Does Gluten-Free Equal Healthy???

As many of you may have noticed, there is a gluten-free movement going on.  It is now common to see gluten-free signs in grocery stores, entire gluten-free sections, and foods labeled gluten-free.

When I was in my 20's, I went off of wheat for a few years (all wheat products, including white flour).  It helped me tremendously with the chronic migraines that I had.  I had to make many of my wheat-free foods at home, things like muffins, bread and pancakes.  Then  "wheat-free" became much more popular and I watched as more and more wheat-free packaged foods hit the market.

Now the gluten-free trend has replaced the wheat-free movement.  Many grains contain gluten, including barley, wheat, rye, spelt, kamut and oats that are contaminated with wheat either during growing or processing, and triticale.  The gluten-free grains include amaranth, quinoa, rice, millet, corn, teff, and gluten-free oats (as long as they are from a company that offers uncontaminated oats). 

I personally know several people who can not have gluten in their diet because they have Celiac Sprue Disease.  They monitor it very closely and make much of their food from scratch to ensure that it is "clean".   They have had health problems greatly alleviated or completely erased from living a completely gluten-free life!

One thing that I have noticed, however, is that gluten-free appears to be a diet trend at the moment, weight-loss being the primary motivator in many cases.  While I support people being a healthy weight, I have a few suggestions to offer to those that may be new at this.  There are many packaged "gluten-free" foods, that while they may be free of gluten, they are extremely high in calories and containe high glycemic ingredients, such as potato and rice starch.  Such ingredients are used to bind the gluten-free grains and give it a lighter texture, however they are very high on the glycemic index (GI) and the carbohydrates are of a poor quality.

A highly recommended alternative is to avoid consuming processed high GI foods and stick to a whole foods diet.  Use healthy, low GI ingredients such as brown rice flour, garbanzo bean flour, tapioca flour, coconut flour, sweet potatoes, amaranth and quinoa flours, and uncontaminated oats. 

As far as pasta is concerned, let me tell you it has come a long way!  The gluten-free pastas available now are delicious!  My favorite brand is Tinkyada, made from brown rice (I opt for brown rice pasta as opposed to white rice pasta, which is much higher on the GI index).  The pasta holds up amazingly well, whether using it for hot dishes such as spaghetti, or for cold dishes such as pasta salad.

Please feel free to send me any gluten-free recipes that you have tried and would like to share!  I'm especially interested in low-glycemic ingredients (as mentioned above).  I will be starting a section here in my blog specifically for these recipes, including some that I have in my collection!