Gluten Free Engineer - Making Gluten Free Easy

Gluten-Free Nutrition: Are You Getting Enough Nutrients?

• Carrie Saunders • Episode 12

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Going gluten-free is essential for those of us with celiac disease or gluten intolerance, but here’s the thing—just because a food is gluten-free doesn’t mean it’s nutritious. In fact, many gluten-free eaters struggle with nutrient deficiencies without even realizing it!

So, how do you know if you’re getting the vitamins and minerals your body needs? And what can you do if you’re falling short?

In today’s episode, we’re talking about the most common nutrient deficiencies in a gluten-free diet, how they affect your health, and the best ways to make sure you’re getting enough of the right nutrients to thrive—not just survive!



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Carrie Saunders:

Quick reminder before we get started on this episode this podcast is based on my personal experiences and isn't medical advice. Going gluten-free is essential for those of us with celiac, gluten intolerance or choose to be gluten-free for other health reasons. But here's the thing just because food is gluten-free doesn't mean it's necessarily nutritious. In fact, many gluten-free eaters struggle with nutrient deficiencies without even realizing it. So how do you know if you're getting the vitamins and minerals your body needs and what can you do if you're falling short? In today's episode, we're talking about the most common nutrient deficiencies in a gluten-free diet and how they can affect your health, and the best ways to make sure you're getting enough of the right nutrients so that you can thrive, and the best ways to make sure you're getting enough of the right nutrients so that you can thrive. Welcome to the Gluten-Free Engineer Podcast. I'm your host, Saunders.

Carrie Saunders:

In 2011, I was diagnosed with celiac disease, a moment that changed everything, but I was determined not to let it hold me back. With my two engineering degrees, I set out to reverse engineer the gluten-free lifestyle, breaking down recipes, safety tips, travel hacks and everything in between to rebuild a life I love, whether you have celiac disease, gluten intolerance or simply choose to live gluten-free. This podcast is for you. Join me each week as we simplify the gluten-free lifestyle, make it fun and prove that you don't have to miss out on anything. Welcome back to the show. Today we're talking about being gluten-free and making sure that we are getting the nutrients that our body needs. Now why do we need to be especially concerned with this when we're gluten-free? Well, one, if we're celiac, our bodies are already behind the game, because when you have celiac disease, it damages your small intestine, which damages your ability to absorb the nutrients in your foods. So you're already behind the ball on this, and I'm going to be talking about some of the most common nutrient deficiencies, and I want to encourage you to work with your healthcare provider to test for these to see if you're in the thriving range not just the minimum that you need for these vitamins as well. I would encourage you to ask them what, ideally, would you like my vitamin D level to be, for example? That is something I asked my doctor one day, because I know there's lab minimums, but many times those lab minimums are literally minimums. They are not the surviving minimum. They are well, they're basically the surviving minimum, not the surviving minimum. Well, they're basically the surviving minimum, not the thriving minimum. So I encourage you to ask your doctor what is your thriving minimum? Where would you like me to ideally be with these vitamins?

Carrie Saunders:

And another reason that we have trouble when we're gluten-free with enough nutrients is one many times the gluten-free processed foods are not fortified. So in most people's diets, especially Americans, we really generally don't eat that great. We don't eat enough fruits, we don't eat enough vegetables. We may be upside down on like how much carbs we eat versus the protein we eat. We're probably more heavy carbs and protein than we are these other essentials, like the vegetables and the fruits. I know for me. I grew up on a meat and potatoes diet. That's what I called it. I literally ate mostly just meat and potatoes, and that's only going to provide so many nutrients.

Carrie Saunders:

Whenever we eat, generally to an extreme of any sort, we have to be careful that we're getting the other nutrients that are in the foods we're not eating. One of the reasons being gluten-free can be tough in modern day is many times our processed foods are fortified with vitamins and minerals. Well, that's generally not the case for processed gluten-free foods. They're already more expensive and then that just adds some more things for the manufacturers to do and they're just not fortified generally with the main vitamins we're going to be talking about today, like processed gluten foods are, and we want to make sure that obviously naturally gluten-free foods, those do have the vitamins we need. You know, the fruits, the vegetables, the lean proteins, the carbohydrates that are not processed, that we can get in our diets. Those all have great nutrients in them.

