Gluten-Free Processed Foods May Be Bad for Your Health

If you have an allergy or sensitivity to gluten, you need to adjust your diet to avoid it. At first, it might seem easy to avoid the typical foods made from barley, wheat, and rye. But take a closer look at food labels, and you’ll find gluten in more than just bread and cereal.

So if adopting a gluten-free diet seems like the right thing to do, is there anything wrong with all those gluten-free processed meals on the market today? Yes. The short answer, you’re better off following a clean-eating plan that doesn’t include gluten than stocking up on piles of processed gluten-free foods.

Why? Highly-processed gluten-free foods typically contain high amounts of sugar, genetically modified grains, higher levels of pesticides, and other unhealthy additives. If it sounds serious, it is, says Dr. Peter Osborne.

“The processed gluten-free food industry helps to keep you sick as long as you are buying into the lie that their garbage is a healthy option,” says Osborne.

And if you don’t have a gluten allergy or sensitivity to gluten, taking up the cause to go gluten-free just because it's trendy, to lose weight or because you think gluten is bad for you might be a mistake Research shows that gluten can actually help improve gut health, boost immune function, fight cancer, and viral infections.

If you do have a gluten allergy or sensitivity, do you know what you can and can’t eat? Stick with Gluten-Free meals made from fresh ingredients and you’ll be happier and be healthier.