Gluten-free “craze” costs Canadians

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Some Canadians need to avoid gluten for health reasons, but others do not and still buy the more expensive gluten-free products in the misguided belief that they are more healthy.

“They think if they take the gluten out they’re going to be fit…sort of like a health food,” says Sandra Cohen Rose, a consultant dietitian and nutritionist. “They pick up a cake or a biscuit or a muffin which has four or five or six-hundred calories and just because it’s gluten-free they think it’s fine for them to eat. It’s full of sugar, it’s full of fat, and sodium. So they eat it and it’s not helping them at all because they’ve got all of the calories there.”

Gluten-free everywhere

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, tritcale and barley and it is used extensively in processed and packaged foods. It is the gluten in flour that helps baked goods bind and not crumble.

Food companies are creating more and more gluten-free products and marketing them as healthy. Competition has increased and prices are coming down. But gluten-free products are still more expensive than others.

Celiacs must avoid gluten

Celiac disease is a condition in which the small intestine is damaged by gluten causing symptoms like abdominal pain, gas, bloating, diarrhea and constipation. In severe cases it can lead to osteoporosis, anemia, sterility and even carcinoma.

Roughly 35,000 Canadians are diagnosed with celiac disease and another 300,000 are believed to have it but are undiagnosed. These people must avoid gluten.

Avoiding gluten problematic, nutritionist says

Others who avoid gluten may be missing out on the nutrition they would be getting from whole grains with gluten in them. They could get enough nutrition from eating a variety of fruit, vegetables and meat but Rose says many don’t because they are so focussed on finding gluten-free foods. She is also concerned that those on limited budgets may be spending too much on those special products.

People with serious health problem may think they can solve them by eating gluten-free when, in fact, they should be seeing a doctor to find out what’s really wrong, she says.

Hopes the “craze” will pass

“I would hope that this craze would pass,” says Rose, “and that we’d get back to looking at the total spectrum of foods that we could eat and just enjoy them because it’s a lot of work looking for gluten-free foods everywhere and then, when you go out to see your friends (you say) ‘Oh I can’t eat this’ and ‘I can’t eat that because it might have gluten in it.’”