"Gluten free is not synonymous with healthy" (Cole). Gluten free diets are one of the most common fad diets and trends people are partaking in right now. These people who are taking on this diet so not understand that there is a difference between being gluten free and a having a healthy diet. The creators of the YouTube channel AsapSCIENCE begin to define what gluten is when they say that gluten is a combination of two proteins- gliadin and glutenin. These two proteins give bread the ability to rise properly and to have the ingredients stick together during baking (AsapSCIENCE). People who choose to cut out gluten from their diets believe that it is a healthy way to lose weight. Many people believe that removing gluten from their diets will be a healthy way to lose weight, and some may lose weight but that does not mean that a person is becoming healthier or losing weight in a healthy way, they are actually just cutting out a protein from their diet. Gluten free diets should not be ingested by humans other then those with celiac disease because those who are consuming the diet are doing it for the wrong reasons and because gluten free diets cause humans to not receive proper nutrients, experience negative effects of the diet, and also they will be spending much more money on gluten free products. 

Many people do not actually understand what a gluten free diet is, let alone what gluten really is and how it can affect their bodies. Tricia Thompson, a nutritionist who writes many different books about being gluten free, explains what a gluten free diet actually means in her article "So, What Exactly is a Gluten Free Diet?". When a person is eating gluten free, he or she is no longer receiving the essential grains wheat, barley, rye, or hybrids of these grains. This includes all varieties and forms of these grains, such as spelt (a type of wheat) and malt (made from barley)" (Thompson). A person who is not consuming gluten is cutting out many popular grains that can be found in different breads as well as other products. It has also been proven by Dr. Charlie Seltzer, who is the only physician in the country to hold board certification in Obesity Medicine, that "people who consume diets high in whole grains tend to have healthier weights and gain less weight over time than those who do not" (Seltzer). People who do eat these essential grains can also maintain a healthy weight or even lose weight in a healthy way. As it can be seen, many people do not have proper education on what a gluten free diet even consists of, they just understand that it is a popular trend going on currently. 

The only reason a person should be able to consume gluten is if he or she has celiac disease due to the fact that those with celiac disease can not properly digest gluten. Chris Iliades, who writes an award winning health blog, explains what celiac disease is, stating: "celiac disease, also known as celiac sprue or gluten-sensitive enteropathy, is a digestive illness that occurs due to the ingestion of gluten. If you have celiac disease, your intestines cannot tolerate the presence of gliadin, which is a component of gluten" (Iliades). As it can be seen, people who have celiac disease can not properly digest gluten and then the gluten causes their immune system to react improperly and then can cause inflammation to the small intestine which then can cause damage to villi on the inner lining of the small intestine. Those who have celiac disease and consume gluten can have results such as diarrhea, bloating, vomiting, or much serious health issues such as different autoimmune diseases (Gunnars). With these side effects, it is obvious that those who have celiac disease should stay away from gluten in order to not fell these pains in their stomach, but what is odd is that only 1% of humans have celiac disease, yet so many people are indulging in gluten free diets that do not have any beneficial outcomes. 

A major reason why gluten free diets are not beneficial is because they can result in extreme downsides against a person's health. Ameer Rosic explains in a YouTube video what some disadvantages are of eating a gluten free diet including the fact that since gluten has to be taken out of common food products and then replaced with other non gluten containing products, they become highly processed (Rosic). Since common food products are becoming gluten free, producers of these food items add a large amount of sugar as well as other ingredients that cause these items to become extremely treated with other ingredients that are not beneficial to a person's health, they can actually work negatively against a person's health. These added sugars also tremendously increase the amount of calories in gluten free products. Because of these processed ingredients, they cause gluten free diets to become exceptionally unhealthy and not beneficial in any way. William Cole, who specializes in clinically investigating underlying factors and customizing health programs for chronic conditions, wrote an article about what gluten free food items can do to the body, stating: "gluten free food typically contain corn, oats and rice. The problem is that these grains can all have potentially damaging inflammatory effects on the body" (Cole). Since these ingredients that are packed into gluten free items to take the place of gluten can cause very great damage to a person, they should not be consumed. A gluten free diet should not be consumed not only due to these damaging effects, but also because of how much the gluten free food items are processed and therefore gain large amounts of sugar added to these food items. The amount of sugar in these items will also immensely increase the amount of calories in the food items and this therefore busts the idea that gluten free diets are a healthy way of losing weight.  

Many people have the wrong impression of what a gluten-free diet can do; many people believe that eating gluten free can be a healthy weight loss mechanism. Carolina Dunn had performed a research study to determine people's beliefs about gluten-free diets where she would place two of the same types of food, one containing gluten and the other not containing gluten. She would ask the participants to rate the food items on the overall liking, flavor, and texture and then to answer a questionnaire about what the participants believed about the health benefits of gluten free diets. In her study she found that "32% believed that they were prescribed for weight loss. Other beliefs included that excluding gluten from an otherwise healthy individual's diet would improve overall health (31%), improve digestive health (35%), improve the diet (32%), and improve skin/complexion (21%). In addition, 37% agreed that gluten-free foods were healthier than their gluten containing counterparts" (Dunn). This study revealed that many people have the completely wrong idea of what gluten-free diets can do. With this study, it is proven that many people believe gluten-free diets are much better than diets that contain gluten because of several different reasons such as that they help overall health, digestion, skin and complexion. With this idea in mind, it provokes people to begin eating a gluten free diet for all the wrong reasons. "Daily News" interviewed Karla Shelnut, who is a University of Florida health and nutrition professor, about the effects of gluten free diets, and she began to talk about many people in the society joining the gluten free world, and she stated: "the problem is you have a lot of healthy women who choose a gluten-free diet because they believe it is healthier for them and can help them lose weight and give them healthier skin" (Jones). This is a clear issue that people are choosing to go gluten free all for the wrong reasons and not enough knowledge on the topic. 

