Any downsides to too much gluten?

curtismccall
curtismccall Posts: 27 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Ill start off by saying I do not have any sensitivities to wheat or gluten food and so far haven't seen any downsides to eating it more often.
So I switched to a mostly plant based diet a few weeks ago mostly as a way to save money (about $30 a week) and I rarely eat meat unless its on the weekend. Since then I have had trouble hitting my protein goal even with the use of vegetarian meat, until I found out about seitan. Which is just vital wheat gluten and water. Which to me seems like a miracle food in terms of macros. I was just curious if anyone knew of any negative health side effects from having too much gluten? I meal prep weekly so I make a big batch and I have it at least once a day, maybe twice a day if I have more.
Ill admit I am lacking knowledge when it comes to this since most of the information I find online says to avoid it and helps you identify if you have an allergy and I cant find any good sources of information on possible side effects of having too much

Replies

  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    Too much of anything is bad, so I'd ask "how much is too much?" instead. I would say it's when you're eating so much of one food that you start to struggle getting in enough of all the different nutrients you need, and when you get bored.

    Other protein sources for vegans is beans and pulses, and vegetables.
  • dsboohead
    dsboohead Posts: 1,899 Member
    If you don't have issues with gluten...don't limit it. Of course being mindful of calorie limits.
  • curtismccall
    curtismccall Posts: 27 Member
    kommodevaran wrote: »
    Too much of anything is bad, so I'd ask "how much is too much?" instead. I would say it's when you're eating so much of one food that you start to struggle getting in enough of all the different nutrients you need, and when you get bored.

    Other protein sources for vegans is beans and pulses, and vegetables.

    That's true I still try to stay mindful of everything else I am eating too, I appreciate it!
  • curtismccall
    curtismccall Posts: 27 Member
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    I eat a lot of seitan and I follow nutritional research fairly closely. Providing you don't have any underlying allergies or conditions (which you would probably already know about just from eating stuff like bread), I'm not aware of any negative impact to eating a higher amount of gluten. For the majority of people, gluten isn't something that we need to avoid or limit.

    I would define "too much" as any food that is crowding out the other things that you need. If you're meeting your nutritional needs overall, I wouldn't consider you to be eating too much gluten.

    Perfect that's the answer I was hoping for haha thank you
  • curtismccall
    curtismccall Posts: 27 Member
    ritzvin wrote: »
    If it becomes your main source of protein, do double check that you are getting adequate amounts of all the required amino acids (most vegan protein sources are deficient in at least one of them and you'll need to get it from some other source though not necessarily at the same time).

    I've incorporated ground flax seed and pistachios into my everyday foods along with eggs and Greek yogurt daily I think that gets me all of the essential amino acids. I believe I read that eggs include all of them so I've made sure to eat them regularly
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    Is seitan cheap? I never knew.
  • ritzvin
    ritzvin Posts: 2,860 Member
    curtismccall wrote: »
    ritzvin wrote: »
    If it becomes your main source of protein, do double check that you are getting adequate amounts of all the required amino acids (most vegan protein sources are deficient in at least one of them and you'll need to get it from some other source though not necessarily at the same time).

    I've incorporated ground flax seed and pistachios into my everyday foods along with eggs and Greek yogurt daily I think that gets me all of the essential amino acids. I believe I read that eggs include all of them so I've made sure to eat them regularly

    then it won't be a problem. (also- on further reading, Seitan is relatively low ratio-wise in lysine, but not so low that you wouldn't be able to meet the minimum by just eating some still reasonable quantity more of it).
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »
    Is seitan cheap? I never knew.

    Well, Pacific Foods Organic Seitan is $3.59 for 12 oz near me, so $4.79 per pound; as an omnivore I wouldn't consider it a cheap source of protein, no.

    3 oz = 15 g protein.

    When I lived in a vegetarian yoga community I did enjoy seitan as a nice change of pace from legumes.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,089 Member
    curtismccall wrote: »
    ritzvin wrote: »
    If it becomes your main source of protein, do double check that you are getting adequate amounts of all the required amino acids (most vegan protein sources are deficient in at least one of them and you'll need to get it from some other source though not necessarily at the same time).

    I've incorporated ground flax seed and pistachios into my everyday foods along with eggs and Greek yogurt daily I think that gets me all of the essential amino acids. I believe I read that eggs include all of them so I've made sure to eat them regularly

    If you're including animal protein (eggs, dairy) daily, you don't really need to worry about complementary proteins, but I wouldn't consider flax seed and pistachios to be efficient sources of protein (efficient in the sense of the number of calories they "cost" you). Other than nonfat dairy and egg whites (not demonizing fat -- just talking about maximizing protein for your calorie "buck"), beans are probably your most efficient whole food vegetarian protein. Plus they're cheap, especially if buy them dried, so you're killing your budgetary bird, too.
  • curtismccall
    curtismccall Posts: 27 Member
    edited July 2018
    If you make it yourself it turns out to be pretty cheap
  • curtismccall
    curtismccall Posts: 27 Member
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    curtismccall wrote: »
    ritzvin wrote: »
    If it becomes your main source of protein, do double check that you are getting adequate amounts of all the required amino acids (most vegan protein sources are deficient in at least one of them and you'll need to get it from some other source though not necessarily at the same time).

    I've incorporated ground flax seed and pistachios into my everyday foods along with eggs and Greek yogurt daily I think that gets me all of the essential amino acids. I believe I read that eggs include all of them so I've made sure to eat them regularly

    If you're including animal protein (eggs, dairy) daily, you don't really need to worry about complementary proteins, but I wouldn't consider flax seed and pistachios to be efficient sources of protein (efficient in the sense of the number of calories they "cost" you). Other than nonfat dairy and egg whites (not demonizing fat -- just talking about maximizing protein for your calorie "buck"), beans are probably your most efficient whole food vegetarian protein. Plus they're cheap, especially if buy them dried, so you're killing your budgetary bird, too.

    When I started changing my diet over I had read vegans and vegetarians usually are deficient in some amino acids and nutrients so I use the flax and the pistachios more for the micronutrients vs depending on them as a good source of protein. Plus they're tasty so I don't mind having them regularly haha
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »
    Is seitan cheap? I never knew.

    If you buy it pre-made, no. If you make your own, it's incredibly affordable.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    curtismccall wrote: »
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    curtismccall wrote: »
    ritzvin wrote: »
    If it becomes your main source of protein, do double check that you are getting adequate amounts of all the required amino acids (most vegan protein sources are deficient in at least one of them and you'll need to get it from some other source though not necessarily at the same time).

    I've incorporated ground flax seed and pistachios into my everyday foods along with eggs and Greek yogurt daily I think that gets me all of the essential amino acids. I believe I read that eggs include all of them so I've made sure to eat them regularly

    If you're including animal protein (eggs, dairy) daily, you don't really need to worry about complementary proteins, but I wouldn't consider flax seed and pistachios to be efficient sources of protein (efficient in the sense of the number of calories they "cost" you). Other than nonfat dairy and egg whites (not demonizing fat -- just talking about maximizing protein for your calorie "buck"), beans are probably your most efficient whole food vegetarian protein. Plus they're cheap, especially if buy them dried, so you're killing your budgetary bird, too.

    When I started changing my diet over I had read vegans and vegetarians usually are deficient in some amino acids and nutrients so I use the flax and the pistachios more for the micronutrients vs depending on them as a good source of protein. Plus they're tasty so I don't mind having them regularly haha

    I would say *some* vegans may well be deficient, but I wouldn't say we "usually" are. I don't think there are studies to conclude that and there have been some relatively large long-term studies of vegan nutrition and health.

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