Gluten Free diet

[Xiae]

Just curious, Do you think a Gluten Free diet would help? And has anyone lost weight by changing to Gluten free foods?

[EvilWombatQueen]

A gluten free diet is really only recommended for people suffering from Coeliac disease, or gluten intolerance. Cutting out gluten for any other reason is restricting you choice of healthy food for no real reason. This news article states that it is a myth that cutting out gluten will cause weight loss. The article claims that most Coeliacs will tell you that this diet actually causes weight gain. A lot of gluten free products have extra sugar or fat, and can have rice or potato starch added.

If you are worried about the carbs you are eating I'd recommend researching low-carb diets or low GI diets. Low-carb diets rely on increased protein to fill you up. Many people are opposed to them for various reasons. But some people swear by low-carb diets as an effective way to lose weight, and it is harder for the body to turn protein into fat than carbohydrates so there is some truth to the science behind it. However, it can be a very difficult diet to stick to.

If you want to follow a low-carb diet my advice would be to find a tried-and-true plan out there. A lot of people make up their own system based on guesswork, which can involve cutting out too many carbs for too long which can be unhealthy. Even on the Atkins diet you start phasing some carbs back in.

Low GI, on the other hand, is simply about choosing better quality carbs to keep you full for longer so that you eat less. With low GI you can simply substitute low GI foods for high GI foods. You need to use some common sense, though. GI only measures carbohydrates and how quickly sugar is released into the blood stream. Fat can slow this process, so technically potato chips are lower in GI than a baked potato with no added oil! Pay attention to the fat content as well in order not to make bad decisions.

Good luck! I hope you find a system that works for you.

[EvilWombatQueen]

Here are some links so you can read a little more on low-carb and low-GI (I couldn't include them in the previous post because we're limited to 5 URLs)

The Glycemic Index
NineMSN Health & Wellbeing: Low-GI diet
Low Carb (au)
Diet wars: why low carb's best

[Butterfly_Dawn]

I'm thinking the only way a gluten free diet will help you lose weight is because you'd pretty well be cutting out all processed foods. You can still get overweight on a gluten free diet though (there's no gluten in lots of lollies and they'll pack on the punds), as you can get fat on pretty well any diet if you eat enough of the allowed foods and are sedentary enough.

[Lucid87]

I don't know about putting on weight from a gluten free diet.

Gluten free foods can have just as much sugar and fat as food with gluten however they usually have less preservitives.
Sometimes though not eating gluten can take away that feeling over being bloated, if you are allergic to gluten you may lose weight, it's really best to ask a nutrionest, naturpath or GP this question.