What is a Gluten Free Weight Loss Diet?

!±8± What is a Gluten Free Weight Loss Diet?

The gluten free weight loss diet started out as a kind of recommended diet for those with celiac disease. However, due to the onset of diet fads, the gluten free weight loss diet became recognized even those who are not diagnosed with the disease. A lot of people are self-diagnosing just so they can buy gluten-free products and start losing weight. Remember that a lack of understanding of diets can lead to complications and side effects that may even lead to more weight gain so before jumping into the bandwagon of the gluten free weight loss diet, make sure that you are properly informed on what it can do for you.

The person with celiac disease

Gluten is a protein component that can be found on barley, oats, triticale, wheat, and grains. A person with celiac disease has a small intestine that is sensitive to gluten. In fact, even small portions of gluten can cause them harm. There are no known causes for the disease but it is believed that there are environmental and genetic factors involved. There is still no cure but it can be managed with a gluten-free diet. If left untreated, it can lead to a variety of disorders like osteoporosis, malnutrition, and infertility.

What the diet can do

The gluten free weight loss diet contributes to the recovery of the small intestine as well as in aiding in the absorption of important nutrients. With this diet, you avoid all types of food that have rye, barley gluten, and wheat. Examples of foods we love to eat but contain gluten are breads, pizza, pasta, malted breakfast cereals, bagels, and crackers. Oats are also avoided and you have the option whether to avoid or limit your intake of milk. Beer products, non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages are also avoided.

What you can eat

With a gluten free weight loss diet, you can still eat any of the following food products since they naturally do not have gluten:

1. Fresh, dried, canned, or frozen fruits and vegetables as long as they do not have thickening ingredients and additives that have gluten.

2. Starches and flours made from rice, soybeans, tapioca, corn, and buckwheat.

3. Dairy products like cheese. However, avoid these products at the beginning of your treatment for celiac disease.

4. Eggs

5. Alcoholic beverages like wine and liquor like brandy, whiskey, ciders, and liquers.

6. Unprocessed meat products

7. Frozen or canned meat products, provided that they do not have any sauce.

8. Cereal products made from corn, lentil flour, rice bran, amaranth, lentil flour, psyllium, and polenta.

9. Rice crackers, rice crispies, corn tortillas, taco shells made from corn.

10. Gluten-free pasta, bean or rice vermicelli, buckwheat noodles, and rice noodles.

11. Condiments like tomato paste, jam, honey, cocoa, vinegar, honey, tahini, and some salad dressings and sauces.

12. Snacks like plain corn chips, plain chocolate, and popcorn.

13. Drinks like coffee, tea, mineral water, and spirits.

A few precautions

Be careful when buying foods that are labelled as "wheat-free" because it does not necessarily mean that they are gluten-free. When buying food, read the ingredients on the labels and be aware of the kinds of hidden gluten like those that can be found in different food additives and medications. Also, be aware that there are products that have "modified food starch" written on their labels because they may contain gluten.

Do not self-diagnose

Never self-diagnose that you have celiac disease. Before going on a gluten free weight loss diet, make sure to check with your doctor first. Only your doctor can give you the right diagnosis by showing that your bowel lining is damaged through endoscopy, blood tests, or by performing a biopsy on your bowel. More importantly, it is advised that you do not go on a gluten free weight loss diet before going to the doctor for a real diagnosis.

Stuff to remember

The gluten free diet may seem a little overwhelming at first. However, with enough knowledge, information and support, you can incorporate the diet into your lifestyle without any problems. Having celiac disease does not mean you have to stop eating majority of your favorite foods because despite several restrictions, you can still enjoy a variety of foods included in the diet. Furthermore, if you need more information on celiac disease and gluten free diets, you can consult a gastroenterologist, your doctor, or a credited/licensed dietitian or nutritionist.

What is a Gluten Free Weight Loss Diet?

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Fake Sugar - Does it Really Help You Lose Weight?

!±8± Fake Sugar - Does it Really Help You Lose Weight?

