Gwyneth Paltrow gushes over gluten-free. Chelsea Clinton’s wedding cake was baked without it. The new Old Spice guy avoids the protein to help stay buff. Odds are good you, too, have tried — or at least encountered — a product with the gluten removed.
Americans are enthusiastically exiling a dietary staple that wasn’t even in most people’s vocabulary a decade ago. But why?
Unlike dietary boogeymen like trans-fats, gluten is not inherently bad. Only a small percentage of people can’t tolerate the protein, which occurs naturally in wheat, barley and rye. Plus, avoiding gluten can be really hard.
Gluten is an essential element of traditional breads and pastas (it’s the protein that gives them their structure), and it often is used as a thickener in foods such as ketchup and ice cream. Cutting out gluten doesn’t guarantee weight loss.
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