In the last few years, avoiding lactose, sugar and gluten has become a popular trend: restaurants offer many gluten-free dishes, and coffee shops are increasingly hearing “I’ll have a latte with coconut”.
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The ideal diet is a personalized, balanced diet tailored to your needs with health in mind.
Gluten
Gluten is a protein in certain cereal grains (wheat, rye, barley) that often causes intolerance. This unpleasant condition leads to damage to the intestinal mucosa, resulting in impaired absorption of nutrients. Constant nutrient deficiency causes disturbances in the body and dangerous health complications.
In such a situation, it is important to find out in time whether the condition is congenital (celiac disease) or temporary, e.g. due to infections. This determines how long to exclude gluten-containing foods from the diet.
The fact is that wheat and other grains contain a lot of useful substances – dietary fiber, lipids, vitamins, minerals (from iron, calcium, zinc and magnesium to sodium, copper and selenium), phenols and flavonoids. Therefore, their exclusion from the menu of a person with no intolerance can lead to deficiencies and possibly aggravate the course of existing diseases or conditions.
And if you analyze the composition of gluten-free products and compare them to regular products, you will find that many gluten-free products contain more sugar, fats and food additives, such as substances to improve the structure of the dough and preservatives to make the product tastier.
Lactose
I think milk is a uniquely smart food: it has calcium and vitamin D, which helps calcium absorption, but also magnesium, phosphorus and even iron, other vitamins and amino acids. And the milk fats in milk reduce inflammation and bad cholesterol, and improve microflora.
Lactose is a so-called milk sugar contained in milk. It is broken down in the body into glucose and galactose, gives energy, improves the absorption of vitamins B and C, normalizes the nervous and immune system. But if the body can not assimilate and digest it, then, being in the intestine “idle”, lactose disrupts its work. As a result, there are unpleasant symptoms: flatulence, diarrhea, abdominal bloating, pain.
Sometimes lactase deficiency (inability of the body to digest lactose) is confused with an allergy to cow’s milk protein. The immune system perceives milk protein as an allergen and produces antibodies to it. Allergy is manifested by rashes on the skin and digestive disorders: nausea, diarrhea, colic.
If you have lactose intolerance or protein allergy, then exclude dairy from the diet will have to, but only after consulting a doctor and laboratory tests. In all other cases, the exclusion of dairy products, especially in children, does more harm than good. By reducing oxidative stress, dairy products help the brain in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, cleanse the liver, immune system, blood vessels, lower blood pressure. Dairy products help microflora and digestion.
Especially in the case of lactase insufficiency it is not necessary to remove all “dairy” from the diet: for example, in sour milk products at the end of shelf life remains so little lactose that, as a rule, they are well digested. Condensed milk, many cheeses and cottage cheese of 9% fat content also rarely cause a reaction.
Sugar
There is a nuance on sugar – it is the added sugar that carries the harm that is being written about. Its consumption in large quantities can indeed be even dangerous (especially in carbonated drinks and sweets, these products we are evolutionarily not ready to eat in such quantities). But it is impossible to completely deprive the body of glucose, it is necessary. For example, brain cells, lens, kidneys work worse with glucose deficiency in the body.
Here it is important to understand: glucose is not only in sugar, it is a natural carbohydrate, which is rich in sweet fruits and vegetables. In addition, natural sugars are found in honey, dairy products, nuts. It is not necessary to eat candy to get the daily norm of glucose and fructose – it is quite enough to eat a fruit and a vegetable.
Food products are a complex matrix of macro- and microelements, which are packed in different ways, and this is what makes each product unique and determines its effect on our body. Therefore, it is important to eliminate from your diet what does not suit you personally.