So you're determined to lose weight and you're going to use artificial sweeteners to help you do it. Well hold on! Before you reach for that diet soda, think about this. Habitual users of artificial sweeteners tend to gain more weight than users of the real thing! And diet drinks are the worst! Artificial sweeteners contribute mightily to raised insulin levels. On top of that, you need larger amounts of food and drinks made with artificial sweeteners to feel satisfied, partly because artificial sweeteners don't have much taste to begin with.

In order to make their processed foods taste better, manufacturers often combine two or more artificial sweeteners in their products. When these foods hit your mouth, your brain signals the pancreas that sugar is coming in and the pancreas shoots out a load of insulin to handle the sugar that isn't there. Your stomach is disappointed, you're still hungry, and you eat more to compensate for that lack of fullness. Now let's take a look at some of the artificial sweeteners used in these chemical creations.

SACCHARIN - THE GRANDADDY OF THEM ALL
Sacharin, a petroleum derivative has been around for a long time. Saccharin is still found in little pink packets on restaurant tables even though it is well known to have carcinogenic potential. To many people, saccharin has a bitter after taste. Saccharin is the first chemically formulated artificial sweetener ever produced and today is being rather rapidly superseded by competing artificial sweeteners.

ASPARTAME
Aspartame, commonly known as NutraSweet or Equal is an excitotoxin for your brain. You will find aspartame in many diet sodas and other bottled drinks. Aspartame can cause all kinds of brain disfunction. Many users of aspartame have complained about headaches, mood disorders, and even skin rashes. Aspartame is a very poor sugar substitute! Here are some other reasons for staying away from it:

Aspartame is made up of 50% phenilaline, 40% aspartic acid, and 10% methanol. Phenilaline is a substance many people cannot metabolize and they pass this trait on to their children, causing mental retardation in those children. Aspartame can stimulate your brain to death, trigger tumors and brain cancer, and interact adversely with prescription drugs.

We said that Aspartame contains methanol. Methanol is wood alcohol. Methanol distributes itself throughout your body, including your brain, muscle tissue, fat, and nerve tissue, and that's not all.

When Aspartame gets into your body and reaches a temperature of 86 degrees Fahrenheit, the methanol converts to Formic Acid and Formaldehyde, commonly known as embalming fluid. Since you know that your normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees, you now know that you can have embalming fluid in your cells binding to proteins and DNA. Drink a lot of soda and you risk vision, brain, heart, nerve problems, and pancreatic inflammation. And if that's not enough to convince you to stay away from it, Aspartame was once on a Pentagon list of bio-warfare chemicals submitted to Congress. Our government at work, looking after our welfare! There's more, but we're going beyond the scope of this article.

SUCRALOSE (SPLENDA)
Splenda, as an artificial sweetener, tastes better than Saccharin or Aspartame and has heat stability that enables its use in cooking. The claim that Splenda is made from sugar is only partly true. Splenda starts out as sugar, true enough, but then three parts of the sugar molecules are chemically replaced with chlorine atoms. This process creates a chlorocarbon very similar to insecticide. While the manufacturer is very quick to call Splenda "natural," this artificial sweetener is still nothing less than a chemical concoction. The manufacturer of Splenda claims that his artificial sweetener is "not absorbed," but the truth is that about 15% of Splenda, about 6 calories per tablespoon is absorbed. These calories come from a mixture of carbohydrates needed to stabilize this chlorocarbon compound.

SUGAR AND WEIGHT LOSS

Sugar, in contrast to artificial sweeteners, has really taken a bad rap when it comes to the weight loss question. It's not the teaspoon of sugar you put into your morning coffee that's doing all the damage. It's all that sugar that other people are putting into the food you eat that's making the waistband of your jeans too tight. Forget that those "Cocoa Krispies" are "organic" or that the "Krispy Kreme" donut is ""whole grain." They're loaded with a big sugar blast. Commercial processing of almost any whole food will blunt its flavor. Processors get the taste back into it by putting in sugar. (Most ingredients listed on the label that end in "ose" contain sugar. Any "syrup" contains sugar.) Too much sugar is not good for your body. Sugar adds calories. Sugar has no helpful nutrients and forces your body into insulin and inflammatory responses that can eventually backfire as asthma, gout, rheumatoid arthritis, and diabetes, among other health disorders. Some processed foods have as much as 300% of the recommended daily allowance for sugar.

