Gluten free yogurt: Does Greek Yogurt Have Gluten in It!
On your breakfast, you probably take wheat bread. Do you know that wheat contain gluten? May be you are fine with gluten and therefore you are not concerned about gluten. But, there are people with gluten intolerance and consumption of foods that contain gluten can cause problems associated with the body’s several functional systems. So, today, my write up includes gluten and gluten intolerance, positives and negatives of consuming gluten-free foods, etc. Moving on the post, hopefully you will be able to know some new aspects as well. For several reasons, you may need to go for gluten-free. If you or your doctor identify you are intolerant to gluten, you have to follow a particular food intake. I suggest you to take the yogurt without gluten. Since, yogurt has several other health benefits, you should eat gluten free yogurt.
Gluten is basically a combination of several proteins. It is mostly found in cereal crops such as wheat, rye, spelt and barley. Since, the cereal foods we take most is wheat, gluten is mostly consumed by us through wheat based foods.
There are two major proteins present in gluten. They are glutenin and gliadin. Of these two, gliadin is usually responsible for most of the negative health problem associated with gluten consumption.
When you mix the wheat with water, it will provide a sticky form and it provides the dough with an elastic form. This elasticity makes the dough rise when you bake it. But, this rise of dough is not similar to the rise of the dough by yeast.
The naming of gluten is interesting. Since, mixing of wheat with water produces a glue-like form, it has been named from “glue”.
The facts about gluten are still arguable. Most of the sources say that, it is alright for everyone except the people with celiac disease. On the contrary, health specialists claim that, consumption of foods with high gluten can cause harmful consequences on health. So, it is clear that there are distinct controversies related to gluten.
Recommended: How to tell if your yogurt is bad in details.
What is gluten free?
Gluten free simply means a chart that does not contain any foods with gluten. If consumption of gluten foods create problem for you, you should follow a gluten-free formula.
Gluten free diet
You can also add gluten free Greek yogurt in your daily meal.
The food chart stringently excludes gluten. Although, gluten can also be found in oats, addition of oats in a gluten-free meal is still controversial because, oats can be cross-contaminated with other gluten-containing cereal crops.
Consumption of gluten-containing foods can cause health problems in people with gluten intolerance. These problems include: celiac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity, gluten ataxia, dermatitis herpetiformis and wheat allergy. In the people with these problems, excluding the particular component has been established as an effective treatment. On the other hand, several studies showed that, maintaining the specific habit cannot fully recover celiac disease. But, this can occur due to the inappropriate following of the chart.
The proteins of gluten have less nutritional and biological value as well. Moreover, the cereal crops that contain gluten, are not that much essential in the meal for human. Along with that, an unbalanced and undetermined gluten-free food chart can also lead to nutritional lacks.
Why need a gluten-free diet?
Basically, it is required to keep away the problems associated with gluten-containing food consumption.
For example, people with celiac disease which is an auto-immune disease, strictly need to exclude gluten. However, celiac disease is not so common in people, but it can pose harmful consequences (damage to the area of the small intestine) if it remains undiagnosed or untreated.
In addition to that, if you face the symptoms of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity after consuming gluten-containing foods, you should consult with your doctor immediately. Because, doctor can provide you with proper suggestions and diagnostics and it will protect you from negative health consequences.
Is yogurt gluten free?
Now you can ask me that, “is yogurt gluten free?” I will say “yes”. Except some, most of the yogurts are gluten free. Moreover, most of the cheeses and milk are also gluten-free.
I have earlier said that, gluten is a group of protein found in several cereal crops such as wheat, oat, barley, rye, etc. Therefore, foods produced from these cereal grains such as bread or pasta also contain gluten. Moreover, foods from other food sources are also gluten-free if they do not have any added ingredients which contain any cereal crops that contain gluten.
For example, several brands of yogurt have granola toppings or contain added flavors and other ingredients which may contain gluten.
Why gluten is harmful for some people?
Most of the people do not have any problems with gluten. But, consumption of gluten-containing foods can create problems for the people with particular health conditions.
Earlier I said the name of the health problems associated with the consumption of gluten-containing foods. Now, I will try to provide you with a brief about those problems.
- Celiac disease: This disease is also spelled as “coeliac” disease. This disease is the most dreadful form of gluten intolerance and it affects almost 1 percent of the total population. This disease is an autoimmune disease and during the disease, the body treats gluten as an out comer. Moreover, the body’s immune e system attacks the lining of the gut as well as gluten.
Attacking of the gut by the immune system causes damage to the gut wall. Besides this, this phenomenon also creates anemia, nutrient deficiencies, digestive problems and several other health problems as well.
Most of the symptoms of celiac disease include digestive disorder, damage of the tissues in the small intestine, constipation, bloating, rash in skin, depression, etc. On the other hand, some people with celiac disease may not face any digestive problems, but they can feel tired or anemic.
Since the symptoms of celiac disease are not distinct enough, it is quite hard to diagnose the disease. Moreover, researches show that, almost 80% of the people with celiac disease cannot understand that whether they have the disease or not.
- Non-celiac gluten sensitivity: In many people, a diagnosis of celiac disease do not show positive result but they still negatively react to gluten. This phenomenon is called non-celiac gluten sensitivity. The total number of the people with this problem has yet not been identified, but an approximate value is around 13% of the total population.
Non-celiac gluten sensitivity includes many symptoms of celiac disease. However, the symptoms include diarrhea, tiredness, bloating, depression and stomach pain. Moreover, the symptoms usually appear hours or even days after the gluten has been ingested.
It has been clinically recognized that, non-celiac gluten sensitivity is less serious than the celiac disease. In most of the cases, gluten sensitivity can be overcome just by modifying the food intake.
