Gluten Free Is Not Grain Free

For many years now, there have been a wide variety of gluten-free products available––everything from gluten free bread, to tortillas, to crackers. For any and all of the products that you would normally find grain as an ingredient, there likely exists a gluten free alternative. 

Even products you wouldn’t expect to find grain or wheat listed as an ingredient come in gluten-free varieties; this, however, likely underscores the fact that grain is often found in foods you wouldn’t even expect to find it. Grains like wheat definitely underpin a large part of our industrialized food system, and you are likely to find wheat listed as an ingredient in many processed foods. 

Gluten is a protein found in wheat that some people are allergic to, a condition known as celiac disease. Other people claim they are sensitive to gluten, and so many people, whether they have an allergy to gluten or not, choose to avoid gluten. And, there is some argument that gluten, itself, is at least mildly inflammatory in all individuals. But instead cutting out grains and products made with grain, many people opt for gluten-free alternatives to traditional products like bread, crackers, cakes and more. Today, there is a huge market for these products, and you can easily find them in any grocery store. 

So if you are on The Kaufmann Diet, are gluten free products a good alternative to the bread you have been missing? Not necessarily. Gluten is not the culprit for which The Kaufmann Diet was designed. 

Mycotoxins, which are fungal poisons, have a tendency to infest grain products, particularly when they are stored after harvest. The poisons don’t wash off or “cook out” of grains even if they are processed and cooked. Some research states that mycotoxin contamination of grain is very common, even if these poisons are present in tiny amounts. This raises some important questions: notably, is it the gluten that causes inflammation, or is it the mycotoxins which are contaminating the grains that causes inflammation?

Of course, one cigarette is unlikely to give you cancer, but a few cigarettes a day over many years are far more likely to damage your health; the same may be true for mycotoxins. Given the volume of grain-containing foods many people consume on a daily basis, this is likely a good analogy for the potential damage to our health we could be causing by eating foods with grains.

So, part of the Kaufmann Diet is limiting exposures to grains––regardless of whether they contain gluten or not. And it is important to remember that gluten-free does not necessarily mean grain-free, it simply means there is no gluten in the product.

The other issue is that often gluten-free products are still high in carbohydrates; products like gluten free bread or cakes or pizza crust might still be high in carbs, sugar, or contain yeast products. 

The Kaufmann Diet limits high carbohydrate/high starch/high sugar foods, and anything containing yeast or fungal products is eliminated too. This is because high-carb foods are known to feed a potentially underlying fungal problem; these kinds of foods are eliminated on The Kaufmann Diet for the purpose of starving such an infection. 

Really, for the Kaufmann Diet, the only benefit to eating gluten-free products is if they are void of grains entirely. Even then, it is still important to read the label to discern if any of the ingredients therein interfere with your diet. 

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Gluten Isn’t The Problem

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