10 mitos sobre el gluten

Hace unos años, probablemente ni siquiera sabías que el material que le da al pan su textura masticable tenía un nombre. Es una proteína llamada gluten , que se forma cuando dos sustancias químicas, la glutenina y la gliadina, entran en contacto y forman un enlace. Cuando se amasa la masa , este enlace crea una membrana elástica, lo que hace que el pan tenga masticabilidad [fuente: Spectre ]. El gluten se encuentra de forma natural en el trigo , la cebada y el centeno, y los humanos lo han consumido durante unos 10 000 años, tal vez más. Es una de las proteínas más consumidas en nuestro planeta.

Sin embargo, en los últimos años, gracias en parte a celebridades como Miley Cyrus y Gwyneth Paltrow, que han renunciado a las cosas, el gluten se ha convertido en el último coco nutricional, una sustancia que cada vez más personas eliminan de sus dietas debido a sus malas cualidades [ fuente: Hellmich ]. Una encuesta de 2014 realizada por el Centro Nacional de Investigación de Consumer Reports encontró que un tercio de los estadounidenses estaban comprando productos sin gluten o tratando de evitar el gluten de otras maneras, y más de seis de cada 10 creían que seguir una dieta sin gluten mejoraría su salud o Bienestar mental.

Es cierto que hay un pequeño número de personas (1 por ciento de la población mundial) que tienen enfermedad celíaca, un trastorno autoinmune desencadenado por el gluten, que a menudo se enferman mucho si lo comen. Pero si hay que creer a los evangelistas anti-gluten, las cosas también son increíblemente malas para el resto de nosotros. Afirman que causa problemas que van desde la obesidad hasta el cáncer. Pero los expertos médicos y nutricionales no ven con buenos ojos muchas de esas afirmaciones. Aquí hay 10 mitos sobre el gluten que están tratando de desacreditar.

1. El trigo de hoy tiene más gluten
2. Mucha gente es intolerante al gluten
3. Para Evitar el Gluten, Necesitas Comprar Alimentos Especiales
4. Una dieta sin gluten siempre es más nutritiva
5. Eliminar el gluten te ayudará a perder peso
6. Eliminar el gluten mejorará su digestión
7. Evitar el gluten te dará más energía
8. El gluten causa cáncer
9. Debes usar jabones sin gluten
10. Es posible vivir completamente sin gluten

Este es un mito atractivo, porque encaja muy bien con las concepciones populares sobre los agronegocios gigantes y su papel insidioso en arruinar nuestra salud con jarabe de maíz alto en fructosa y Frankenfood modificado genéticamente. Ha habido un aumento en la incidencia de la enfermedad celíaca en la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Y el trigo que ha sido inflado genéticamente con gluten adicional proporcionaría una buena explicación simple para ese fenómeno.

Sin embargo, de manera inconveniente para las teorías de la conspiración del gluten, en un estudio publicado en el Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry en 2013, el investigador Donald D. Kasarda analizó datos sobre el mejoramiento del trigo y no encontró evidencia de que el trigo contenga más proteínas que antes. Además, Kasarda señaló que no hay trigo transgénico utilizado comercialmente en los EE. UU., por lo que el contenido de gluten tampoco aumenta de esa manera.

En realidad, es sólo un pequeño número. Alrededor del 1 por ciento de la población de EE. UU. (y también de la población mundial) tiene enfermedad celíaca, un trastorno autoinmune que daña el intestino delgado e impide que los pacientes absorban otros nutrientes de los alimentos cuando ingieren gluten [fuente: Mahadov y Green ]. Puede causar todo tipo de efectos secundarios terribles, desde malestar gastrointestinal y fatiga crónica hasta anemia [fuente: NFCA ]. Además, otro 6 por ciento del público estadounidense puede tener una condición controvertida llamada sensibilidad al gluten no celíaca (NCGS), en la que no dan positivo para la enfermedad celíaca pero se quejan de algunos de los mismos síntomas. A partir de 2015, no hubo pruebas de laboratorio para NCGS [fuentes:NFCA , Brody ].

