Gluten is found in grains such as rye, barley, or wheat. These grains are found in many things that you don't even realize til you are on the diet. The gluten free diet started out for people with celiac disease, which is an autoimmune disease. It is under diagnosed 97% of the time. It is also common in 1 in about 250 people in the United States. People with celiac disease are unable to digest gluten correctly which then causes one or many different things from skin, bowel, or developmental issues. The GFCF diet is gluten free and casein free diet. Casein is a protein from milk so its also in cheese, butter, yogurt, ice cream, whey and some brands of margarine.
The gluten free or GFCF diet has recently been proven to help with many other disorders. Some of these disorders consist of autism, M.S., PDD, IBS, eczema, psoriasis, arthritis, diabetes, and the list has continues to grow with more people trying this diet for other medical issues. This diet does take time to show any improvement in most cases. It can take your body up to 6 month to completely get rid of gluten.
The biggest concern with this diet is that you or your child is not getting enough nutrition. The only major things that you will possibly lack while on this diet are calcium and copper. Many times lack of certain nutrients can be fixed with some sort of vitamin.
Most of my research starts with trying to find different cures for eczema and autism. I have already read so many praises on the GFCF diet for autism that I am pretty much convinced. I just recently started researching this diet for eczema, which is mostly caused by food allergies and in infants its mostly caused by milk and/or gluten. Eczema is an autoimmune disorder which can lead to other issues like asthma. The body is unable to break down gluten proteins which causes the body to be under a large amount of stress that then causes and inflammatory reaction. It seems to me that this would work great for eczema just like autism.
So should you jump on the bandwagon? I would say if you or your child has a medical issue that seems like it would benefit from this diet, then go for it! Of course make sure you are getting the nutrients your body is missing out on too! If you don't have a medical issue then its not really necessary and personally I like my pasta and breads and I'm not sure that I could give them up since it is unnecessary for myself. However, I have tried many recipes as I have had my daughter on this diet and I can tell you most things you can't tell the difference in taste but some are mostly texture difference which my husband can't stand. This diet can get very expensive so if you decide to try it out then definitely learn how to make some things yourself instead of buying all the specialty products.
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