If wheat-based products are so bad for you, what are you supposed to eat?
Many naturopathic doctors recommend that you eliminate gluten from your diet to improve your general health. Even though eliminating gluten is in principle a good idea, the results can be good or bad depending on how you go about it.
Should you switch to gluten-free products?
There are many products currently available in grocery and health food stores that are advertised as being gluten free. If you’re trying to eliminate gluten from your diet, these products seem to be a natural and logical choice.
The problem with many of these products is that they can raise your blood sugar even more than gluten-containing products do even though they may resolve some of the digestive issues that gluten can cause. For this reason, they can contribute even more to the global obesity epidemic and its comorbidities, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure, than wheat-based products do.
These gluten-free products have replaced wheat flour with starches, which don’t contain gluten. The types of starches that you should avoid when looking for gluten-free products are
- Cornstarch
- Tapioca starch
- Rice starch
- Potato starch
So, what should you eat instead?
The Healthy Way To Go Gluten Free
If you’re trying to eliminate gluten from your diet, the best thing to do is focus on what you can eat instead of on what you can’t eat. Think of all the foods you already eat that don’t contain gluten and simply eat more of them in place of wheat-based products.
The best foods to replace gluten and wheat-based products that you can eat in unlimited amounts are:
- Vegetables
- Nuts and seeds
- Meat and eggs
- Cheese
- Healthy oils, such as flaxseed and fish oil
- Sugar-free condiments
The following foods may be eaten in limited amounts:
- Gluten-free grains, such as quinoa, sorghum, millet, amaranth, teff, rice, oats, and buckwheat
- Fruit and fruit juice
- Non-cheese dairy
- Whole corn
- Soy products
- Legumes
- Potatoes, yams, and sweet potatoes
- Dried fruit
Foods that should be eaten rarely or never are:
- Wheat products
- Unhealthy oils
- Gluten-free foods
- Sugar-laden foods
If you’re trying to eat less or no wheat and are finding it challenging, the Anti-inflammatory diet is the perfect option. It offers delicious recipes that are gluten free. Given all the other delicious options you can eat instead, you’ll never miss eating wheat-based products again.