Curiosamente, incluso para algunas personas con NCGS, el gluten puede no ser el problema real. En un estudio publicado en 2013 en la revista Gastroenterology, los investigadores examinaron a 37 sujetos con NCGS. Descubrieron que cuando una amplia clase de nutrientes llamada FODMAPS, que incluye todo, desde la fructosa hasta la fibra que se encuentra en los plátanos, los espárragos y el trigo, se eliminó de las dietas de los sujetos, de repente dejaron de tener problemas gastrointestinales, incluso cuando comían gluten [ fuentes: Spectre , Biesiekierski et al. ].

OK, so maybe you need to stay away from gluten because of celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Or maybe you're part of the 93 percent of people who don't fit into either of those categories, but you're convinced that gluten is bad for you. You're the sort of person who manufacturers of gluten-free foods hope to attract, as those products tend to be way more expensive than those containing gluten. A bag of gluten-free chocolate chip cookies, for example, may cost close to five times as much as the regular kind, according to one study [source: Cureton].

But you don't need to buy a $13 bag of cookies or a $6 loaf of bread to avoid gluten. A lot of foods naturally don't have any gluten in them, including fruits, vegetables, meats, poultry, fish, nuts, milk, most cheeses and yogurt, herbs, spices, and oils, butter, margarines, rice, certain cereals, and corn tortillas [source: Cureton]. You won't be as trendy, though. And it still will be a challenge to replace some of the nutrients that you may lose, which we'll explain in the next section.

That definitely is true for someone who has celiac disease, because as we previously explained, the autoimmune disorder prevents the person from absorbing nutrients unless he or she avoids gluten. But for most of us, gluten isn't going to have that effect. And avoiding gluten actually may lead to a less nutritious diet if you're not careful. For most people, whole wheat flour is a major source of dietary fiber , so gluten-free dieters risk not getting enough unless they make an effort to replace it with sources such as fruits, vegetables, beans and brown rice [source: Strawbridge].

Additionally, conventional products, like your typical loaf of wheat bread, often are enriched with nutrients such as iron, calcium, thiamine, riboflavin and folate. When you avoid those grain products, you may also get lesser amounts of those nutrients, unless you take a vitamin supplement to counteract the loss. Additionally, cutting out gluten may cause a decrease in beneficial bacteria in the gut, which can have a negative impact on your immune system [sources: UW Health, Strawbridge].

This is a tricky one, because some people who go on gluten-free diets do actually lose weight, at least at the beginning. However, cutting out gluten isn't the reason. Gluten-abstainers who lose weight probably are the ones who're cutting out processed foods that are higher in calories and fats , and eating more fruits, vegetables, legumes and lean meats. As a result, they consume fewer calories,.

But people who eliminate gluten by switching to processed gluten-free foods aren't going to get that benefit, especially if they consume gluten-free cakes, cookies and other sweets [sources: Cleveland Clinic, UW Health]. As Dr. Kelly Thomsen, a gastroenterologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told ABC News in 2014: "Some gluten-free foods contain extra sugar or calories to make them more palatable – to make up for the loss of the gluten."

The misconception might be due to the fact that people with celiac disease are usually thin, but this is more because they're unable to absorb nutrients from food that contains gluten. Once they go on a gluten-free diet, they often gain weight.

A 2014 University of Florida study, published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, found that 35 percent of subjects believed that avoiding gluten would improve their digestive health [source: Buck]. Like other hype about gluten-free diets, there's at least a grain of truth to it. If you're part of the 1 percent of the world's population with celiac disease, eliminating gluten is vital for good digestion, and at least some of those with non-celiac gluten sensitivity may benefit as well from cutting it out [source: Green].

Additionally, a study published in Gastroenterology and Hepatology in 2013 found that some patients with irritable bowel syndrome seemed to benefit from a gluten-free diet, although the reasons weren't clear [source: Eswaran et al.]. Gluten is just one component of wheat, so the improvement could be related to several factors.

