Is Keto Food Gluten Free

Gluten And Health Issues

It seems that eating gluten free is trendy, however, gluten can have serious health implications for certain people, especially those with autoimmune diseases.

People with celiac disease cannot eat any gluten whatsoever. Gluten will damage the lining of the small intestine and prevent the absorption of nutrients.

People with gluten sensitivity may not be diagnosed as having celiac, but may experience adverse affects from consuming gluten. Two of the most common adverse effects people report are joint pain, rash, brain fog and gastrointestinal issues.

People with hashimotos, like myself, cannot eat gluten, as studies have shown gluten may cause an inflammatory response that attacks the thyroid.

I can no longer eat gluten without suffering gastrointestinal issues or joint pain. When I gave up gluten, my chronic hip pain completely disappeared.

The most popular post in my gluten free recipes is the gluten free biscuit recipe. Its not grain free, not keto, but has no gluten, made with rice flours.

Differences Between The Keto Diet And Gluten

The keto diet and the gluten-free diet have many differences. From the many reasons to practice each of these diets, to the benefits they possess, and even the pitfalls of each diet, they are not the same whatsoever.

Here is a helpful chart showing the major differences of the Gluten-Free Diet and the Keto Diet:

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Macro Restrictions:

There are a few ways to practice the keto diet. Some people will restrict their carb intake to 0 grams, but most people will limit their daily carbohydrate count to 20 grams or less. This restricts most snacks and foods found in the grocery store.

Due to these restrictions, you will find that a lot of people on the keto diet lean into the meats and proteins portion of the diet.

Backtracking: The Molar Pregnancy

Time for the tissues. I want to go back and talk about how gluten may have affected me before my iritis diagnosis. Specifically, in pregnancy.

Morning sickness has been awful for me in each and all of my five pregnancies. I go off almost all carbs in the first trimester, especially wheat, because I just cant function at all during the first four months with carbs and wheat. It comes right back up.

Now that I know how gluten sensitive my body is, I wish Id been even stricter about it and maybe even done keto starting a few months prior to conceiving! I naively ate my saltines and ginger ale , and wondered why this old remedy didnt work for me.

In the last days of my third pregnancy, after the molar pregnancy.

Wheat may have affected me the most during my second pregnancy. Youll notice that earlier I said five pregnancies, four kids.

My second pregnancy ended up being a devastating complete molar pregnancy, or whats called gestational trophoblastic disease.

In very simple terms, during a complete molar pregnancy, an abnormal egg with no chromosomes is put out and one or two sperm fertilize the egg anyway. It begins to grow and multiply, but never forms a baby.

What forms is a mass of cells with the appearance of a cluster of grapes called a hydatidiform mole that can eventually turn into a cancer called choriocarcinoma and spread throughout the body, killing the mother.

My doctor rushed me into surgery the next day for a dilation and curettage to remove the cells.

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It Forces You To Really Read Ingredients Labels

How many times have you heard some variation on I had no idea _____ had so much _____ until I read the ingredients. I cant believe Ive been eating it for years! There are whole crowds of people out there who legitimately dont know that cookies have tons of salt, or that their BBQ sauce is full of sugar, or whatever else. This isnt to shame anyone were all busy, people have other things to do than read nutrition labels, and its not exactly gripping prose. But they are important, and a lot of times we need a nudge to really pay attention to them and read them consistently and carefully.

Reading nutrition labels speaks directly to one of the most common problems that trips up well-intentioned newbies to keto. A lot of new keto eaters accidentally overeat carbs, often because they dont read the ingredients, nutrition information, or serving size information carefully. Hunting down traces of gluten forces you to carefully scrutinize the ingredients labels on any and all processed foods. This is good practice generally but its essential for keto to prevent carb creep and accidentally carbing up when you didnt mean to. Watch out for those sneaky carbs!

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What’s The Problem With Gluten

It is likely that a number of people who believe they are intolerant to gluten, may in fact be intolerant to wheat instead. This is because they are usually hand in hand in baked goods.

Gluten isn’t necessary in our diets and so there are no issues with avoiding it but if you do have coeliac disease or other sensitivity then follow the advice of your medical professional.

