Monday, May 19, 2014

Gluten Free Frenzy

I'll speak for the greater Los Angeles area when I say that all things gluten free are taking over the food and nutrition world. Gluten free is everywhere. Bakeries have countless GF sweets, grocery stores have their GF products front and center, and in restaurants every other patron is asking for the GF menu choices. It's getting slightly out of control.
We know that true Celiac disease is no joking matter, but are most people demanding GF actually gluten sensitive? And on that note, do these GF patriots even know what gluten is???
Jimmy Kimmel hit the nail on the head with this one. You MUST watch this.
Jimmy Kimmel's Gluten Expose
I hope you laughed as hard as I did. 
For the record, gluten is composed of Glutenin and Gliadin, two proteins that are found in wheat flour. While we could argue that our diet is overly saturated with wheat products, at this time there is no solid research that proves gluten is "bad" for us. That being said, there are a lot of delicious grains (which just happen to be GF) that we should try to incorporate into our diets. Just like we eat many different fruits and veggies, why not eat many different grains?
Some GF grains include: amaranth, buckwheat, corn, millet, quinoa, rice, sorghum, and teff. Oats do not contain gluten proteins, but unless they are labeled GF, they are nearly always contaminated from equipment that also processes gluten products.