Researchers have also found that, gluten sensitivity does not increase the intestinal permeability which is a characteristic of celiac disease. However, increasing intestinal permeability allows toxins, bacteria and undigested proteins of foods to pass through the gastrointestinal barrier into the bloodstream. Moreover, these occurring can lead to severe autoimmune disorder.
In addition to that, non-celiac gluten sensitivity is different from a wheat allergy.
- Wheat allergy: Wheat allergy is also a problem associated with the consumption of foods made with wheat. The symptoms of wheat allergy include gastrointestinal problem which is also similar to the symptoms of celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity. However, symptoms of wheat allergy onset faster than those two and it occurs from minutes to hours.
Gluten free yogurt
For a long period of time yogurt has been established as a safe breakfast choice for the people who are on a gluten-free track. But, several yogurt manufacturing companies are gradually adding gluten containing cereals in yogurt. Therefore, those particular people need to be more concerned while buying a yogurt. Moreover, yogurt manufacturers are now increasingly adding seeds and cereals to the yogurt in order to capitalize their business.
Earlier I have talked about oats that can be cross-contaminated with other gluten-containing cereals. Therefore, the addition of oats without processing it or removing the gluten can cause problematic consequences. But, it does not mean that the addition of oats in yogurt has been always unsafe, because some manufacturers use gluten-free oats in yogurt. Moreover, to be gluten-free, it needs to fulfill the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) requirements.
Note: Lactose-free yogurt is generally for the people with lactose intolerance.
How to know whether you are gluten intolerant or not?
The most common symptom of gluten intolerance is digestive problems. Moreover, you may also face anemia or weight loss. We have a complete article on how yogurt lose weight.
If you face problems with the consumption of gluten-containing foods, first you have to ask your doctor to diagnose whether you have celiac disease or not.
There are two major ways to identify celiac disease. The ways are as follows:
- Test your blood: Your blood sample can undergoes for several tests to for screening antibodies. The most common test is tTG-IgA test. If the test shows positive results, a tissue biopsy is required to confirm the result of the blood test.
- Biopsy of tissues from small intestine: in this test, tissues has been isolated from the small intestine and it is observed to test whether there is a damage or not. If tissue damage is identified, there must be celiac disease.
If you can identify that you have developed celiac disease, you have to consult with your doctor before removing gluten and it will make the diagnosis easier.
However, if you do not have celiac disease, you should strictly follow a gluten free diet for several weeks to identify whether the symptoms develop or not.
After that, you have to introduce gluten-containing foods again to your meal to see whether the symptoms return or not.
After completing these processes, you might be able to identify your problems.
A gluten free food chart
To make this, you have to know the foods that are gluten-free and gluten-containing. Now I will provide you a list with gluten-containing and gluten-free foods.
Foods with a higher gluten amount
- Wheat
- Rye
- Spelt
- Barley
- Bread
- Cereal
- Pasta
- Beer
- Cake, pastry and cookies
Gluten-free cereal crops
- Corn
- Rice
- Flax
- Millet
- Sorghum
Gluten-free foods
- Fish and meat
- Dairy products (Check the list of Dairy free Products)
- Eggs
- Fruits and vegetables
- Nuts
- Fats
Most of the yogurts are gluten free. Therefore, you can add gluten free yogurt to your diet without any confusion. Moreover, gluten free frozen yogurt is also a nice choice to consume.
How to buy?
While buying that particular yogurt, you have to consider several matters.
- You must read the label carefully. Because, some flavors or ingredients may contain gluten. To be confirmed, you can also contact with the company.
- Look for the “gluten-free” label or see the amount of gluten, whether it meets the FDA requirements or not.
- You need to avoid the yogurt where “may contain wheat ingredients” is written on the label.
- You have to avoid buying flavored yogurt with granola, modified food starch, artificial colors, thickeners, nuts, chocolates and candies in their ingredients list.
You also need to buy your desired type of yogurt from a renowned shop as well as the yogurt should be manufactured by a reputed company. Because, buying a product of a reputed company, increase the chance of getting a good product.
Things to be considered before starting a gluten-free diet
It is not necessary to avoid gluten containing foods if are not gluten intolerant. Moreover, people with certain health conditions require foods with gluten. There are both benefits and bad sides of following gluten-free. The side effects may pose both positive and negative impacts on your health depending on your problem. Now, I will be focusing on these.
The benefits:
First of all, it will help to keep away the problems associated with gluten-containing food consumption.
Moreover, this habit may help to reduce digestive problems such as irritable bowel syndrome, bloating etc.
For the treatment of celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity, stringent maintaining of gluten free foods is the only option.
Bad sides:
I have already said that, before going gluten-free you need to consult with your doctor. Because, starting without any valid reason may cause the emergence of other health problems.
The biggest negative side of a going gluten-free is missing the healthy and balanced nutritional requirements. But, if you are gluten intolerant, you perhaps have no other options but avoiding gluten.
Gluten is mostly found in whole grains and whole grains are rich in fiber. So, by cutting down these grains, you are going to lose essential fibers which facilitate the digestion process.
To conclude, I wish to say that, you must avoid foods with gluten content if you have gluten intolerance. I tried to make you understand about several facts on gluten, diseases associated with gluten-containing foods and the benefits and bad sides of following a gluten free diet. Along with that, I have briefly talked about the benefits of consuming yogurt as I did on my other posts as well. I have also tried to provide information from recent researches and authentic sources. I finally suggest you to eat gluten free yogurt and gluten free Greek yogurt if you need to exclude gluten from your meal. The write up will hopefully meet up your questions which were “is yogurt gluten free?” and “is Greek yogurt gluten free?” From my article you will get important information and I believe it will be helpful for you.
Note: Yogurt Trusted Brand: Chobani, Fage, Yoplait, Dannon, Oikos, siggi etc.