Gluten-free banana bread with yogurt and berries

Today may be National Cookie Day, but as you’ve probably heard, more Americans are giving up foods with gluten (cookies are a chief offender), hoping to get healthier and maybe shed a few pounds in the bargain. A staple of the modern American diet, gluten is what gives stretch and buoyancy to bread. But it’s also used in numerous other products, including soy sauce, ice cream, ketchup, and mock meats. Avoiding gluten means not only giving up your daily bread, but a wide variety of foods that you’d probably never expect it to be used in. 

Only a few years ago leaving gluten out of your diet was something only hippies, yogis, and those with celiac disease did; these days, gluten-free products are pulling in annual sales of $6.3 billion. Health benefits associated with such a diet are hotly contested (many medical experts believe it’s only those who are gluten-intolerant, or GI, such as people with celiac disease, that really need to avoid gluten), but one thing is certain: More people than ever are convinced that avoiding gluten leads to a healthier lifestyle. The latest example of gluten-free’s grip on America is the expo that took place in Utah last weekend and drew a reported 6,000 people.

But does the science back up the craze for avoiding gluten for health reasons (assuming you’re not GI), or as an aid to weight loss? William Davis, M.D. is a firm believer that giving up gluten can make it a whole lot easier to lose weight. The Milwaukee-based cardiologist and author of Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health (Rodale) says that cutting wheat out of your diet can result in a “flat abdomen, rapid weight loss, high energy and less mood swings,” among other benefits. Yet he also warned me of a potential pitfall among those seeking out that gluten-free label: “Sadly, the gluten-free industry is based on yet another blunder: Replace wheat gluten with cornstarch, tapioca starch, rice starch, and potato starch,” he said. “These starches increase blood sugar higher than even wheat flour. Blood sugars are provoked to high levels that are associated with cartilage destruction (leading to arthritis), cataracts, visceral fat accumulation, and diabetes. We don’t want to trade one problem (wheat) for another problem (gluten-free foods).” Gluten-Free Girl blogger Shauna James Ahern warns of similar dangers: Rice and tapioca flours and potato starches lack nutrients but consist of carbs that are rapidly digested — a hindrance to weight loss.

Davis says that gluten isn’t the only ingredient in bread that can sabotage your weight-loss efforts. There’s another culprit in wheat, amylopectin A. “Two slices of whole-wheat bread increases blood sugar higher than six teaspoons of table sugar or a Snickers bar,” asserts Davis. His anecdotal evidence with patients who have given up wheat show, he says, “rapid and substantial weight loss, even if they don’t limit calories, fat grams, or portion size.” He believes that wheat is the only food that “creates the odd situation in which the food that causes an individual’s health condition, such as celiac disease, also causes abnormal cravings for the culprit food.” Anyone who has an emotional attachment to bread — like myself, for years, even while dealing with gastro-intestinal issues — knows this conundrum well. 

What to do? Frank Lipman, M.D., founder and director of New York City’s Eleven-Eleven Wellness Center, suggests giving up all gluten products for two to four weeks to see how your body feels. He writes that the majority of his patients who do so experience increased energy, better well-being overall, and are able to work out longer, all factors that lead to weight loss. Lipman points to the fact, too, that American gluten is more potent than European gluten, due to the crossbreeding of wheat varieties in order to bulk up bagels and bread.

Tell  Us: Have you tried a gluten-free diet? What was the result? 

—Derek Beres, Women’s Health Reporter

Photo courtesy of flickr user avlxyz