Lot's Wife Edition 1 2016

SCIENCE
amounts can be enough to bring on symptoms like
nausea, vomiting, skin rashes, and mouth ulcers.
Continuing to eat gluten-containing products can
further inflame the small intestine, stopping it from
absorbing nutrients from anything else you eat,
which can lead to nutrient deficiencies like anaemia.
Not a coeliac?
If you don’t have coeliac disease, but bread
makes you bloat, it may not be gluten at all.
According to a study published in Gastroenterology
in 2013, the true culprit may be FODMAPs
(Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides,
Monosaccharides and Polyols). These little guys are
a group of simple carbs found in a number of foods,
like wheat, milk, onions and garlic. FODMAPs can
either ferment in your large intestine, making you
bloat, or pull water into your bowels, which can make
things move a little faster than you’d probably like.
The researchers behind the paper studied 37
participants who displayed irritable bowel syndrome
symptoms (constipation, gas and diarrhoea,)
and believed gluten to be the cause of them. The
subjects were placed on a low-FODMAP diet for 2
weeks, then placed on either a high-gluten, lowgluten
or placebo (no gluten) diet for one week to
give any possible symptoms a chance to develop.
After the first two weeks, symptoms decreased
for everyone involved. They then got worse for all
participants in that final week, regardless of what
diet they were on.
While this study shows great results for a
low-FODMAP diet, and takes the blame off gluten,
it should be treated as nutrition ‘breakthroughs’ in
general should - with a healthy dose of scepticism.
Due to the small sample size and the fact that it
can be difficult to control for every possible variable
(like participants’ stress levels, or how much they
exercise) it can be hard to establish any sort of
causal relationship.
So, gluten’s not all bad. But is it actually any
good? Gluten in itself is almost pure protein, hence
its occasional use as an imitation meat. However, it
lacks the vitamins and minerals that meat, fish and
legumes can provide. So, it’s pretty good if all you’re
interested in is adding to your gains, but if you’re
looking for meat substitutes for every day, it won’t
give your body what it needs.
GLUTEN-FREE FOODS
Foods that are naturally gluten-free include
potatoes, rice, corn, fresh meats, fruits and
vegetables. These may or may not be labelled glutenfree
on the supermarket shelf, but they naturally
contain no gluten and are safe for a coeliac to eat.
Supermarkets are now full of gluten-free
versions of packaged foods, like instant noodles,
pizzas and biscuits. It’s easy enough to believe that
these are better for you than their gluten-containing
alternatives, since they can be found in the health
foods aisle of your supermarket, and their packaging
is littered with tick motifs (so officially healthy!),
pictures of leaves (so close to nature!) and phrases
like ‘naturally good’ or ‘superfood’ (so utterly
meaningless!).
These health claims don’t amount to much,
and unless you’re a coeliac or allergic to wheat,
a product’s gluten-free labelling is no indication
that it’s any good for you. A chocolate muffin is a
chocolate muffin, whether it contains gluten or not.
All in all, whether it’s being demonised or
fiercely defended, gluten is even more overrated
than The Great Gatsby. So, if you aren’t a coeliac
sufferer, and you heed your grandmother’s advice
about eating well (Eat more vegetables. Don’t put
something in your mouth if you can’t pronounce it.
Drink plenty of water. Sriracha can make anything
taste good), then neither the presence nor absence
of gluten in your diet will do you any real nutritional
harm. By the time biology and chemistry have
caught up with researching the food crazes we’re all
about now, the foodie universe will have moved on
from gluten anyway. We’ll probably all be losing our
minds over the weight-loss benefits of a completely
chemical-free diet by then.
42 | Lot’s Wife