Does a partially gluten free diet have any benefit?
I'm attempting to transition to a gluten free diet. I am a picky eater so I am wondering if trying a partially gluten free diet is of any use, or if it only makes a difference if you are fully gluten free. Does only full gluten free have effects on the body, or can partial gluten free have health benefits?
Answers ( 2 )
Let me first answer this question with a question: Are you celiac? If the answer is yes, then a partially gluten-free diet will help a little, but you'll still be suffering in a major way from a serious condition. Any gluten at all can cause serious problems for someone with celiac disease. Luckily, less than 1% of the population suffers from this relatively uncommon condition, which can require a major alternation in your lifestyle to live without issues. Chances are that if you have it, you'll already know about it, because the symptoms are pretty intense. And you'll also probably have little interest in only being partly gluten-free because why would you want to only partly stop your suffering. However, if you think it's actually likely you may have it, you should get tested immediately by a doctor, who can confirm this diagnosis and give you a plan to address it.
So what if the answer is no, you aren't celiac? Well, then for you, there will be zero benefit to eating gluten-free apart from any psychological benefit. Further, it doesn't matter if you are partially gluten-free or completely gluten-free. Avoiding gluten has no purpose for non-celiac eaters.*
I'm going to guess from the way your question is worded that you're not celiac, and that your reasons for wanting to transition to a gluten-free diet don't have anything to do with a cripplingly painful immune disease. Instead, I suspect you're one of the many people out there who has been unfortunately tricked by the sellers of pseudoscientific gluten-free diets and food products into thinking that gluten is somehow bad for you in general and that it is to be avoided. It is not. For non-celiac people, there are no health benefits at all, and you would do better not to give gluten another thought.*
Since you said you're already a picky eater, eliminating gluten will just be removing even more foods from your dietary repertoire, and variety is the key to a healthy diet. Anything that eliminates entire groups of nutritional options just makes your nutritional task harder. Instead, you might want to think of foods as a good form of sustenance and not a potential source of poison. Healthy eating should focus on making sure you get enough of all the good stuff, rather than completely avoiding every morsel of bad stuff. Any food is healthy in moderation. And diets that eliminate large groups of foods are unnecessary from a nutritional perspective. The better strategy is to eat more types of things not fewer. But to also keep in mind which foods might be less optimal in large quantities and simply don't overdo those. So don't avoid having a food item you love that's not that nutritious, just don't eat it every night. And don't feel guilty about having a slice of birthday cake at a party even though it has gluten in it, as long as you don't eat the whole cake. If you're getting enough of what you need from a variety of sources, and not grossly overdoing your caloric intake or eating too much of any one thing, you're doing about as well as you can. Try looking for good things you can add to your your diet rather than eliminating things. Broadening instead of narrowing. You'll be eating in a much healthier way.
NOTE: Because I am not a practicing physician, this post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, nor is it intended to be a substitute for independent professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment. But more importantly, commercial diet books and plans also do not constitute medical advice, and are usually just seeking to make a buck or advance an agenda. Always consult with a physician or registered dietician (an actual RD, not an unlicensed "nutritionist") before undertaking any new dietary regimen that represents a significant change.
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*I know that there will be many folks who will ask, "What about my non-celiac gluten sensitivity (or NCGS in the industry parlance)?" And I am not saying that those folks are not actually suffering. Many of them are. It's just been found to be almost certainly not caused by gluten. There has been no valid verification of the NCGS's existence on a scientific level. That seems hard to believe, especially for those who are suffering the symptoms, but once all of the other confounding factors are removed, and the studies are blinded, the condition seems to disappear. Further, there are a number of biochemical reasons that we can be pretty sure that NCGS isn't an allergy to gluten, since allergies are defined by specific types of reactions that aren't possible with gluten. So what is actually going on here? There are a number of theories, and some of them point to sufferers being sensitive to other things that often appear in the same foods as gluten, such as other components of wheat (and it is possible for some to be allergic to certain non-gluten parts of wheat). But the most promising suspect for this discomfort seems to be another type of substance, called FODMAPS. FODMAPS is an acronym that refers to a group of foods that tend to ferment in the gut. FODMAPS are "fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols", which is classification-speak for specific types of short chain carbohydrates that the intestines sometimes don't absorb well, and then end up fermenting in the colon. That's not very glamorous, and it's sometimes hard to keep track of all the FODMAPS you may be taking in, so you can eliminate them. But the vast majority of people who think they have NCGS find that they achieve very significant relief when they eliminate FODMAPS from their diet. If this is your reason for wanting to eliminate gluten, give it a try.
Laurence, I have no real idea of the science but I do know my wife has never been officially diagnosed with Celiac. She's gone back and forth between that and Hashimoto's "suggestions" by doctors for why she had lots of abdominal pain and bloating when she was on a gluten-rich diet.
She's been gluten-free for about 18 years now and whenever she does have gluten, it definitely causes her discomfort.
I wouldn't necessarily argue with you that Celiac disease is required for a GF diet to benefit you but I would argue a bit at the premise modern medicine is effective at actually diagnosing celiacs and autoimmune diseases in general. My wife is a perfect example of years of testing, allergy assessments, and many multiple opinions with no real cause of her problems.
So Emma, I would say whether it's psychological or real, it's worth taking a look at for you as a person. If you want, I'm happy to connect you with Ella (my wife) for a longer chat. She would totally walk you through her experience there.