Going gluten-free is a way to wellness for people who suffer from celiac disease, a reaction of the immune system to gluten that can damage the small intestine and prevent some food absorption. But ditching gluten has recently been promoted as a way to lose weight for people who don't suffer celiac.
HuffPost Live's Caitlyn Becker asked a panel of health experts about the trend, and it turns out that cutting gluten from your diet is actually not a way to shed a few pounds. So where does that myth come from?
"A part of it is propaganda. It's celebrities promoting it as a form of weight loss. It's hearsay," said registered dietitian Nancy Patin Falini. "What we often find in the celiac population is often people gain weight once they go gluten-free."
Falini said that while some people might see weight loss when they cut out gluten, it's usually because they change other parts of their diet as well.
"In the case of those people who do claim they lost weight and they have no gluten-related disorders, often times what we're seeing is when they change their diet they may be cutting out a lot of the processed foods that are naturally high in calories and fat anyway," she said. "They tend to eat more whole foods, like beans and nuts and seeds and fresh fruits and vegetables."
See the full conversation about going gluten-free at HuffPost Live HERE.