Gluten Free Diet: Pros and Cons

Within ten minutes of turning on the T.V. or walking in to the grocery store, customers are bombarded with advertisements for gluten free diets, and gluten free diets. Todays society is so focused on the new trend of the day, that they don’t care what it is, they are just willing to hop on board because they read an article, a friend told them about it or they saw a ‘doctor’ say something about it on T.V. In This world of amazing technology, where one literally only has to push a button on their phone and ask a question, so many people are willing to blindly fallow what ever the new trend is, even if it is detrimental to their health. The world constantly needs something to live in fear of, and Gluten is the new evil. A life living in abstinence of gluten can be a good thing, but only if done properly and for the right reason. So many people out there today are miss informed and believe that gluten is bad for the body. This is nothing new, it happens every few years ago. First fats were evil, than they were good and starch was evil, now not all starch is evil, just gluten. Certainly, somewhere in they next five to ten years, the populace will look back, shake their heads and ask themselves what they were doing. A gluten free diet is the path that some among us must take, but only those that fall under the umbrella of gluten intolerance and all that it covers.
Gluten intolerance encompasses a myriad of disorders, including wheat allergy and celiac disease from which the body has an adverse reaction to gluten. Symptoms include bloating, abdominal discomfort or pain, diarrhea, muscular disturbances and bone or joint pain. Coeliac disease is an autoimmune disorder that occurs in genetically predisposed individuals subsequent to the inclusion of gluten in the diet. The resultant inflammatory response in the intestine generally results in villous atrophy, autoantibody production and systemic effects. Some individuals experience gastrointestinal symptoms, whereas

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