THE UBIQUITOUS HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP
The number one source of calories in America is high fructose corn syrup, or HFCS in sodas. There are about 40 grams of HFCS in each can of soda, far more than the American Medical Association's recommended daily maximum consumption of all the sweeteners you consume during the day. And we haven't even considered all the high fructose corn syrup that is included in just about everything that comes off the packaged grocery shelf. Twenty five percent of the calories consumed by the average American is in the form of manufacturer added sweeteners and the majority of those sweeteners are high fructose corn syrup.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is known to raise your trigliceride and LDL cholesterol, putting you at increased risk of heart disease. The unbound fructose in HFCS, which contains zero vitamins, can in itself interfere wqith your heart's use of copper, magnesium, and chromium, minerals vital to its functioning. HFCS interferes with your feeling of fullness when you eat, so you tend to eat more than you need, and to top it all off, HFCS is addictive! High Fructose Corn Syrup affects Leptin, a hormone made by the body's fat cells. Leptin tells your body to stop eating! Processed fructose fails to stop the action of Ghrelin, a hormone that increases hunger and appetite. You fail to get the message to stop eating!

ONE SWEETENER THAT'S ACTUALLY BENEFICIAL
Without a doubt, the very best sugar substitute available to us today is XYLITOL This plant based sugar alcohol has the look and texture of sugar. Xylitol is slightly less sweet than sugar, but only slightly so. Essentially, Xylitol can be used one on one in recipes calling for sugar. It will not feed yeast however. Xylitol is metabolized much more slowly than sugar, and most diabetics, after consulting with their doctor, should be able to use it safely.

Fake Sugar - Does it Really Help You Lose Weight?

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Breakfast Cereals-2007's Best

!±8± Breakfast Cereals-2007's Best

The most healthful breakfast is whole grain cereal. If you're trying to lose weight, control cholesterol or diabetes, or just need a lot of energy, your best bet is a hot cooked cereal of whole grains, such as oatmeal; or barley, brown rice or wheat berries cooked and served like oatmeal. Flavor it with raisins or other dried fruits, cinnamon, and perhaps a handful of nuts such as pine nuts.

If you prefer cold cereal, you need to check the list of ingredients carefully. The FIRST ingredient should be a whole grain. Then scan through the entire list and if you see the words "partially hydrogenated," put the box back on the shelf. We recommend that you avoid foods with partially hydrogenated oils (or "trans fats"), and they still show up in many cereals (see the list below.)

Once you've eliminated all the brands made with refined grains or partially hydrogenated oils, check for ADDED sugars (you want little or none) and fiber (you want a lot.)

Raisins or other dried fruits will add a lot of grams of sugar to the listing on the nutrition panel; they are not distinguished from added sugars, so you can only estimate the amounts.

The fiber content listed on the nutrition label can be confusing because it's based on serving size, and very light cereals (such as puffed wheat) show little fiber per serving, but an acceptable amount when you adjust for weight. Cereals made from bran (the outer covering removed from whole grains) will have higher fiber content than cereals made from whole grains (which have the germ and starchy parts of the grains as well as the fiber), but they can be hard to digest.

2007 Update:I'm delighted to note that partially hydrogenated oils (trans fats) have been taken out of many cereals. The old list included 56 brands with PHO's; the new list has only 13! Most of the popular General Mills, Post and Quaker cereal brands no longer have them. Kelloggs is the one major cereal maker that has not yet removed them from many of their leading products; hopefully they will respond to consumer pressure soon.

Is it really whole grain? Manufacturers have also responded to the call for more whole grains in our diet, so you will find a lot more choices that meet my recommendation of "whole grains as the first ingredient". However, many that claim to be "whole grain" still include refined grains. You may need to do some detective work to see what you're getting. One-ingredient whole grain cereals (i.e., shredded wheat, puffed wheat, oatmeal) are sure bets. If you see milled corn, corn meal, wheat flour or rice in

Recommended: Cereals made from Whole Grains
(No trans fats, little or no added sugars; but check the list of ingredients -- recipes can change.)

