t have celiac disease or a gluten intolerance, gluten can contribute to a leaky gut and a leaky gut can contribute to all sorts of health complications.

Thanks to the work of Dr. Alessio Fasano, we now know that gluten triggers the production of a substance known as zonulin which is a protein that regulates the tight junctions of the small intestine. When zonulin is released in the intestines, the tight junctions open slightly and allow larger particles to pass through the intestinal wall.

Once the gut lining is compromised (aka leaky gut) substances such as partially digested food leak into the bloodstream and cause inflammation. This causes your immune system to be on high alert which eventually can trigger an autoimmune reaction.  

A leaky gut is connected in autoimmune conditions & disorders such as:

• Inflammatory bowel disease (crohn’s & colitis)

• celiac disease

• food allergy

• rheumatoid arthirits

• eczema & psoriasis

• depression

• allergies & asthma

• multiple sclerosis

Today’s gluten is NOT the same gluten that our grandparents and their parents ate. I remember my grandmother Sabina making bread, the ingredients were simple, flour, yeast, water and salt.

The bread was dark and hardy, total opposite of today’s average bread loaf. When I read the ingredients of today’s “healthy whole grains” bread I often find several dozen ingredients, including sugar, preservatives and colors. Yikes!

Today’s modern wheat is very different from the wheat of our ancestors mostly due to the genetic manipulation and hybridization. Hybridization is the cross breeding of two genetically different varieties of wheat. Essentially making a brand-new type of gluten that has never existed before and therefore our bodies sometimes have trouble recognizing and digesting it.

In Dr. David Perlmutter’s book Grain Brain, he writes that while our genetic makeup and physiology haven’t changed much since the time of our ancestors, our food chain has had a rapid makeover during the past half century. Modern food manufacturing, including bioengineering and especially hybridization, has allowed us to grow wheat that contains gluten that’s less tolerable than the gluten found in grains cultivated just a few decades ago.  

There are many factors that can contribute to a leaky gut but gluten is the most common food sensitivity and is often times disregarded as a culprit to our health.  

You know yourself best and if you feel great and are happy with where your health is than keep doing what you’re doing! But if you’re experiencing fatigue, brain fog, skin irritation, joint pain or are just not feeling your best than breaking up with gluten may be of benefit to your health.