Can a Gluten-Free Diet Help You Beat Grain Addiction?

Grain addiction is an often overlooked health issue because it’s hard to believe that something you eat regularly is not good for your health. Most people don’t know that bloating, brain fogginess, depression, excess weight, fatigue, and frequent sleepiness are a result of eating too many grains and sugars.

But why are grains so addictive?

Advertising, emotions, habit, and social pressure all contribute to grain addiction. While this type of addiction has an emotional component, there are other lesser known factors behind food cravings.

Exorphins: Another Reason Why You Should Avoid Gluten

Grains like barley, rye, and wheat contain gluten. When digested, gluten produces exorphins--substances that can have addictive, heroin-like effects.

Exorphins tell your brain to keep eating food containing gluten, which could contribute to the appetite disorders and mental disturbances that often accompany food-related illnesses.

Exorphins, endorphins, and morphine all function through opioid receptors found in many different cells in your body, particularly on nerves and smooth muscles in your intestines. When a compound triggers these receptors, it results in a sense of euphoria, happiness, and sleepiness, and dull pain.

Though more conclusive studies are needed to directly associate exorphins to food cravings, grain addiction is a likely reaction to consuming gluten. Many people who consume grains struggle constantly with their food cravings which contribute to weight gain. But they don’t know how to deal with them because they’re unaware that gluten is addictive.

A more serious potential problem with exorphins is schizophrenia. Studies show that many schizophrenics improve if they stop consuming wheat and get worse if given wheat or gluten.

Dr. Joseph Mercola’s No-Grain Diet is a gluten-free diet designed to help you avoid the dangers of grains. He believes that well over 75 percent of Americans would benefit from severely limiting or eliminating ALL types of grains, whether they are whole, refined, or sprouted.

Those who are overweight and suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol will also greatly benefit from avoiding all grains.

A Grain-Free Diet is Best for Celiac Disease

About 1 percent of the U.S. population is affected by Celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder triggered by gluten. Gluten is a type of protein found in grains such as barley, wheat, and rye.

When a person with Celiac disease eats food containing gluten, an immune reaction attacks the small intestine and prevents nutrients from being absorbed by the body.

Certain flours, grains, and seeds are naturally gluten-free, including:

• Amaranth seed
• Buckwheat
• Flaxseed
• Millet
• Oats
• Quinoa
• Rice
• Sorghum
• Soy

This means Celiac sufferers can eat them, right?

Gluten-Free Food Can Still be Contaminated by Gluten

Wrong. A new study analyzed 22 naturally gluten-free flours, grains, and seeds off supermarket shelves that weren’t labeled as gluten-free. The study tested the amount of gluten the products contained against a proposed FDA limit for any product labeled gluten-free – 20 parts contaminant per million parts product.

Seven of the 22 products failed the FDA's gluten limit. One soy flour product had a gluten content of almost 3,000 parts per million. Other products contaminated with gluten included millet flour and grain, buckwheat flour, and sorghum flour. Four of the seven products did not even carry an allergen advisory statement.

The researchers believe that some of the products had been contaminated with gluten because they were grown or processed near grains that naturally contain gluten.


Grain-Free Diet is a Gluten-Free Diet

A gluten-free diet is recommended for those suffering from Celiac disease or gluten intolerance. But the study clearly shows that naturally gluten-free grains may still be contaminated.

Food manufacturers are not required by the FDA to identify all possible sources of gluten on their product labels, so checking the label may not be enough to identify other hidden sources. Gluten often hides in processed foods like candies, cold cuts, instant soups, soy sauce, and many low-fat and zero-fat products, under labels such as:

• Hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP)
• Malts
• Natural flavoring
• Starches
• Texturized vegetable protein (TVP)

Visit Celiac.com for more information on label ingredients that typically contain hidden gluten.

Those suffering from Celiac disease know the importance of a grain-free diet because many of them cannot tolerate even minute amounts of gluten. Grain dangers, however, extend beyond gluten intolerance.

Grains and sugars, being pro-inflammatory, will worsen any condition that has chronic inflammation at its root. So if you want to avoid gluten and at the same time reduce your risk of degenerative diseases like cancer, heart disease, high cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes, try Dr. Mercola’s No-Grain Diet.


Related Links:

Gut Bacteria Offer New Hope for People with Celiac Disease
Why is Wheat Gluten Disorder on the Rise?