Cheerios - General Mills

Chex, Wheat or Multi Grain - General Mills

Cinnamon Toast Crunch - General Mills

Cinnamon Grahams - General Mills

French Toast Crunch - General Mills

Golden Grahams - General Mills

Grape Nuts - Post

Grape Nut Flakes - Post

Great Grains, all varieties - Post

Healthy Choice Toasted Brown Sugar Squares - Kelloggs

Kashi (all varieties) - Kashi Company

Life - Quaker

Mini-Wheats, all varieties - Kelloggs

Muesli - Familia

Nutri-Grain, all varieties - Kelloggs

Oatmeal Crisp, all varieties - General Mills

Oatmeal Squares - Quaker

Organic Healthy Fiber Multigrain Flakes - Health Valley

Puffed Wheat - Quaker and others

Shredded Wheat, all varieties and sizes - Post and others

South Beach Diet Toasted Wheats

Total - General Mills

Uncle Sam - U.S. Mills

Weetabix

Wheaties - General Mills

Barbara's, Cascadian Farm, Mother's, Nature's Promise and other smaller brands that specialize in "healthful" cereals (but always check the list of ingredients).

Recommended: All Bran or High Bran Cereals
(no trans fats, little or no added sugars. )

100% Bran - Post

All Bran, all varieties - Kelloggs

Bran Flakes - Post

Chex, Multi-Bran - General Mills

Complete Wheat Bran Flakes - Kelloggs

Complete Oat Bran Flakes - Kelloggs

Cracklin' Oat Bran - Kelloggs

Crunchy Corn Bran - Quaker

Fiber 7 Flakes - Health Valley

Fiber One - General Mills

Fruit & Bran - Post

Granola, Low Fat - Kelloggs

Oat Bran - Quaker

Oat Bran Flakes - Health Valley

Oat Bran Flakes with Raisins - Health Valley

Organic Bran with Raisins - Health Valley

Raisin Bran - Kelloggs

Raisin Bran Flakes - Health Valley

Raisin Bran, Whole Grain Wheat - Post

Raisin Nut Bran - General Mills

Shredded Wheat 'n' Bran - Post

Total, Raisin Bran - General Mills

Weight Watchers Flakes 'n' Fiber

100% Natural Granola - Quaker

Not Recommended - Cereals that Contain Partially Hydrogenated Oils (Trans Fats)*
Many also are primarily refined grains and high in added sugars.

Basic Four - General Mills

Cocoa Krispies - Kelloggs

Corn Pops - Kelloggs

Froot Loops - Kelloggs

Golden Crisp - Post

Granola with Raisins, Low Fat - Kelloggs* (see note below)

Healthy Choice Mueslix - Kelloggs

Healthy Choice Almond Crunch with Raisins - Kelloggs

Healthy Choice Low Fat Granola with Raisins - Kelloggs

Mini-Swirlz - Kelloggs

Smacks - Kelloggs

Smart Start - Kelloggs

Special K - Kelloggs

Not Recommended - Cereals Made from Refined Grains
Many of these also contain a lot of added sugar

Apple Jacks - Kelloggs

Cap'n Crunch, all varieties - Quaker

Chex, Rice or Corn - General Mills

Cocoa Frosted Flakes - Kelloggs

Cocoa Blasts - Quaker

Cocoa Pebbles - Post

Cocoa Puffs - General Mills

Cookie Crisp/Chocolate Chip - General Mills

Corn Pops - Kelloggs

Corn Flakes - Kelloggs and others

Count Chocula - General Mills

Crispix - Kelloggs

Frosted Flakes - Kelloggs

Fruity Pebbles - Post

Honey Bunches of Oats - Post

Honey Comb - Post

Honey Nut Clusters - General Mills

Kix - General Mills

Lucky Charms - General Mills

Product 19 - Kelloggs

Puffed Rice - Quaker

Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs - General Mills

Rice Krispies, all varieties - Kelloggs

Total Corn Flakes - General Mills

*When I checked these cereals on 1/26/07, Kelloggs' Low Fat Granola with Raisins contained partially hydrogenated oils while their plain Low Fat Granola had none. I hope this means that Kelloggs is following the lead of the other cereal makers and that PHO's will soon be gone from all of their products. Meanwhile, protect yourself and check the list of ingredients! Cereal recipes change.

Breakfast Cereals-2007's Best

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