The 2 unpleasant consequences of a gluten-free diet

A gluten-free diet is not necessarily a healthy diet, quite the opposite. I recently had to accompany a friend to the supermarket to whom, due to gastrointestinal problems, a dietician recommended the elimination of gluten for a week. With another problem. This friend of mine is allergic to corn. So she asked me to help her to look for gluten-free products that did not have corn flour. We have therefore sifted through a whole series of gluten-free products including bread, biscuits, piade, crackers, snacks. And for the umpteenth time I have had confirmation of one of the unpleasant consequences of the gluten-free diet, if instead of trying to make a healthy diet, we eat many of the products currently on the market. Or.

IT GETS FAT.
The ingredient list of gluten-free products is longer than the Nile . In addition to a mix of flours, there are sugar, mixed vegetable oils, lots of additives, syrups, flavors and so on and so forth. In the end we bought two things alone, and apart from the price I convinced my friend to buy flours to make healthier things at home.
Given the new dietary trend, gluten free often makes you fat.
And it makes you fat for this reason: because many products are richer in calories, sugars and fats than traditional products. Being also less protein, we should remember not only to eat less, but to increase the daily protein intake thanks to other foods (source).

But there is more, and it is the news that is making the rounds of newspapers in this period, including the Italian ones.
IT CAN INTOXICATE US.
A gluten-free diet leads to an increased risk of heavy metal poisoning, such as mercury and arsenic.
Reason? Products based on rice and rice flour, which make up practically 70% of the gluten free.
According to Dr. Maria Argos, one of the authors of a new study on the relationship between rice products and heavy metals, people who eat a gluten-free diet eat more rice than those who eat a more balanced diet, have 70% more mercury in the blood and twice as much arsenic as a trace in the urine ( source ).
How to make a gluten-free and risk-free diet?
Instead of eating too much rice, we vary the diet with buckwheat and quinoa, amaranth, millet, sorghum, corn and with products made with these flours, in addition to tubers and legumes.