If you have an autoimmune disease  (Hashimoto’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, …) than you should avoid gluten because it increases your inflammation. Even if you don’t have an autoimmune condition, gluten is a heavy, sugar-like globule that has many other deleterious health effects for people who are otherwise not celiac or gluten intolerant. For example, it can increase estrogen in men and testosterone in women to unhealthy levels. Even if you are healthy today, eating gluten can still be harmful to your health, as it has been linked to more than 55 diseases.

Gluten is a protein naturally found in certain grains. The problem is that in our modern world it is now everywhere! Not only in pastas, deserts and breads, but it is also used as a filler in medications and supplements, in meat substitutes, products like toothpaste and shampoos and sometimes it can be found in grains that are marked as gluten free because they have been cross-contaminated. Therefore our modern diet is not the same as your grandparents.

Scientists have developed new hybrid strains of wheat that contain completely new forms of gluten which were not found in the original plants. They did it in order to create fluffier pastries as gluten makes a Safeway glazed donut gooey, tasty and addictive. On one hand it can be wonderful to eat but long term it is a real trap for the body to consume.  

So, this ubiquitous protein causes problems with your blood sugar, immune system and your gut. Gluten is like glue in the digestive track blocking the intestinal villi from doing their job moving food along through the intestines. For these and even more reasons, these days we see more inflammatory, digestive and autoimmune diseases.

There are 3 important reasons to give up gluten:

1. Gluten causes leaky gut. When you eat gluten it travels through your stomach and arrives in your small intestine. There it triggers the release of Zonulin which is a chemical that signals the tight junctions of your intestinal wall to open up creating leaky gut. When that happens your partially digested food particles, microbes, toxins and proteins are escaping into your bloodstream. This condition of leaky gut has been shown to be one of the preconditions for developing an autoimmune disease. Your body produces inflammation to get rid of all these dangerous “invaders” which leads us to point number two.

2. Gluten causes Inflammation. If you have an autoimmune disease, it means that your immune system began attacking your body’s own tissues. This happens over years. It is estimated that 1% of the population has Celiac disease and 1 in 30 people have a gluten sensitivity which means they get inflamed every time they eat gluten. Most of these people go undiagnosed, so they are fanning the flames without even knowing it. When your immune system is continuously creating inflammation in response to eating gluten you develop chronic inflammation. The only way to give your immune system the break, is to remove gluten entirely. Eating even small amounts of gluten can elevate your gluten antibodies for up to three months.

3. Gluten Looks like your own tissues.  Gluten poses a serious risk for those people with autoimmunity because of molecular mimicry, which is a dangerous case of mistaken identity. Every time your body is exposed to an invader (gluten), your immune system memorizes its structure so it can recognize it is the future and defend against it. Unfortunately, the immune system’s recognition system isn’t perfect. As long as a molecule’s structure is similar enough, the immune system registers it as an invader and attacks. Gluten is structurally similar to a number of your body’s tissues, particularly your thyroid. There are also other food proteins, like casein in dairy that have a similar molecular structure to gluten. Because of this molecular similarity, when you eat dairy your body can get confused and trigger an immune system reaction.

So whether you have an autoimmune disease, are gluten sensitive or just want a cleaner diet there are plenty of reasons to avoid or at least reduce gluten. You will feel healthier, lose the unwanted few pounds you always wanted to and have an abundance of energy.