Gluten-free not always the ‘healthy’ option
U of C study shows foods without gluten for children can be high in sugar, fat and sodium
Gluten-free foods aimed at children aren’t necessarily a healthy option, with many having high levels of sugar, fat and sodium, according to a study.
Parents should carefully assess labels before buying gluten-free products, said University of Calgary professor Charlene Elliott, whose study appeared in the medical journal Pediatrics on Monday.
“Despite the fact that gluten-free products tend to have a health halo among consumers, they are not nutritionally superior,” she said. “It’s important to unsettle the assumption that gluten-free food equals healthy food.”
Researchers analyzed 374 products from two supermarket chains in Calgary. They compared those labelled as gluten-free to equivalent products without this label and found the former were not necessarily healthier.
Nearly 80 per cent of the glutenfree products had high sugar levels and 88 per cent were also high in fat and sodium. Many also had lower levels of protein than their non-gluten-free counterparts.
“For the parents who are purchasing these products because they actually think it will confer health benefits to their children, this study shows there’s actually no nutritional reason to do that,” Elliott said.
“And for the parents of kids who actually have a gluten intolerance, this study shows how challenging it is for them to provide a healthy and adequate diet using the packaged foods that are available.”
Elliott did a food marketing study in 2008 and at the time her team didn’t even code for glutenfree products because there just weren’t enough of them on the market.
“But for this study, almost onefifth of the products we analyzed claimed to be gluten-free, so there’s been an incredible growth in the last decade,” she said.
An American survey done in 2013 found 65 per cent of respondents who ate gluten-free foods did so because they thought it was healthier and 27 per cent thought it would help with weight loss.
“The biggest myth is that following a gluten-free diet will make you lose weight,” said Sarah Remmer, a registered dietitian in Calgary. “A lot of the gluten-free products are higher in calories, higher in sugar, higher in fat and in additive preservatives, so it’s certainly not a healthier diet.”
Remmer said having a glutenfree diet by decreasing the amount of refined carbohydrates you eat and replacing them with things like fruits, vegetables and certain whole grains is healthier.
“But when you start replacing gluten-containing products with gluten-free products — say glutenfree bread — you will probably actually be worse off.”
Both Remmer and Elliott attribute this gluten-free trend to the “free” movement, where people think eliminating something from their diet means they’re being healthier.
“There’s a lot of myths that gluten is really inflammatory and causes this and that,” said Remmer.
“And it can be inflammatory for someone who has celiac disease, but it doesn’t do the same thing to everybody. It’s just misinformation that gluten is bad for you.”