Gluten Free and Dairy Free Diets

and why I'm not a fan

There is a lot of noise out there in the natural health space about gluten free and dairy free diets. The GF/DF diet seems to be a panica for all health issues and it is useful for a small number of people but it’s not for everyone.

Photo by Gorrin Bel on Unsplash

Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride describes in her book “Gut and Psychology Syndrome” [GAPS] that the history of the GF/DF Diet comes from the Specific Carbohydrate Diet [SCD] developed in the 1950’s. This diet removed all grains and starchy foods from the diet for a specific period and it helped many people to overcome many of their issues. The GAPS Diet is based on this. The main point to consider with the SCD and GAPS diets is that they are designed to be used for a finite period of time, for example 2 years, and implement other measures to heal the gut. They are not lifestyle diets.

GF/DF is touted as a life style change. The number one reason I don’t like it, is because I don’t approve of the foods people replace their bread and milk with. Lets take a look.

Dairy

There is a body of information claiming that humans are not designed to consume dairy. This comes from the people who advocate totally plant based diets. Dairy has been part of the historical diet of humans for a very long time. Why is the cow sacred in Hindu culture if not for the precious milk produced? Dairy cattle (in Australia at least) graze on pasture, sensible grazing practices enhance soil structure and can allow biodiversity of plant and animal species. Raw milk contains all the enzymes required to digest it, the primary enzyme known to most people is lactase. Although it is now extremely hard to come by raw milk due to government regulations, milk can be made more digestible by fermenting it as can be done with yoghurt making or kefir. Milk contains many, many nutrients that are readily available to a health person.

Lactose intolerance is a deficiency in lactase. The main symptom is diarrhoea. I’ve heard it said that you have lactose intolerance if you drink a glass of milk and 30 minutes later you are on the toilet shitting through the eye of a needle, but it may not be this severe in all people. The other molecule that may cause problems is casein as it is a large molecule like gluten.

Dairy alternatives are factory produced processed foods. Rice and oats are popular milk alternatives. These grains break down into glucose and do not contain healthy fats. Soy milk has it’s advocates and enemies, I won’t go into it here. The broad acre farming techniques used for these crops results in lost topsoil as well as reduced biodiversity. Almond milk is probably the most popular dairy alternative. Almonds have the highest oxalate content of any nut, oxalate chelates calcium out of the body. Almond milk will not strengthen your bones and may possibly weaken them. Almond orchards use 2 - 4 times the water of dairying, more pesticides and the monoculture nature of the orchards is said to kill millions of bees every year. The nutrient profile of these milks are made up with supplemental vitamins and minerals, themselves factory produced entities.

Packaging. Most dairy substitutes are sold in tetra packs, as is long life dairy milk. Foods packaged in this manner are ultra heat treated [UHT]. The high heat causes unfolding of the protein molecules making them harder to digest. Is the nutrient profile on the package determined before or after the UHT? Tetra packs are also lined with aluminum and this leaches into the food.

Grains

Gluten is found in wheat, rye and barley. Oats may be gluten free or not, depending on what source is used. The gluten in oats in said to be from being processed in the same factories that process the other grains, others disagree with this and say there is gluten oats.

Gluten is a large molecule that in a compromised digestive system may pass through the lining of the gut and initiate inflammation. This is the same argument for casein in milk. Coeliac disease is a condition where an individual is unable to breakdown gluten. The definitive diagnosis of coeliac disease has been via endoscopy where it is noted that the microvilli of the intestinal wall are worn down, this greatly reduces the ability of the intestine to absorb nutrients as a result the individual may have difficulty with weight gain.

When coeliacs were the only people avoiding gluten, it was often quite hard for them to find things to eat. These days, there are a plethora of gluten free products available on the market but are they healthy?

Many commercial gluten free baked goods contain high amounts of sugar and unhealthy fats as they are usually marketed to include the vegan demographic. (Margarine is another food I recommend avoiding). They are not any better for you than eating bread.

I’ve watched many people replace bread with things like rice cakes and corn thins - those thick, dry, crusty, biscuit type things. These are made via extrusion in a factory using high heat and pressure to give the nice shapes and long shelf life (think UHT). I remember the stories that used to be said about the breakfast cereal cornflakes having no nutrients left after processing, well these biscuits are made using the same process. Great for supermarkets, not so great for your gut. Crackers are another frequent bread substitute and although not manufactures with the same high heat and pressure of the they are often a factory food with a long, long shelf life.

Gluten free alternatives like buckwheat and quinoa are harder to digest than wheat. Buckwheat is from the rhubarb family and is very high in oxalate (see almonds above) and quinoa is very high in phytates. Used as a flour, these pseudo grains are chelating agents for minerals in your body and the regular consumption may lead to osteoporosis. Traditionally these seeds are soaked, even fermented and long cooked as a porridge to try to reduce these dietary hazards.

Gluten free flour has a large component of refined corn flour and tapioca. It is just pure starch with very little nutrient content left in it.

If you want to adopt a GF/DF diet there are healthier ways to do it. Simply replace baked foods with more fruit and vegetables. The diet I recommend the most is simply to eat meat and vegetables. If you are wanting to look after your gut health, consuming meat or bone broth and eating fermented foods regularly is the way to do it. Simply avoiding certain foods, especially if it is some of the time, will do nothing for your overall health and may adversely affect it.

This is not to say that there are some people out there that genuinely need to avoid gluten and dairy in their diets because they are made very uncomfortable from eating these foods. But if your are doing it because it is the fashion today, then it may be doing more harm than good.

As a homeopath, I am interested in the desires and aversions in your diet and what foods genuinely make you feel better or worse. This information may be used to determine a homeopathic prescription that suits you as an individual. Examples include - Antimonium crudum has a great desire for cucumbers, Causticum for smoked meats, Veratrum album for lemons and salt.

Bibliography

• Nourishing Traditions; S Fallon with MG Enig; New trends Publishing; 2001

• GAPS Gut and Psychology Syndrome; N Campbell-McBride; Halstan & Co. Ltd; 2014

• Desktop Guide to keynotes and confirmatory symptoms; R Morrison; Hahnemann Clinic Publishing; 1993