You have to approach your food choices more holistically…

Healthy food is easier and more beautiful than you ever imagined!

It’s easy to be romanced by Hollywood about the latest diet craze. Most people want to lose weight. And, the term “gluten-free” is on the tip of everyone’s tongue as being healthy. But is this talk of gluten free diet weight loss true? Or is a gluten free diet for losing weight just urban legend?

Myth #1: Gluten Free Diets Automatically Make you Lose Weight

The biggest problem with this claim is that it looks at only one part of your full nutritional profile: Gluten

Imagine if you cut out all gluten from your diet, but replaced it with other foods like ice cream, fatty cuts of meat, diet soda, milk, deep fried pork rinds, mashed potatoes and gravy loaded with butter, and excess alcohol.

Hell, you might as well throw the gluten back in, right?!

No man is an island, and no diet claim functions in a vacuum. For the best results and opportunity for diet success, you have to look at everything you eat and approach your food choices more holistically.

Myth #2: All Gluten Free Food is Good for You

Yes, the food manufacturers would love you to buy into that! And…many people do until they take the time to read the labels. The problem with processed foods on a gluten free diet weight loss journey is the goal of food manufacturers is often different than your goals. They want the food to have a long shelf life, and they want it to taste so good you’ll come back and buy more.

Doesn’t seem like a bad idea on the surface. But scratch a little deeper and you’ll realize that to reach their goals, the food companies need to add back in a lot of salt, sugar, and chemicals.

The problem with this is it puts your body’s endocrine system into overdrive as it tries to sort out all the faux food, sugar, and salt. Your hormones and how well they are balanced play a big part in how easy it will be for you to maintain a healthy weight.

The gluten free part is fine. However, when that “diet” food you eat with the intention of losing weight is processed you simply sabotage and frustrate your good intentions.

Healthy food is alive!

Myth #3: All Gluten Free Diet Weight Loss food is Bland and Boring

This may seem true at first if you are accustomed to eating processed food with a lot of sugar and salt. Plus, your taste buds may actually be a little dulled from your current diet. However, when you start adding in foods that are alive and filled with nutrients, your tastes will change. They often improve.

For example, eating an orange will become an experience; biting into a pear will make your mouth simply come alive; even eating regular vegetables like celery, sweet potatoes, and broccoli can become an anticipated destination in your gluten free meal rather than a chore.

The real key to a gluten free diet, or any diet, for weight loss is to add in fruits and vegetables as close to their natural state. Raw is best in most cases, but you don’t have to go completely raw to garnish benefits. What you will find is the more fruits and vegetables you add in, the less room you’re going to have for processed gluten free products.

And…you’re not going to miss them!

Plus, there are some great gluten free baking mixes you can mix up which use various flours with nutritional value and flavor. Yes, the corn starch used in most commercial gluten free flours comes cheap (which is why food manufacturers use it)….but it’s not always the best nutritional value you can buy.

Find mixes that use: Quinoa Flour, Amaranth Flour, Tapioca Starch, and Sorghum for example. In some recipes, you may be able to use ground up almonds to create your own almond flour. There are a lot of gluten free baking mix recipes and pastas that are gluten free and taste good.

Just remember to read the labels. The more words you can pronounce on the ingredient list…the better!