Carrie Saunders:

But we also, even if we eat whole-based foods, we need to make sure that we are getting tested regularly, especially if you have celiac, to make sure we're eating enough variety of them, because it's honestly a bit hard to eat enough variety in our diets many times, just from practicality standpoint, to get all the vitamins and nutrients that we need. And, like I alluded to earlier, many people with celiac disease have many, many years of damage to the intestines. It makes it harder to absorb key vitamins and minerals and sometimes that damage is permanent and we have a really hard time absorbing it, even if we correct our diet. So how do we combat this? How do we combat the fact that in modern day we generally don't eat quite as a variety of food as we used to do, and also the gluten-free foods aren't fortified to make up for that fact. So, first off, we want to get tested by our doctor, like I suggested. It's a really good idea to get regular testing from your doctor on various nutrients that we're going to talk about in the episode and talk to them see if there's other ones besides the most common ones that we're going to mention here.

Carrie Saunders:

So one of the most common nutrient deficiencies in a gluten-free diet is iron deficiency. Okay, sometimes people think or find out that they're anemic and then later find out that they actually are celiac and that's why they're anemic. Low iron can cause fatigue, weakness, shortness of breath and many times gluten-free eaters, especially those with celiac disease, are at a higher risk of anemia due to poor iron absorption. And a lot of our cereals and pastas are fortified with iron, especially the cereals. So some of the best gluten-free iron sources are red meat, poultry and fish, Also lentils and beans, spinach and dark griefy leans, which is great, and it's great to pair those with vitamin C for better absorption. This is also something you might want to talk with your doctor or nutritionist. You know what vitamins should I take and which ones should I pair them with, because many times our vitamins work better and get absorbed better when they're paired with another vitamin, so make sure you're aware of that as well. Also, pumpkin seeds are high in iron, so those are some great iron choices and this is something I think you should regularly be tested for, especially if you have that fatigue, weakness and shortness of breath symptoms you know in it as well. But we want to make sure we're absorbing enough iron. It is essential for our body to work to have enough iron, so that's one of the main ones we need to be looking at. Also, calcium and vitamin D. This is for our bone health and our energy levels.

Carrie Saunders:

When I was before I actually was diagnosed with celiac disease. One of my symptoms per se was that they found my vitamin D levels were through the floor. They were so low that I'm not kidding you this one doctor I had at the time put me on 60,000 units of vitamin D per day for several weeks and then backed me down. Now that one's one. From what I understand and from what doctors have told me, it's okay to take extra of it because you just flush it out if you're not absorbing it. But even though she had me on that much vitamin D. I barely got my vitamin D levels up, but again we didn't know. I had celiac too, so that was compounding it as well. So make sure you have your vitamin D levels checked. This is also a modern day problem, where we're inside more. We're not out in the sun more we're not out in that morning sun when it's a great time to safely get vitamin D. So make sure your vitamin D levels are checked.

Carrie Saunders:

Whether you're celiac, gluten intolerant or choose to be gluten-free, it's a really good idea, and some of the best gluten-free sources and I'm going to caveat this to say that some nutritionists you know kind of want to steer you away from dairy. So please talk to your doctor and your nutritionist to make the best decision for you. But these are some products that do have vitamin D in it, so you need to work with your doctor to see which ones are appropriate for you. But dairy products, milk, cheese and yogurt, of course, fortified plant-based milks like almond milk, soy milk and oat milk, leafy greens like kale, fatty fish like salmon and sardines, and, of course, sun exposure. It's a really good idea to get a healthy dose, a healthy and I'm like saying literally healthy dose, not a let's get really tan and burnt in the sun type of dose we get a nice. You know what they recommend. What the doctors recommend healthy dose I think it's about 20 minutes in the morning is when they suggest it, because the sun's not quite as strong then too. But when we're looking for that vitamin D, I do recommend that you also mushrooms have vitamin D. I just had like a squirrel moment there. Mushrooms also have vitamin D in it too. But look at the foods that are naturally vitamin D rich first Before I would suggest you go to supplements and things like that, because we do absorb food vitamins better than supplement vitamins. Obviously, talk to your doctor whether you need to also supplement as well, but getting as much as you can from food is even better for your system.

