The Gluten Free World

Controlling an increase in carbohydrates....a not so healthy side effect!


Good Intentions

I got swept up in the emerging Gluten Free (GF) world, the camaraderie of all the blogs, the appreciation for alternatives....100s of recipes to make cakes, brownies and cookies without gluten! Pizza bases, pie crusts recipes and recommendations for commercially prepared bread and such!  For a while I got sucked in to this alternative universe where ground rice and xanthan gum are king!  You replace one type of flour with 10 different flours, and all GF recipes need a combination of at least 3 of them before you can create anything!

The overwhelming reason for such recipes is a good one - they are to protect our digestive tract and ensure good nutrient absorption, they help us recover, feel better and live well. But all this alternative flour testing and experimentation seems to be to the detriment of some basic nutrition.  Our quest to be free of gluten has clouded our basic nutritional values, we have GF goggles; we're willing to eat crap so long as it has no gluten.  Also, most GF foods concentrate on baked goods as if that is all we eat - we cannot possibly miss out on the fun of eating brownies, and cookies and sweets, oh my! We need our pizza, so there are 100s of recipes that provide a cardboard-like base for our toppings. And after a while we forget what the real version tasted like and settle into our new GF world. 

But wait....it's not a 1 to 1 flour exchange

GF flours generally have a high carbohydrate content (they have no gluten protein, well, duh!).  So many people, when they switch to a GF diet, inadvertently increase their carbohydrate intake (and decrease protein intake). There is also a psychological effect too, we tend to eat more baked (GF) products because we've been told the world of baked goods is now forbidden. Poor me, I can't eat bread, or pasta or cookies.....I must make or buy mass quantities of the GF version. These counterfeit baked good are generally not as  nutritional as their gluten counterparts.

Those darn hormones

An increase in carbohydrates (read - high glycemic index food) in our diet will stimulate more frequent Insulin secretions that will cause our bodies to put all excess carbs in our bloodstream into fat storage for a rainy day!  If you're not exercising or literally starving when you eat carb-laden food, Insulin will be called upon to mop up the excess and put it into fat storage. We forget Insulin is a hormone that is involved in carbohydrate and fat metabolism.  You have to think of Insulin as a bad guy, you don't want to feed him too often, because if you do, another fat fairy gets her wings!  And as far as I'm concerned I have way too many fat fairies in my thighs already...I can see them fighting under the cellulite!

Don't get caught with selective amnesia! 

We completely forget about Glycemic Index when we're eating GF food.  We tell ourselves our guts are healing, our leaky guts are now able to take up nutrients, a little weight gain is to be expected.  We feel bad for our kids who can't eat the foods we ate as a kid, we feel bad for ourselves for being inflicted and deprived. 

Don't Feel bad!  Be Healthy!

• Be aware of sugars and carbohydrates in your food. Based on daily values for a 2000 calorie diet, we're supposed to eat around 300g of carbohydrates a day.  I aim for 100-150, if I want to lose some weight all I need to do is drop below 50g a day.
• Try to minimize rice-based flours and foods.  Try almond flour or coconut flour. Try quinoa pasta instead of brown rice pasta.
• Train your pallet to prefer less sugar.  You trained yourself to like GF food, you can modify your desire for sugar; start by using a 1/4 cup (instead of 1/3) in your next recipe.
• Introduce more non-baked goods into your diet.  What would you do if there were no GF substitutes? What snack would you eat instead?  A handful of nuts, a boiled egg, a piece of fruit?  
• Modify recipes to be naturally GF. Instead of deep-fried chile rellenos, try baking them naked (I mean without breading - please wear an apron)! Try quiche without a pie crust. Once you get the hang of using lettuce wraps you won't want buns for burgers or hot dogs!  
• Compare the number of sugars in similar products. Always buy the product with less sugar; 3 or 4 grams less sugar will add up over time. Nut flours have more calories than rice and grain flours, but they also have protein and will keep you feeling full longer so ultimately you eat less!
• Try and eat minimally proceed food.  Eat products that have few ingredients, do you really need a GF bread with 6 different flours. If you don't recognize an ingredient, don't buy the product!  

Look after yourself.  Don't get lost in the GF marketing buzz!