Are Low-Carb Meals and Snacks Gluten Free?

A Low-Carb Diet
is Not Always Gluten Free
(Photo Credit: Richard Masoner, 
CC BY-SA 2.0)

The gluten-free community isn't very happy right now.

As those in the entertainment world continue to announce that they are going gluten free, not because they have celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity, but because they want to shed a few pounds, we have a horde of groupies and those who have heard that gluten-free diets are great for weight loss deciding that ditching the gluten is an important way to gain better health.

Typically, a low-carb dieter would have no problem with that, but since a lot of these people don't understand what a gluten-free diet actually is, they have put together a weight-loss plan based on their own ideas and incorporated these distorted dieting habits into that new gluten-free diet. Unfortunately, those habits often tell them it's okay to eat a little gluten once in a while.

What has gluten-free folks riled up is that these so-called gluten-free dieters (by choice) are not cheating at home, behind closed doors. They do it in public, particularly after causing a big scene in restaurants where chefs, waiters, waitresses, and busboys are getting sick-and-tired of going to all of the precautions and extra steps it takes to prepare a safe gluten-free meal, only to have the diner order a piece of chocolate cake for dessert. "It's okay if I eat a little gluten once in a while," they say.

While a low-carb dieter would never do that -- at least, not in their normal frame of mind -- I've heard many within the low-carb community voice misconceptions about low-carb diets being gluten free, as if that was a fact. For many low carbers, that isn't true. Most people can't live without their low-carb tortillas, sweets, and baked goods, but what about those who shun low-carb products?

Are clean low-carb meals and snacks gluten free?

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