Let’s start with a simple question: when is the last time you felt bloated? If you’re answer is anything but, “What does bloated even feel like?”, then you may need to re-examine what you are eating. Bloating is just one common sign that your body is not happy about what it has eaten, and it can be a quick and useful tool for guiding our eating choices. Other indications that your diet is not in line with your body’s requirements are constipation, heartburn, general aching in your joints, acne, migraines, and more. While not all of these have the same root cause, they all can many times be traced back to poor eating habits.
While bloating may not seem like a big deal, it can actually be a sign that your body is on the road to much more serious concerns. Bloating is an indication that your intestines are not happy. Your intestines are some of the most important organs in the body because they are responsible for absorbing good nutrients and blocking toxins. If they are damaged or irritated, the rest of your body cannot function at 100%, and will eventually start breaking down.
So what does all of this have to do with gluten?? For that matter, what IS gluten?? Let’s see why this common protein may be causing more issue than you realize.
What is gluten?
Gluten is a protein found in some grains, especially wheat. Technically, “gluten” is a term applied to the combination of two specific proteins called gliadins and glutenins that are found in wheat.
“Gluten” has also been used generically to refer to the protein mixtures found in other cereal grains including wheat, barley, bulgur, rye, spelt, oats, kamut, and more. As for the rest of grains (rice, corn, quinoa, millet, etc.), while their proteins are not referred to as “gluten”, some people have been shown to have similar negative reactions to the comparable proteins.
Why should you care?
Gluten intolerance is the most common food related-disease of the intestine. About 15% of the US population has been diagnosed with gluten intolerance, but with many undiagnosed, and even more that are sensitive to gluten, the number of people that should be avoiding gluten is much higher.
Gluten intolerance, also known as Celiac disease, is much more severe than gluten sensitivity, in which gluten triggers an immune response in gluten-intolerant people.
For those people with gluten-intolerance, eating something with gluten results in the body working to fighting what it sees as a foreign invader, much like a germ. White cells recognize the gluten particles and destroy them. When the white cells are overwhelmed, however, systemic inflammation results.
It all comes back to bloating
Initially, gluten intolerance or sensitivity can manifest as diarrhea, bloating, flatulence, uncomfortable stools, and malnutrition. Other inflammatory symptoms can also result which we will talk about more later. For a person who is intolerant, regularly consuming gluten will result in long-term damage, including intestinal scarring and nutrient malabsorption. Chronic inflammation can atrophy and flatten the intestinal lining, which impairs digestion. Gluten and other inflammatory proteins can weaken the intestinal wall by opening tight junctions.
When the intestinal lining is compromised, food particles that would normally be broken down more or blocked from absorption completely are able to cross the intestinal barrier and enter the bloodstream. This causes the body to fight back against these foreign invaders meaning that the immune system is on full alert.
This is not good. As we said before, your intestine determines what gets in and what doesn’t, but when the lining breaks down, your body will go into an all-out attack to resolve the situation. The problem is that if you continue to eat gut-damaging foods, your body will be putting all of it’s resources into fixing the gut, and will have nothing left over to keep the rest of your body safe.
While this is much more pronounced in gluten-intolerant indiviuals, having a sensitivity to gluten can still lead to some of these issues, worsening with repeated exposure.
What are the signs or intolerance/sensitivity?
Because these processes can trigger widespread effects throughout the body, it can often be challenging to figure out exactly what is going on. Digestive upset is one of the most common and obvious symptoms; this can include heartburn, bloating, gas, abdominal pain, constipation, and diarrhea.
In addition, there can be other symptoms that we may not always think would be in connection to our diets. However, if we understand that gluten can lead to a wide-ranging systemic inflammatory response, then this broad range of symptoms makes more sense.
Other symptoms include weight gain, nutritional deficiencies due to malabsorbtion, aching joints, depression, anxiety, irritability, headaches, chronic fatigue, infertility, cramps, slow child growth, poor dental health, asthma, allergies, and food cravings.
If you think you might be experiencing some of these symptoms, it might be a good idea to examine what you are eating. If you tend to eat a lot of gluten-containing items (or grains in general) I would highly recommend that you try cutting them from your diet. The worst thing that could happen is that you would need to learn some new recipes, but I would guess that there would be a least a few positive benefits. When it comes down to it, grain proteins are not easy for our digestive systems to handle, and more often than not, they cause issues.
There have even been special cases in which a gluten-free diet has helped in reducing autism, schizophrenia, rheumatoid arthritis, dementia, and a number of auto-immune disorders. More research is needed, but when you understand the overarching influence that gut damage has on the body, it is not surprising that so many things can be positively affected once those irritants are removed from one’s diet.
How to cut it out?
Now that’s the hard part! Gluten is everywhere because wheat and wheat derivatives are so common in our food. Besides removing grains, specifically wheat, you should also look out for the following: modified food starch, MSG, emulsifiers, soy sauce, some medications and supplements (read the labels for ingredients), and most processed foods. Many times you have to really investigate packaged food products and pre-made meals to know if there are wheat derivatives or gluten containing items in them. It can be hard, but the health concerns are serious too.
All in all, if you just cut out the most common wheat-filled items (bread, pasta, beer, pizza, crackers, cookies, bagels, etc), you could make a HUGE difference in your health. If you notice, many things that have gluten also have a bunch of sugar! So you would be doing a doubly good thing for your health, and trust me, your body will thank you for it.
