The Gluten-Free Diet A gluten-free diet, at its most basic, is a diet that excludes gluten and all foods that contain gluten, such as wheat, barley, rye, and triticale (a wheat-rye hybrid). The goal of such a diet is to reduce the inflammation that gluten causes in the digestive system of individuals with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity.
If you have a mild gluten sensitivity, you might be able to get away with a little exposure now and then, but for those with serious allergies or immune responses such as celiac disease, any amount of gluten carries an enormous health risk. The true gluten-free diet involves eliminating every speck of gluten from your diet— even the trace amounts that may be present due to cross-contamination …show more content…
The gluten-free diet, then, involves eliminating all foods that obviously contain gluten, such as commercially prepared bread, pasta, cereal, and many snack foods and processed foods. It also involves reading labels and snooping out hidden sources of gluten in foods typically not associated with grains, such as mustard, soy sauce, and chewing gum.
So standard breads, cakes, cookies, and other baked goods; standard soy sauce and tamari sauce as well as foods that contain them; most cereals, including many oat-based cereals; and anything containing any form of wheat, barley, rye, or trit- icale are all out of the diet.
Right about now, you may be thinking, “Wait, doesn’t that cover just about every- thing?” It’s true that the modern American diet relies heavily on wheat and other grains that contain gluten, but there are plenty of other types of delicious foods that are entirely gluten-free: Fresh vegetables and fruits, meat, fish, seafood, eggs, nuts, and seeds are all on the gluten-free menu. Plus, there are now loads
If you have a mild gluten sensitivity, you might be able to get away with a little exposure now and then, but for those with serious allergies or immune responses such as celiac disease, any amount of gluten carries an enormous health risk. The true gluten-free diet involves eliminating every speck of gluten from your diet— even the trace amounts that may be present due to cross-contamination …show more content…
The gluten-free diet, then, involves eliminating all foods that obviously contain gluten, such as commercially prepared bread, pasta, cereal, and many snack foods and processed foods. It also involves reading labels and snooping out hidden sources of gluten in foods typically not associated with grains, such as mustard, soy sauce, and chewing gum.
So standard breads, cakes, cookies, and other baked goods; standard soy sauce and tamari sauce as well as foods that contain them; most cereals, including many oat-based cereals; and anything containing any form of wheat, barley, rye, or trit- icale are all out of the diet.
Right about now, you may be thinking, “Wait, doesn’t that cover just about every- thing?” It’s true that the modern American diet relies heavily on wheat and other grains that contain gluten, but there are plenty of other types of delicious foods that are entirely gluten-free: Fresh vegetables and fruits, meat, fish, seafood, eggs, nuts, and seeds are all on the gluten-free menu. Plus, there are now loads