Carrie Saunders:

Now, another one is vitamin B. Low vitamin B can present in the form of brain fog. This is also one that can give you low energy when you don't have enough mood swings. For myself, I had a vitamin B deficiency and it was causing numbness in my fingers and my feet before we knew I had celiac. We even did nerve testing when I was pregnant with my youngest. I believe I've told a little bit of this story already on the podcast before, but we couldn't figure out why my fingers and my feet were going numb. You know, it kind of felt like they were falling asleep all the time, thought it was the baby going numb. You know, it kind of felt like they were falling asleep all the time, thought it was the baby laying on you know my nerves or something. But no, nerve testing was fine. After I had him I still had the issue until I found out I had celiac and went gluten-free several years later and I realized, hey, this problem I used to have isn't happening anymore. So vitamin B deficiency can also be numbness in your extremities.

Carrie Saunders:

And many wheat-based products are enriched with vitamin Bs things like folate, b6, and B12, whereas most gluten-free foods aren't. And then again we're talking about processed foods here. So if we want to stay off for, in general, the processed food wagon, then we need to go for the things that have, you know, natural vitamin B in it, like eggs, dairy meat and fish have vitamin B many times. Green leafy vegetables, fortified gluten-free cereals can have it Many times. Potatoes can have it, especially if you leave a little bit of that dirt on the outside. We do get vitamin B from our soil, so you know, work with your doctor to make sure you're not low in vitamin B. This is one of the vitamins that my doctor likes to check with me pretty regularly, because I actually am low in folate still, and so now I'm on a supplement to try to help that. Honestly, I can admit I need to eat more leafy green vegetables. I'm not a fan of them, but I really do need to. So, saying this on the podcast, maybe it'll help me get back on track and eat those a bit more.

Carrie Saunders:

Now, another vitamin that you might not think of is magnesium. This can cause muscle cramps, anxiety, poor sleep if you're low in it. It's a very important vitamin for also helping you really utilize that calcium that you're getting, and gluten-free grains tend to be lower in magnesium, which is essential for your muscle function, your nerve function and your bones, and so some of the best gluten-free sources for magnesium are nuts and seeds, such as almonds, cashews and pumpkin seeds. Dark chocolate yes, this one I'm so excited about. I am such a dark chocolate addict. If you ask any of my friends or family like, oh yeah, she loves chocolate, especially dark chocolate. I actually eat the 95%. That's how much I love dark chocolate.

Carrie Saunders:

So dark chocolate, yay for that, and obviously go for the higher percentage. That's going to be healthier for you. It has less sugar, it has more of the better fats in it and more of the magnesium in it. Also avocados. So if you're an avocado fan, then yay. Avocados are going to help you with that magnesium. Also legumes and whole grains like quinoa. So you can find some magnesium in some of our natural foods that we can eat that are not, you know, processed.

Carrie Saunders:

So make sure you're checking for magnesium. See if your doctor thinks you should, it might be worth checking every so often. It's a vitamin that mine doesn't check, you know, quite as often as like vitamin D or the vitamin Bs. But you know what, now that I'm making this podcast episode, I might ask her about that, just because I'm curious to make sure that I'm doing all right there. Now here's a vitamin next that I've never I don't think I've ever been tested for, and it's zinc.

Carrie Saunders:

So zinc, when you're low in it, it's easy to get ill frequently. You're going to be slow to heal, you know, wounds and cuts and things like that, and you're going to have some hair loss potentially. So having a low zinc, can you know, these are some of the symptoms of low zinc, and zinc is crucial for immunity and skin health, and many gluten-free eaters don't get enough. So some of the best gluten-free sources for zinc shellfish such as oysters or shrimp. Also nuts and seeds, chickpeas and lentils. So I have a little bit of a short list here for zinc, but it is a very essential element and you can probably see why it's a little bit harder to get, since it's not in as many foods as we typically eat.

Carrie Saunders:

Also, the last thing is fiber. This can cause digestive issues, constipation and blood sugar spikes. So if you're low in fiber, you may want to consider whether you need to add more of it, because many gluten-free diets lack fiber, because wheat-based products are naturally high in fiber. Now, this one is one that I will, you know, say trust your body, trust your gut. I wanted to say trust your gut, but we're talking about celiac disease and stuff like that, so it's kind of funny. So trust your gut here.

