4 Gluten-Free Foods to Avoid

Adopting a gluten-free diet is becoming more of a popular trend daily. With celebrities (what up Miley Cyrus!), magazines and books touting the health benefits of a gluten-free lifestyle it has become hard to ignore. The claim is that going gluten-free will raise your energy level, reduce water retention and help with weight loss... but what if you actually gain weight? Even though going gluten-free is allegedly going to make us healthy a lot of the gluten free alternatives available may not. The market for gluten free products has grown by 23% in the last five years and the price of these alternatives is going down. Well many gluten free lifers are filling the empty spots of their diet in with more veggies and meat-many of us are not. (guilty). Because let's face it. Gluten is yummy. The taste of a fresh piece of Italian bread straight from the toaster with a little melted butter is straight amazing-ness. Taking gluten out of what used to be staples of our diet does not produce the most appetizing food. If you've ever had healthy gluten-free bread that dissolves by touch you know what I'm talking about. So, the producers of these disgusting little snacks decided to try and make them tasty. How do you make something tasty? Up the fat, sugar, sodium, oh and corn. These products often contain high glycemic refined ingredients like white rice flour and potato starch, which is very bad. These products trigger your cravings by affecting your blood sugar. This means that that box of gluten-free cereal you opened that you meant to take one handful from is probably wrecking havoc on your blood sugar levels.   Here are 4 gluten-free foods need to be avoided:   1 THE BREAD Aleia’s Gluten-Free Farmhouse White Bread 2 Slices Calories: 240 calories Fat: 8 g Carbs: 36 g Instead try out Udi's bread.It has nearly half the calories and fat and is still delicious. 2. THE CEREAL Bakery on Main Granola (3/4 Cup) Calories: 250 g Fat: 12 g Carbs: 34 g Protein: 4 g Try Nature's Path Sunrise Crunchy Maple. It's delicious (tested) and contains only 1g of fat, 7g of sugar, 24gs of carbs and 110 calories for 2/3 of a cup.   3. THE PASTA Amy’s Kitchen Gluten-Free Dairy Free Rice Macaroni & Cheeze (per packet) Calories: 520 g Fat: 22 g Carbs: 72 g Sodium: 740 g Just because its rice pasta doesn't mean it's healthy. Look at the sodium level one more time. WOW. If you're jonesing for some pasta try out some brown rice penne. For one cup there are 110 calories, 1 g of fat 21 carbs and only 15 mg of sodium. Throw on some fresh tomato sauce and celebrate your regular sodium levels.   4. THE COOKIE Whole Food's Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookie (a single cookie) Calories: 190 g Fat: 10 g Carbs: 21 g Yes, one cookie. The average chocolate chip cookie 59 calories and 2.7 grams of fat! For a gluten free cookie try Glutino Chocolate and Cream cookie- just 2.5 grams of fat and 65 calories for one!   Now you know- just because it's gluten free does not mean it's healthy!   Click here to check out our 14-Day Nutrition Guide & get the most out of your workouts!