The scientific world has bombarded us with a wide range of opinions (all supported by apparently sound experimental evidence) about whether Gluten is good or bad for us. Most of those have focused on the ‘yes or no’ question. But the real answer may lie somewhere in between…
The family of Gluten-free foods just naturally includes many high-fibre
Veggies and Fruits. The high-Gluten foods mainly encompass
the Bread Family. It just makes sense to go high-fibre!
Some folks insist that gluten is not a problem, dietarily, for most of us – the vast majority who don’t have allergies or sensitivities to it. In fact, they note, our ancestors always had the stuff in their diets, and we’ve evolved to not only tolerate it, but to need it to maintain good health. The other camp holds that we should all eschew Gluten, whether we have an allergy or not, because it’s fundamentally unhealthy.
Now, a team of international investigators at the University of Copenhagen Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences has explored the merits of a middle ground position…
What they did…
The researchers chose a group of typical Danish test subjects and fed them Gluten-controlled diets over several weeks to determine how they reacted. Subjects spent two weeks on both a high-Gluten diet and a low-Gluten diet, separated by six weeks of resting on a ‘normal’ diet, containing the average amount of Gluten.
The two diets were balanced in number of calories and nutrients including the same amount of dietary fibres. However, the composition of fibres differed markedly between the two diets.
What they found…
“We demonstrate[d] that, in comparison with a high-gluten diet, a low-gluten, fibre-rich diet induces changes in the structure and function of the complex intestinal ecosystem of bacteria, reduces hydrogen exhalation, and leads to improvements in self-reported bloating. Moreover, we observed a modest weight loss, likely due to increased body combustion triggered by the altered gut bacterial functions,” explains the Lead Investigator of the trial, Professor Oluf Pedersen.
In fact, it appears that the fibre-rich component of the recommended diet may be more important than the low-Gluten aspect. And it’s not the fibre level that makes he difference but the type of fibre in each diet. Researchers found that the fibre component in the low gluten diet came mainly from Vegetables, Fruits and Whole Grains while the fibre component in the high gluten diet came mainly from Wheat and Rye.
The takeaway…
A low-gluten diet has previously been proposed to diminish gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases and irritable bowel syndrome, disorders which occur in up to 20 percent of the general Western population.
The present study suggests that even some healthy individuals may prefer a low-gluten diet to combat intestinal discomfort or excess body weight. But more studies are needed to determine what, if any changes may be advantageous to official dietary recommendations.
“Especially, because we find dietary fibres — not the absence of gluten alone — to be the primary cause of the changes in intestinal discomfort and body weight. By now we think that our study is a wake-up call to the food industry. Gluten-free may not necessarily be the healthy choice many people think it is. Most gluten-free food items available on the market today are massively deprived of dietary fibers and natural nutritional ingredients,” Pedersen concludes.
My take…
In spite of the study’s initial focus on Gluten, it seems to have revealed that a little Gluten, at least, is not a Bad Thing, after all, and that the type of dietary fibre we consume may be more important to a healthy digestive tract and a more comfortable life. And this finding directly supports others in which the Mediterranean Diet and other high-Fruit and Veggie regimes have been rated healthier for their ‘good’ fibre content. We look forward to the results of those ‘further studies’…
~ Maggie J.