Please Let Me Try Keto Doc

At my next appointment, my doctor told me it was routine for her to prescribe statins when total cholesterol was at or above 230 mg/dl. Mine was 233. My HDL was 51 and my LDL was 161. My triglycerides were 107.

For reference, for women, total cholesterol is recommended to be less than 200 mg/dl, HDL greater than 50 mg/dl, LDL less than 100 mg/dl, and triglycerides less than 150 mg/dl.

I asked my doctor if I could improve my numbers through diet or other lifestyle changes. I was desperate to not have to take a drug!

My doctor was very against trying to improve my cholesterol through diet.

She said even some of her skeleton-thin marathon-runner patients have high cholesterol and theres nothing they can do about it. Its purely genetics, she said.

I asked specifically about the keto diet , and she fought the urge to eye roll.

She seemed to know a little about the history of the diet and even told me some things I didnt know. But she also seemed to think it all belonged in the past or should only be used for specific medical conditions .

When I explained further that Id be eating things like spinach salad with homemade olive oil dressing, she got a puzzled look on her face, as though she hadnt thought that could be keto.

It amazes me that even some doctors think keto is always all about cream cheese and bacon and fail to consider healthy fats and vegetables!

Really?

I feel like doctors should know better!

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What Is The Ketovore Diet

You may actually come across this new term, which is a combination of keto and carnivore. Does it ever end? Probably not, so lets discuss this.

The ketovore diet is the latest trend and suggests eating carnivore for 3 to 4 days a week and keto the remaining days. This means you do not eat any vegetables/lettuces on carnivore days. This is the diet I think will probably work the best for me, and when I do this for an extended time, Ill come back and report on it.

Which One Is Better

Due to its foundation in scientific research, the keto diet wins in this head to head comparison. The keto diet is thoroughly vetted and has many studies to back the results that people are achieving every day.

Theres one exception, of course: people with gluten intolerances. A gluten-free diet can help cut down on inflammation associated with celiac disease, so if you have those issues, a gluten-free diet is a no-brainer.

However, when it comes to cutting out processed carbohydrates from the diets of the general public, gluten-free and keto are two sides of the same coin. Instead of replacing carb and gluten-heavy foods with gluten-free alternatives, naturally reducing processed carbs can lead to weight loss and overall better health.

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Benefits Of The Keto Diet

Although it may sound scary to focus on consuming a high amount of fatty foods, and it may even seem to be in conflict with your health goals, it is actually beneficial in many ways.

Burning only fats can help you drop a lot of weight quickly. This is because ketones suppress your hunger hormones which in return reduces your appetite. You will be able to go for longer periods without eating.

Next, a keto diet fuels and feeds your brain. As our brain is made up of at least 60% fat, and ketones provide an instant hit of energy whenever you’re burning fat. Consumption of essential fatty acids will also help to grow and develop your brain.

How Do I Know If I Have An Issue With Gluten

If you have chronic problems with diarrhea, bloating, anemia, rashes, and/or fatigue, you should talk to your doctor about screening blood work to test for celiac disease.17 A positive screening test will usually be followed by a visit to the gastroenterologist to discuss doing a biopsy of the small intestine, which is the definitive way to make the diagnosis.

If your screening for celiac disease is negative, but you have many of the same symptoms when eating gluten-containing foods, then you may choose to remove these foods from your diet and wait for your symptoms to fully resolve. Then, slowly reintroduce these foods to see if the symptoms recur this can be done multiple times. Foods that reliably provoke symptoms should probably be avoided.

Remember, it may be difficult to pinpoint if symptoms are being caused by gluten or some other component of these foods. A series of different food tolerance tests may be your best bet.

For instance, if you do just fine with gluten-containing homemade bread but have symptoms after eating processed gluten-containing products from the store, the main offender may not be gluten. But if you react poorly to both of these, then there is a higher likelihood that gluten could be the problem.

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Keto Food At The State Fair Of Texas

What is keto? Its a low-carb, high fat diet. Keto dieters are encouraged to cut out or reduce sugar, starch, fruit and alcohol and opt for meat, eggs, cheese, nuts, low-carb vegetables and healthy oils.

