Gluten Free Diet- Will You Benefit Even If You Are Not Intolerant

Much has been written about the gluten free diet in recent years, but the information does tend to be heavily weighted in favour of those people that are intolerant. While this is understandable, there are a growing number of people that are switching to a gluten free diet even though they do not have an issue. You, therefore, need to ask yourself why this is the case and to do that we must look at the impact that gluten can have on our body.

What is gluten?

First, we need to talk about gluten itself as most have heard about it, but few actually know what it is. Gluten is actually a protein composite that you find in both wheat and other closely related types of grain. Basically, it acts like a glue that has the purpose of helping food to really keep its shape and helps the dough to rise. The problem is that gluten is in so many different foods that it can be quite difficult trying to completely eliminate it from your diet. This is especially difficult when you are intolerant to it as this health issue can actually result in you feeling very ill indeed.

Intolerance and the symptoms.

Gluten intolerance means that your body is having an issue with the gluten protein. The small intestine can become inflamed and actually destroyed due to this allergic reaction leading to potentially a whole host of health issues. The extent of the problem can vary a great deal as some people may only suffer from a slight issue where they are merely uncomfortable, but sadly others can suffer greatly and require extensive treatment.

The symptoms associated with gluten intolerance are pretty easy to spot. They mainly surround the abdomen, so you can have abdominal pain, gastrointestinal issues, diarrhea, flatulence, bloating, feeling as if you could vomit, extreme fatigue, and a number of other things. Clearly this is going to be extremely uncomfortable for most people and you can understand why people then switch to a gluten free diet to prevent these symptoms from developing in the first place. It is also known that gluten intolerance can affect you mentally as well since some people can develop changes in mood and the ability to concentrate for any recognisable period of time.

In other words, gluten can have an impact on your health in a number of ways and it can be pretty disabling if you continue to eat it on a regular basis.

The effect gluten has on your body even when not intolerant.

While you may not suffer from the various uncomfortable symptoms as described above, your body is still going to have some kind of reaction to gluten as it is a protein and it is entirely natural for something to happen. It requires our body to expel energy to break it down and to use the apparent goodness that is in it. It can still be the case that it can make you feel slightly bloated and you may also have an issue with flatulence, but not enough for it to be seen as a problem.

It also makes sense that you could improve mentally without having gluten in your diet. This mental fog could be lifted, you will not feel so mentally exhausted either and it is clear how your life could improve in so many ways just by removing this one thing from your diet.

Sports people are adopting a gluten free diet.

A rather interesting sidenote is that there are a number of sports people that have eliminated gluten from their diet and are apparently reaping the rewards. One of the sports that have seen this happening in is tennis and the top players report that they have a feeling of more energy and stamina with the ability to play harder and for longer. This is clearly linked to the way in which gluten can result in fatigue for some people, so if sports stars are benefitting from a gluten free diet, then surely you could as well?

Where do you go now?

So what happens now? Well, the first thing that you might want to do is to have yourself checked out just to see if you are intolerant and are not even aware of it. You should also spend some time actually learning more about a gluten free diet and the kind of food that you can eat. Luckily there are now more gluten free options out there, so life is certainly a lot easier.

The best course of action for you to take is to give yourself a few weeks to see how you feel without gluten and make a note of any changes to your health over those weeks. If there is a positive difference, then stick with it because if you feel that you have more energy and are mentally sharper, then perhaps gluten is not for you.