People have this idea that gluten free diets have the ability to be a great way to lose weight because they are cutting out most carbs, but the reality is that gluten free diets do not aide in weight loss. In addition to results and drawbacks of consuming a gluten free sit, it has actually been found that people who consume a gluten free diet will most likely gain weight. Madeline Vann wrote an article debating whether going gluten free is a healthier option. Vann found that "Replacing gluten-containing foods with processed, gluten-free alternatives can lead to weight gain  --  cookies, breads, and snack foods should still be consumed in moderation, whether they contain gluten or not!" (Vann).  People who consume gluten free diets also have this mindset that these food products are healthier and therefore they can eat more. Because of this they end up putting extreme amounts of processed ingredients and other foods that contain a large amount of calories, and as a result they actually end up gaining weight because of these large amounts of calories that these people are not accounting for. 

With this idea of gluten-free diets being a healthy way to lose weight, it causes many people to want to go on a gluten free diet, but what they don't understand is that gluten-free diets do not contain enough nutrients, instead they are stripping gluten diets of essential nutrients. Tyler Jones who wrote an article about the harm of gluten free diets had interviewed Karla Shelnut, who is the University of Florida professor in health and nutrition, to gain more information on gluten free diets. Shelnut began to point out the negatives of gluten free diets, saying: "Refined gluten-free foods are often not fortified with essential vitamins and minerals, she says, and those for whom a gluten-free diet is necessary are advised to carefully balance their diet or take a vitamin supplement" (Jones). Gluten free foods are striped of essential vitamin and nutrients and therefore, people who believe these diets are healthy do not realize what they are missing when they are consuming gluten free items. Rachael Rettner had written an article about the downsides of gluten free diets and in her article she cited Katherine Tallmadge who is a reputable nutritionist. In the article Rettner cites Tallmadge, saying: "If you embrace such a diet, you'll end up 'eating a lot of foods that are stripped of nutrients,' Tallmadge said. Studies show gluten-free diets can be deficient in fiber, iron, folate, niacin, thiamine, calcium, vitamin B12, phosphorus and zinc, she said" (Rettner). Gluten free products should not be consumed because of their lack of essential nutrients. 

Since it has been found that gluten free products do not contain the recommended amount of nutrients needed, Tricia Thompson, the same author of "So, What Exactly is a Gluten Free diet?", had found that food products that contain gluten are much more nutritious when she performed a scientific study to figure out whether or not people who are consuming gluten free diets are receiving their recommended amounts of fibre, iron, and calcium. The participants in the study were asked to state everything they ate over three days. While doing her research, she found that 

In the general US population, grain foods contribute a large percentage to the adult daily intake of several nutrients including thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, folate, iron and fibre. Based on data from the US Department of Agriculture's 1989 --  1991 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII), yeast bread, ready-to-eat cereal, pasta, cakes/cookies/quick breads/doughnuts and hot breakfast cereal contribute 32.3% to the US adult daily intake of fibre (Thompson). 

 This study shows that various food items that contain gluten contribute to an average adults recommended daily intake of various nutrients including the important iron and fibre, which aide in digestion and help carry oxygen from the lungs through out the body. People who are consuming gluten free diets are not receiving their proper amounts of different nutrients that aide in many different daily functions of the body. Because of this, gluten free diets should not be consumed unless a human has the presence of celiac disease. 

"Americans will spend an estimated seven billion this year on foods labeled gluten-free" (Beach). It can be immensely surprising the amount of people that all of a sudden begin eating gluten free because it seems like a good idea and because others are doing it. Its also a crazy idea to spend more money on a gluten free food product when a person can spend much less for a product the contains gluten and gives much more nutrients to actually benefit the body. Another main reason that people should not go on a gluten free diet is because of the cost of gluten free food items. People are expected to spend such a large amount of money on this crash diet that they are not educated enough about. Although gluten free items are popping up more and more everywhere, they have a much larger price tag than those food items that do contain gluten. Anne Lee performed a research study to prove the higher costs of gluten free products. From her study, the results found that "the availability of gluten free products varied between the different venues, upscale markets carried 41% compared with 100% availability on the internet. Overall, every gluten free product was more expensive than their wheat based counterpart. Bread and pasta was twice as expensive as their wheat based counterparts" (Lee). This study was able to show that not only are gluten free items becoming more and more popular in stores, but also in each of these stores they are shown to be much more expensive than products that contain gluten. 

After performing this research, it is extremely surprising that although there are so many drawbacks from eating gluten free one in every five Americans consume gluten free food products. Also considering the price increase of gluten free products would make it extremely unappealing for people to go gluten free. Gluten free products should not be consumed because they contain many processed ingredients, are stripped of many essential nutrients, can cause weight gain, and have a much larger price tag than food products that contain gluten unless there is a celiac disease present. Many people have the wrong impression of what gluten free diets can do for a person, and therefore these incorrect impressions should be proven wrong, and will prove that gluten free diets should not be consumed. 