Keto options at the State Fair include:

• Barbecue: Smokey Johns Bar-B-Que has sausage and turkey legs. Yoakum Packing Co. has brisket, beef jerky and ribs. Dickels Smokehouse has jalapeño-cheese sausage and quail. Any booth with a lot of meat on the menu is a good choice.
• Alligator sausage: Not your typical fair food! Find it at Velasquez Catering.
• Chicken: Kabobs and other grilled chicken are sold at Juicys, Chans Chicken on a Stick, Docs, Rotisserie Chicken, Belgian Waffles and more.
• Charcuterie: Take a break in the Wine Garden with a meat and cheese board. Just skip the wine.

Ingredients For Keto Chicken Strips

Chicken obviously we will be using chicken tenders, you could always use boneless skinless breasts if you have them and slice them into tender sized pieces. When it comes to buying chicken, if you can try to get organic and antibiotic-free

Almond Flour this will be our breading! By using almond flour it keeps this recipe gluten-free

Ground Flaxseed Meal Not only will this help to get a crispy outside but flaxseed is so good for you! Just use the ground kind, because the actual seeds wont work well for breading and those are harder for your body to digest.

Spices: garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper

Cooking spray so the chicken strips can get golden crispy

Other Ingredients: Egg and parmesan cheese

**If you are looking for a different style of bread, for a keto option you can use crushed pork rinds, most of the time these are also gluten-free in terms of the regular unseasoned ones. Just double-check the label to be sure!

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It Steers You Away From Keto Junk Food

Try eating frozen prepackaged food of any kind when you cant have gluten. Even pre-made salad dressings can be a challenge. A lot of low-carb diet food is out.

Of course, gluten-free food is a huge market now, so theres an increasing amount of processed, packaged food with gluten-free labels splashed all over it. But the vast majority of it is high-carb , so thats automatically out on keto.

Basically, if you try to eat keto and stay gluten free, its a lot harder to eat a bunch of highly processed treats that shouldnt be in your mouth very often anyway. Its an easy way to steer your diet away from prepackaged processed foods and towards whole, fresh foods and single ingredients.

What Can We Eat On A Gluten

However, even with limited food choices, there are many gluten-free options now available in markets. It isnt that hard to adopt this diet as long as you keep an eye out for foods labeled with gluten-free or better yet, you can prepare home-cooked meals which will definitely be healthier.

Below are foods that are naturally gluten-free:

• Fruits and vegetables – All types of fruits and vegetables are naturally gluten-free so eat away!
• Meats and fish – Avoid battered or coated meats or fish.
• Dairy – Products such as plain milk, plain yoghurt and plain cheese are gluten-free as long as it does not contain added ingredients.
• Grain – Rice, buckwheat, quinoa, corn, oats and tapioca, as long as labeled gluten-free.
• Starches and flour – Potatoes, corn, chickpea flour, potato flour, corn flour, soy flour, tapioca flour and coconut flour.
• Nuts and seeds
• Herbs and spices
• Spreads and oils – All butter and vegetable oils .

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Is The Keto Diet Gluten Free

Within the past five years or so, the gluten free and ketogenic, or keto, diets have made the jump from medical necessities to mainstream menus as many, many people all over the world have reduced or eliminated grains.

Both diets have been trendy for some time now. Whether thats a good thing is up for debate, but both have been around much longer than many might realize. The keto diet was first discovered in the 1920s by a doctor who found that the diet was an effective treatment for children with epilepsy. In the 1940s, it was proved that eliminating gluten from the diets of those with celiac also eliminated symptoms associated with the disease.

At first glance, the diets appear similar. Going gluten free requires ditching all forms of gluten and the keto diet calls for a dramatic reduction of carbohydrates while increasing the amount of dietary fat one eats.

Essentially, the keto diet is not strictly gluten free. Generally, those following the diet limit carb intake to 50g per day. Those carbs could come from grains, however, many following the diet opt for fresh fruits and vegetables to reach that limit. Whether or not someone should go keto while living the gluten-free lifestyle is a decision that should be made carefully.

Its important to do some research before adopting the keto diet, though. And since the diet causes a drastic physiological change its critical to consult a doctor before adopting the diet, especially if you remain gluten free.

Gluten-Free Living