For most people without gluten-sensitivity, eliminating gluten won't help your upset stomach. University of Florida dietician and researcher Caroline Dunn explained to Women's Health magazine in 2014, "There's really no evidence that removing gluten from the diet will improve your digestive health."

Another claim you'll hear on anti-gluten websites is that eliminating the protein from your diet will make you feel less sluggish and increase your vim and vigor. This is supposedly because your body will be expending less energy to digest gluten.

However, no studies have found that the gluten-free diet leads to more energy [source: UW Health]. It is true that some people seem to experience such a boost, if their regimen includes cutting back on foods that are high in sugar , fat and calories and consuming more fruit and vegetables. According to the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Medicine and Public Health, if someone starts eating a healthy, well-balanced diet, he or she may feel that they have more energy, whether or not that person is eating gluten.

Some websites claim that gluten causes cancer, and therefore should be avoided by everyone. It is true that people with celiac disease who don't follow a gluten-free diet will increase their risk of developing several types of cancer , including intestinal lymphoma; small bowel cancer; and liver, esophageal and pharyngeal cancers [sources: Mayo Clinic, NCFA]. But again, remember, that's only 1 percent of Americans (or people in the world).

According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, studies show that avoiding gluten doesn't provide any additional protection from cancer for people without celiac disease. In fact, as the organization notes, a gluten-free diet may actually increase the risk, since whole grains containing gluten are good sources of fiber and antioxidants that do protect against cancer.

Companies are picking up on Americans' newfound gluten aversion and marketing an increasing array of gluten-free products − everything from potato chips and bread to cosmetics , soap and even laundry detergent. A report by the marketing research firm Mintel stated that sales of such products reached an estimated $8.8 billion in 2014, a startling 63 percent increase from two years before.

The idea behind selling gluten-free soaps, shampoos and cosmetics is that in the conventional versions of these products, gluten could be present. And that's bad news. The source of this myth may be that some people with celiac disease get something called dermatitis herpetiformis, which causes an itchy rash and blisters. But that condition isn't caused by touching gluten, but rather by ingesting it. Gluten can't be absorbed through the skin, unless you have a deep cut [source: Bast].

Even for people with celiac disease, "gluten-containing skin care products and cosmetics aren't a problem unless you accidentally swallow them," writes Mayo Clinic physician Dr. Michael F. Picco. If you have the condition, avoid lipsticks and toothpaste with gluten (where you might risk ingestion), but otherwise, you don't need to worry about it.

Eating a 100-percent gluten-free diet may be theoretically possible, "but in reality, it's nearly an impossible feat," National Foundation for Celiac Awareness president Alice Bast told the Mayo Clinic. The Food and Drug Administration actually allows products to be labeled gluten-free, even if they contain extremely small amounts of up to 20 parts per million, because it says that there aren't reliable laboratory tests to detect gluten at lower levels than that.

Further, the FDA doesn't actually require food manufacturers to test their finished products for gluten content. Instead, they can meet the requirements simply by obtaining certificates from their ingredient suppliers, attesting that the ingredients are gluten-free [source: FDA]. As Consumer Reports points out, if a manufacturer uses the same equipment for manufacturing food with gluten in it, it's entirely possible for cross-contamination to occur. Additionally, recent research has shown that some supposedly gluten-free products turn out to contain malt, malt extract or malt syrup as minor ingredients, which usually are made from barley with gluten in it.

The FDA reassures people with celiac disease that all this probably doesn't put them at too much risk, since research shows that most of them can tolerate extremely small amounts of gluten. But for those who believe that gluten is an intolerable poison that must be avoided in any amount, the reality is going to be difficult to swallow.

Author's Note: 10 Myths About Gluten

I've never really given much credence to nutritional fads, ever since I saw the 1973 Woody Allen movie "Sleeper," in which a health-food devotee Miles Monroe awakens after two centuries, in a world in which scientists have discovered that red meat, foods fried in deep fat and hot fudge are actually vital to one's well-being.

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