Is going gluten free healthier? Nutrition Myths Busted - Part 3

There is an endless number of food and nutrition myths circulating, I aim to clear up as many as I can with this ongoing series. 

The 5 myths I’m going to talk about in this post are:

• Gluten free is healthier
• If you can't pronounce it, your body won't recognise it
• You need meat to get enough protein
• Pesticides are bad
• A product with more than 5 ingredients is bad

'Gluten free is healthier’

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye products. Think pasta, bread, biscuits and more. 

Coeliac disease is an autoimmune condition in which the body reacts badly to gluten, so a lifelong gluten free diet is essential for health. Unless you have a medical reason, there is no reason to avoid gluten. 

Gluten free products aren’t magically healthier because they don’t have gluten. Gluten free products have been found to have the same nutritional content of wheat based products. This means they're similar in terms of carbohydrate, fat, and protein content, they just use non-gluten containing ingredients. 

Cutting out all gluten containing foods unnecessarily could also lead to nutrient deficiencies.

 Wholegrains like wheat, barley and rye are great sources of fibre, B vitamins and iron. Gluten free flours also don’t have to be fortified with iron, calcium and B vitamins like wheat flour does, so this is another way you could be missing out on nutrients. 

And gluten free products are often much more expensive than their standard counterpart. For example: the cheapest loaf of white bread from Tesco is 36p whereas the cheapest gluten free white bread is £1.75. This is a huge added cost, especially if there is no reason to have the gluten free versions. 

There is really no benefit to cutting out gluten and going gluten free unless you have a medical reason too, like coeliac disease.

‘If you can’t pronounce it, your body won’t recognise it’

There’s also a variation that says, ‘if you don’t recognise it, your body won’t either’. I for one am sick of seeing this myth floating around. It makes no sense to compare your reading ability with your digestive tracts ability to do its job of digesting and absorbing food. 

The digestive system is seriously underestimated if people believe it’ll be stopped because you can’t pronounce an ingredient. 

For example, the proper name of this common ingredient is pretty hard to pronounce: guaranine methyltheobromine 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine theine. This is another name for caffeine! I’m pretty sure your body recognises it since it’s in tea, coffee, and chocolate. 

Using the chemical name of any food can make it difficult to pronounce but this doesn’t mean your body doesn’t know it. Everything you eat and drink is made of chemicals that the body is more than equipped to handle it. 

Another example is a word that I only recently learned to pronounce (thank you, B placement), is cholecalciferol, More commonly known as vitamin D. This is an essential nutrient needed for bone health and I would hope my body could still process it even though I couldn’t say it. 

This myth is nonsense, and you shouldn’t let it stop you from enjoying food.

'You need meat to get enough protein'

I’m sure vegetarians and vegans are sick of hearing ‘how do you get your protein?’ I’m a meat eater and I’m tired of it. Yes, meat is a great source of protein but there are plenty of plant based options. 

The recommended amount for protein for the average person is 0.75g of protein per kg of body weight. So, let’s say you weigh 60kg, you’d need 45g of protein a day. 

2 slices of seeded bread has 9g of protein and that’s before any toppings are added. A serving of white rice (75g in dry weight) has 7g of protein. Half a tin of baked beans has 9g of protein. As you can see it’s very easy to get enough protein every day without meat. 

Most foods, excluding fruit, veg and oils, will have some protein in them and it all adds up. People may underestimate how much protein is in food but as long as you eat a varied diet, you're likely to be getting enough. 

I’ve got a whole blog post about how you probably don’t need protein powder and you can find it here. 

Protein is readily available so don’t be afraid to eat more plant based meals!

'Pesticides are harmful'

Pesticides are used to keep pests like insects, weeds, and fungi away from food being grown for us to eat. Pesticides are necessary within agriculture to stop plant spoilage and increase yield, which helps reduce costs. 

Some people think pesticides shouldn’t be used as technically they’re poisons so they could be harmful to us too. 

It’s important to remember that the dose makes the poison, and in the case of pesticides there is not enough pesticide residue on food products to cause harm. 

Unfortunately, there has been a link between agricultural workers and some types of cancer, but this is because they were exposed to massive doses regularly due to the nature of their work. This is an occupational hazard and doesn’t apply to the general public. 

It’s also good to keep in mind that most of the pesticides we do consume are found from within the food we’re eating. Plants form these compounds to defend themselves from being eaten but us humans don't take any notice.  

One example is caffeine. The coffee plant actually makes caffeine to stop insects from eating it. This is a natural pesticide that is eaten and drank all the time. We’re more exposed to caffeine the pesticide than we are to the pesticides used in farming. 

Another example is capsaicin. Capsaicin is the compound in chillies and peppers that make them spicy. The chilli plant developed this compound to fight off fungal infections, so it’s a pesticide. And again, it is something that is eaten regularly but it doesn’t get anywhere near as much bad press as the pesticides in farming. 

Our exposure to pesticides that are used in growing food is small, we're more likely to consume pesticides from the food itself. 

To put it simply, if you want to avoid pesticides, you’d have to stop eating.

'A product with more than 5 ingredients is bad'

I think this myth came about because of the idea that there more ingredients there are, the more processed the food is. Don’t even get me started on the word processed, because almost everything we eat has been processed in one way or another. 

An ingredient list with more than 5 items simply means that the product has more than 5 ingredients. 

Tesco’s Party Salad has 6 ingredients, all of which have been processed into a ready to eat salad. The salad is only vegetables but because it has more than 5 ingredients, I guess that means it shouldn’t be bought or consumed. 

Tesco’s own brand white chocolate only has 5 ingredients, so I’ll be sure to stock up on this since this meets the rule of 5. This is only two examples that show how the 5 ingredient rule simply doesn’t work. I assume it’s meant to help people eat healthily but really, it’s just silly. 

Another thing with sticking to 5 or less ingredients is that if you discount something with a long list, it doesn't consider what those ingredients are. Something like non-dairy oat milk will have lots of vitamins and minerals added to make the nutritional content similar to cows milk. So the ingredients list may be longer than 5 things, but what's added is incredibly nutritious.

Of course, you should look at ingredients of a product when shopping, but arbitrary rules won't do anything to guide you. You should avoid ingredients you're allergic too, don’t like, or have a religious/cultural reason to not eat.  

I hope you enjoyed this post, there is so many nutrition lies out there and I want to clear up as many as I can. This series will be back later in the year to debunk some more.

Bye for now! 👋

References:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/743790/Dietary_Reference_Values_-_A_Guide__1991_.pdf Protein requirements

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6213709/ Gluten free

https://loupfilles.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/pesticides-and-associated-health-effects-2017.pdf Pesticides and cancer

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/pesticide-residues-in-food

https://www.acsh.org/news/2017/06/13/9999-pesticides-we-eat-are-produced-plants-themselves-11415 Pesticides are within foods we eat

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3493419/ Pesticides are plant defence mechanisms