How To Lose Weight Following The Gluten Free Diet
If you have bought a health magazine in recent days, you are likely to hear the buzz that the gluten free diet and products promote weight loss. Well, I found it quite helpful in my case.
Following a gluten free diet can be really overwhelming at the beginning, since it may seem a big challenge to recreate your favourite dishes into gluten free versions. But the results are those that’ll make you keep following it.
The gluten free diet is the recent trend and it is getting a huge response from gym rats and dieticians. However, now the burning question is –
Will Gluten Free Diet Help To Lose Weight?
Gluten is basically a protein found in barley, wheat and rye. A gluten free diet should be devoid of all these food items.
According to the reports of National Foundation For Celiac Awareness (NFCA), about 2 million people across the globe suffer from a celiac disease, which is a digestive disorder. The only treatment suggested for these patients is gluten free food items.
Besides this, people with wheat allergies are also suggested to have gluten free items. There are many people who feel a benefit from this diet plan suffering from various types of inflammatory conditions.
You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.
Gluten Free Diet Basics
If you would like to lose weight by following a gluten free diet, you should follow these basics for your new food plan. These basics will surely work for you:
- Make sure that you always buy gluten free packaged items.
- Learn about in which food items you can find gluten.
- Always make sure that you keep snacks in your car and bag so that you don’t feel hungry or in a pinch.
- Keep your sugar consumption level low.
- Make sure that you don’t feel deprived to undermine results with dietary changes.
These basics are something I am saying from my own experience. I am not a big fan of moderation with my diet plans, but someone told me to stick to it and keep patience. And truly his words worked wonders for me. I have successfully lost 5kgs of weight in just 20 days.
What Are The Benefits Of This Diet?
For many people, the benefits and advantages of gluten free diet results in better health. Though, people with allergies or celiac diseases got huge benefits by following a gluten free diet.
Here are the most important benefits of eating gluten free foods:
1. Neurological
The only way to improve better focus and clear thinking is the elimination of gluten from food products. According to the reports of various researchers, it has been proved that people who eat too much gluten products suffer from headaches, foggy thinking and depression.
These types of effects in the brain contributed to an inflammatory molecule termed as a cytokine which releases when a sensitive person eats gluten based foods.
2. Digestion
If you are suffering from digestive issues, you should certainly choose gluten-free food items. People suffering from celiac disease, eating gluten food items causes irritation and pain in the intestine section.
Doctors suggest that eliminating this protein item from foods reduces diarrhoea, stomach upset, bloating, abdominal cramping and constipation.
3. Energy Level
If you are a bit sensitive to gluten, it is natural that you may not be able to digest minerals and vitamins that food contains. A slight level of malnutrition can result in a drop in your energy levels and you may feel fatigue.
Many people with gluten allergy have reported that they feel an overall tiredness or weakness. Therefore, it is suggested that instead of taking anther cup of coffee, one should try eliminating gluten from foods to improve energy level of the body.
Food is fuel and not a therapy.
How To Make Your Favourite Recipes Gluten-Free?
The most necessary step for gluten free cooking is to look for a gluten free flour mixture that you can use as a substitute to make your cooking more delicious. But this is not an easy task, and here is why:
- Gluten is like glue to batters, it just holds everything together. So cooking without it can be really difficult.
- Converting your favourite recipes to gluten free versions isn’t just swapping out the flour in exchange to a gluten-free flour. You need to also replace the gluten with other ingredients to maintain the mixture’s stickiness.
- When converting a recipe to gluten free, you should substitute for stickiness too, not just for bulk.
Here you’ll come to know about most popular gluten free substitutes for plain flour, which are mixtures that’ll act just like it. My favourite one is listed first 🙂
1. Almond Flour
Dietary cookies with cinnamon and ginger are one of my favourite Christmas foods that I love to eat. But for baking it, my mom usually use flour, but I can now replace it with almond flour (which is gluten free).
Almond flour acts like if it contain gluten and sticks the composition together. Hazelnut flour is also a great substitute for regular flour.
2. Gluten Free Flour
Another great substitute for the all-purpose flour is gluten free flour available in the market. However, when you substitute it in 1:1 ratio, you should also add 1/4 tsp xanthan gum per 1 cup of gluten-free flour.
Let the batter rest for about 15 min before baking, to allow the full hydration of xanthan gum and starches for a more gluten-like result.
Also, work with gluten free flour, eggs, milk and butter at room temperature. Let your ingredients in the room at least 2 hours before baking.
This will make the mixture more thicker, stickier and keep your baking goods from feeling dry and sandy in your mouth.
Remember: Gluten-free flours are great for gluten-free recipes, but they’re not a direct substitute for flour in regular recipes.
3. Increase Fats For Stickiness
You can also convert your grandmother’s recipe to gluten free by increasing the amount of butter or margarine in the recipe by 1-2 tablespoons. Of course, this applies to the recipes that contain gluten free flour.
4. Sauces And Soups
For making various types of sauces and soups, you can use rice starch, potato starch, or corn starch as a thickener instead of flour.
5. Pasta
People like me mostly avoid eating pasta to maintain a gluten free diet. Thankfully, we now have different types of gluten free pasta available on the market that are really delicious and easy to make. It will just take a few more minutes to be cooked. Other than that, everything is the same.
6. Cakes
To convert cakes, use the method with gluten free flour (from point 2) and add an extra egg. This will give the correct structure and will provide adequate hydration.
Gluten Free Foods
If you are trying to lose weight by following a gluten free diet, here is a list of products that don’t contain gluten at all:
- All vegetables;
- All fruits;
- Any kind of unprocessed meat;
- Dairies: cheese, yogurt (plain, not flavoured), cream, sour cream, milk, whey, casein and butter (without additives);
- Grains and flours: corn, flaxseed, brown rice, almond flour, potato flour, quinoa, rice, soy flour, yeast;
- Most alcohol beverages, except beer;
- Nuts;
- All oils and vinegars;
- Honey;
- Most spices;
- Vanilla;
- Eggs.
While this article might help you with a more detailed list with allowed and forbidden foods for the gluten free diet, here is the complete list and the only one you’ll ever need with gluten free foods:
If you are new to this gluten free lifestyle, these above-mentioned name of foods or gluten free recipes will surely help you achieving your weight loss target. Follow these tips and feel free to share these with your loved ones.
Gluten Free Diet Results
Miley Cyrus lost a lot of weight following the gluten free diet. I know there are a lot of negative thoughts when it comes to a celebrity; even the guys from DailyMail said that –
(…) dietitians and nutritionists have warned that a gluten-free diet (…) is said to be detrimental to a person’s health if they are not genuinely allergic to gluten.
OK, maybe they’re right and we’re wrong. Maybe the gluten free diet is not as effective for weight loss as it is claimed all over the internet. But why most of the people experiencing with this diet have only good thoughts about their results?!
Take as an example the comments leaved by real people to the same article mentioned above. They all seem to have a great experience with the diet, but a big problem with Miley Cyrus 🙂
I guess there is a lot of controversy regarding whether the gluten free diet is the best option for weight loss or not, but one thing is sure:
The gluten free diet is definitely way much better than no diet!
