Our dietitian is giving us some advice for a gluten-free diet.
Many of us are starting to remove gluten entirely from their diet, or have already done it. Whatever the reason, have you ever wondered if your behavior was adapted?
Not eating gluten isn’t everything. You also need to choose your food wisely. Many gluten-free products are actually less beneficial to your health because they are too sweet, to salty or too fat. So it’s essential to be able to choose quality gluten-free aliments and not the ones that are poor in nutriments. How to proceed ?
1 . Learn to read the labels
Gluten is an allergen that is always detected. If it’s present in an aliment, a preparation or a dish, you will know it. Furthermore, it must be mentioned on the aliment’s list of ingredients in bold or underlined for example. There’s no need to panic about this. However, pay attention to the other ingredients as well. The manufacturer might have removed the gluten but added salt, sugar or fat to “fill the gap.” Not everything gluten-free is necessarily healthy.
2- Beware of the additives
Still in the list of ingredients, check for the additives as well if there aren’t too many. Keep in mind that the longer the list, probably the more the aliment has been transformed.
3 – Get back to the basic aliments
This brings us to the third point, get back to the basic aliments (therefore not transformed). You will always be sure about the product’s composition, it will be fresh and therefore richer in nutriments. The list of gluten-free starches is already quite interesting: quinoa, potato, corn, sweet potato, rice, sorghum, millet, buckwheat… You can also incorporate legumes such as lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans, dried peas…
4 – Enjoy and have a varied diet
A gluten-free diet is a lot more accessible today than it used to. Most restaurants offer a gluten-free dish. The same can be said about the products available online on Kazidomi for instance and the amount of recipes available to bring some variety to your diet keeps growing daily. So don’t forget the most important, enjoy it!
Charlotte Demortier, Dietitian Nutritionist.
