Many Gluten free foods are good for everyone....

Today's Post: Friday, 6-17-2011

Earlier this week I found this, I believe, on HealthDay News.

“The U.S. National Library of Medicine mentions these staples of a gluten-free diet:

Cereals that don't include barley malt or wheat.

Vegetables and fruits.

Fresh fish, poultry and meat that don't include breading or typical gravies.

Dairy products and milk.

Beans….”

This list is quite similar to what foods best support health without making you too fat!

1. Cereals that don't include barley malt or wheat.

Refined grain based breads, snacks, and desserts tend to be made with high gluten wheat flour. Most people eat many foods from this group every day.
Oops! Along with sugar and calorie free sweeteners, these foods help make you fat and tend to cause type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Even if you still digest gluten just fine, NOT eating this junk will dramatically improve your health. (Similarly, NOT drinking soft drinks also helps.)

a) Oats do have gluten but far less than wheat. And, like beans and apples, rolled oats and steel cut oats are high in soluble fiber which tends to protect your heart. (It also helps to avoid the “instant” or extra refined oatmeal just like avoiding refined wheat flour does.)

b) All buckwheat flour has far less gluten than wheat. And, unlike white, refined grain, wheat flour -- whole grain buckwheat flour can be good for you in moderation.

Whole grain buckwheat flour also has the fiber rice flour lacks. Foods made with whole grain buckwheat flour are not super crumbly – unlike rice flour. And whole grain buckwheat flour will spike your blood sugar less than rice flour.

For those who must avoid gluten completely, Bobs Red Mill sells a 100 % gluten free buckwheat flour.

Quinoa, pronounced Keen Wah, I’ve heard, is a high protein, high quality protein grain, or grain substitute, that contains no gluten.

For those who aren’t allergic, lentil flour and almond flour and pecan meal can be good ways to make foods normally made with wheat flour but which will spike your blood sugar far less. And, none of them have gluten.

2. Beer is made from grains. So it’s both fattening and tends to contain gluten.

Red wine and to some extent white wine -- in moderation -- are better for you than beer and are less fattening. They also do not have gluten.

For those who want gluten free beer on occasion, see http://www.glutenfreedietfoods.com/beer_list.html .

(My local Whole Foods carries two gluten free beers, Red Bridge from Budweiser; & Daura from Spain.)

You’ll also tend to be a bit less fat since gluten-free beer and wine cost more than regular beer.

3. Vegetables and fruits. Neither kind of food contains gluten.

a) And nonstarchy vegetables help you get and stay free of excess fat.

Cruciferous vegetables, particularly raw, help prevent cancer.

Fresh tomatoes are heart healthy, taste good and have vitamin C.

But cooked tomatoes, carrots, yams, sweet potatoes, squash, pumpkin puree, and cooked broccoli and tomato juice and V8 juice are all high in mixed carotenes that help prevent cancer, cause good health, and increase longevity.

This also works even better if you eat these foods raw in a salad with extra virgin olive oil or cooked with extra virgin olive oil since your body is better able to intake the carotenes.

The healthiest people eat several kinds of vegetables almost every day.

b) Fruit in moderation and mostly whole instead of the juice also provide mulitple health benefits. They also have no gluten.

(They will be less fattening if you eat them at breakfast, eat them with health OK protein, fats and oils at the same meal, and if you get regular vigorous exercise.)

4. Fresh fish, poultry and meat that don't include breading or typical gravies.
These foods do not contain gluten.

Wild caught fish that is high in omega 3 and low or very low in mercury has dramatic health benefits and is a valuable source of animal protein. (Farmed fish is grain fed and is unusually high in multiple kinds of pollutants. I don’t eat fish if it’s other than wild caught for this reason.)

Poultry from pasture fed birds or some extremely fat trimmed and skinless poultry that is grain fed avoids many of the problems of red meat and is a decent source of animal protein.

Meat from 100 % grass fed animals or some extremely lean and fat trimmed meat from grain fed animals is OK as a special treat a few times a month and is high in animal protein.

By marinating meat and using garlic, onions, and spices from ginger to sage and more or sometimes coconut milk, you can get good tasting fish, poultry, and meat. You do not need breading!

(For lean and fat trimmed grain fed meat and poultry, you can add back extra virgin olive oil -- and coconut milk on occasion -- to replace the health damaging fats from the grain feeding.)

You can also use the same spices plus extra virgin olive oil and pureed black-eyed peas, a kind of bean, to make a nongrain gravy that is decent. If you like them, you can also add mushrooms. That kind of gravy has no bad fats or gluten!

5. Dairy products and milk.

These foods don’t contain gluten and milk is an inexpensive source of animal protein. 2% lowfat milk, nonfat cottage cheese, 2% lowfat yogurt, and cheese and even butter, unheated or only lightly heated and in moderation & from
100 % grass fed cows are the dairy foods that are best for you and except for butter are least fattening.

Some people include eggs as a dairy food or food sold in dairies. They have so little fat compared to their high protein that even eggs from grain fed chickens are OK in moderation. Even better, though eggs do tend to boost total cholesterol just bit if it’s low, they boost the HDL or protective part of your cholesterol because of the high choline in their yolks. (You also get massive and mutiple nutrients from egg yolks in addition to half the protein of the egg. So in most cases, I suggest including egg yolks when you eat eggs.)

5. Beans and lentils are high in heart protective soluble fiber and total fiber. They are also high in protein. They are also relatively low glycemic. Even better, they are very inexpensive.

(One way to afford the slightly higher prices for grass fed beef and wild caught fish is to eat beans or beans and nonfat cottage cheese or cheese from grass fed cows for dinner a few times a week.)

Corn and rice and brown rice also have protein. And they do not have gluten.

But corn is relatively high glycemic and quite high in omega 6. I’ve always liked corn personally but it’s best kept as a very occasional food only.

Rice and even brown rice are quite high glycemic foods. (If you eat it, I suggest eating only brown rice, eating the brown rice with extra virgin olive oil or butter and an animal protein food. It also helps not to eat it at every meal and to eat it only in small servings.)

A lot of the foods and drinks that are most fattening or harmful to eat including soft drinks, are NOT on this list.

So, there is indeed a good bit of overlap of gluten free foods with foods that are best to eat!

(For those who can eat wheat and other foods with gluten, you can stay that way with better success and being less fat, if you eat only the whole grain version AND if you only eat any every other day or a bit less often. AND if you eat it only in small quantities. This minimizes getting fat from eating it or developing allergies to it by overdosing on it.)