Good evening friends 🙂
Today I wanted to chat about gluten… something that you have probably heard about but not necessarily know what it is. So basically its a little protein that I previously used to just associate with pasta and bread. Well how wrong could I be! It seems to be in bloomin everything!
A couple of weeks ago I went ‘gluten free’. I think it probably took about 4 hours before I accidentally used soy sauce (which contains gluten) in a stir fry. Never mind the stock cube I wanted to put in my soup, the veggie sausages I wanted with my gravy and mash and of course I forgot that going gluten free would mean good bye office biscuits!!
So it was definitely harder then I thought it was going to be… apparently gluten (like sugar) is quite desirable to the old taste buds so food manufacturers do like to sneak it into foods that you wouldn’t expect it to be. In fact, once broken down in the stomach, the polypeptides can cross the blood- brain barrier and bind the the brains morphine receptor! No wonder a cheeky jam doughnut can give you such a high!
So why gluten free? I don’t really suffer from stomach issues so surel
y eating it is fine right??
Well it wasn’t until I started reading the ‘Grain Brain‘ book by David Perlmutter that I started to realise that the gut is not the only thing that can be affected by gluten. As many as 40% of us cant properly process gluten and because of this it can cause some issues with inflammation across the body and in the brain. Not only has gluten been linked with ADHD, anxiety and chronic headaches, but the case shared by Dr Perlmutter explains how this inflammation within the brain can lead to dementia.
So it’s not all doom and gloom and with most things, going gluten free is achievable though going back to the traditional caveman/ paleo type diet. Full of veg, nuts, seeds, meat and fruit.
I’m not going to lie… I have struggled with cutting gluten out completely but even being conscious of it’s effects have motivated me to make some healthier adaptations to my diet. As always, going back to basics with fresh/ unprocessed foods is a sure fire way to stay away from the sticky protein. Those cavemen did sure know a thing or two about what our body needs and if they got by without a crispy creme doughnut Im sure I can too 🙂
(I will just get by with making and scoffing a gluten free cake with almonds and coconut flour instead!!! haha)