Carrie Saunders:

For me personally, my body doesn't do well with too much fiber, so make sure you're finding that right balance. Talk to your doctor on what they recommend too. What's the right balance of fiber for your body? Because we're all different, and so some of the best gluten-free sources for fiber is chia seeds, flax seeds, vegetables and fruits, especially berries, apples and pears. Now, I am totally a fan of berries, so I will eat those all day long, so that's usually my go-to fiber. I can't do like the heavier fiber, like what you might consider some of the vegetables. Those really bother my gut so I have to be careful of those. Also, quinoa, brown rice and buckwheat are also great places that you can get digestible fiber. So talk to your doctor, see what they recommend for your fiber intake. They may think that you're doing just fine with how you are if your digestive system is, you know, running smoothly and doing its thing properly. But if not, then please make sure you talk to them about it and I bet they'll have some good suggestions for you.

Carrie Saunders:

So then, how do we make sure we're getting enough of these nutrients? And we've touched on these a little bit. But we want to make sure we're eating a variety of whole, naturally gluten-free foods. We want to choose fortified gluten-free foods when we need to and when available Absolutely not necessary if you're doing a really good job of eating a variety of foods and then we want to be mindful of those processed foods too, because many times our processed foods that are gluten-free and just in general processed foods are higher in sugar and lower in nutrition. They're basically junk food. I know sometimes they're super tasty, but they're basically junk food, so we need to make sure we're limiting those. I know that's sometimes hard for me to do. And then we also want to consider supplements.

Carrie Saunders:

Work with your doctor, see if you need to take some supplements in addition to making sure your diet is rich in a variety of things, and, if you need to, if you're one of those people who needs to meal plan to make sure you're eating nutrient-dense foods every day and this is something I probably could do a better job of I need to make sure that I'm eating my vegetables every day because, I'll be honest with you, I'm really bad about eating my vegetables. You can ask my friends and my family. They're like oh yeah, maybe once a week is what I tend to do. I will do it a little bit more often than that, but it's just not my go-to thing. It's just not how I was growing up. So, taking into consideration, too, you know like I am, how you were, you know raised and what types of foods you were raised on and that's going to probably influence your general taste and work to gradually change that if needed, just like I need to. I need to work to gradually get more green leafy vegetables in my diet, honestly.

Carrie Saunders:

So some key takeaways is that you know when we're eating gluten-free, it isn't just about avoiding gluten. We also need to make sure we're getting the proper nutrients. When we're celiac, our bodies are already damaged. When we're gluten intolerant, there may be other reasons our body might be damaged and we need to make sure we're eating a variety of foods to make sure we get those good nutrients that we really need. We all, even whether we're gluten free or not, we all probably need to be looking at what we're putting in our body and doing a better job of putting different you know fruits and vegetables and products in our body that are natural and whole foods, so that we're much healthier people in general.

Carrie Saunders:

And if you're feeling tired, foggy or just off, tell your doctor. It may be time to consider having some blood tests and seeing if you're deficient in some of these nutrients and you might need to change your diet some and maybe make some simple supplement changes to add to it as well. It's definitely worth it. It's definitely worth feeling better. It's definitely worth it. It's definitely worth feeling better. It's definitely worth your health. It's going to help us have a more enjoyable, longer life if we are taking care of our bodies, and that is considering what we put into them as well. And we'd love to hear from you Go ahead and click on that text carry button at the top. If you have a specific vitamin deficiency you've experienced that I didn't touch on, I'd love to hear it. Maybe we'll bring it up on the show because it might be something I hadn't heard of or hadn't considered before. Or if you have any sort of questions that you would like the Gluten-Free Engineer to answer for you, click that text carry button and we'll see if we can put it on the show.

Carrie Saunders:

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Gluten-Free Engineer. If you found value in this story, please share it with someone who might need encouragement on their own gluten-free journey. For more tips, recipes, resources and even links to my YouTube channel, head on over to theglutenfreeengineercom. It's your one-stop hub to make gluten-free living simple, fun and full of flavor. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss out on an episode and we will see you next week. The Gluten-Free Engineer podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. I share my personal experiences and stories about living with celiac disease and navigating a gluten-free lifestyle. This podcast does not provide medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional for medical questions, concerns or advice specific to your health.

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