--- description: For people who don't have celiac disease or a gluten allergy, leave the GF stuff on the shelf, say all five experts title: Should I Eat Gluten-Free Bread? image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Health](/section/health/) ## Health Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Diet & Nutrition](/tag/dietnutrition/) ## Diet & Nutrition Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Should You Eat Gluten-Free Bread?  by [Mandy Oaklander](/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 13, 2014 3:46 PM CUT  by [Mandy Oaklander](/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 13, 2014 3:46 PM CUT _Welcome to_ Should I Eat This?_—our weekly poll of five experts who answer nutrition questions that gnaw at you._  Illustration by Lon Tweeten for TIME **5/5 experts say no.** For people who don’t have Celiac disease or a gluten allergy, leave the GF stuff on the shelf, say all five experts. And even the gluten-averse might be better off without it. Gluten-free bread ditches wheat, rye and barley, and typically uses four main starches in their stead—cornstarch, rice flour, tapioca starch and potato flour, says **William Davis**, MD, author of _Wheat Belly Total Health_. “They have the highest glycemic indexes (an index of how high blood sugar rises over the 90 minutes after consumption) of all foods. So high, in fact, that, gram for gram, ounce for ounce, such gluten-free foods raise blood sugar substantially higher than table sugar and higher than wheat products.” These replacement grains are also more likely to be low in fiber and not fortified with B vitamins, says **Joseph Murray**, MD, a celiac disease expert, gastroenterologist and professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Plus, gluten-lacking loaves cost way more: GF products are 242% more expensive than their regular versions, found one 2008 [study](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18783640 "undefined"). (Oh, and they taste worse too, Murray adds.) **MORE**: [The Rise of Celiac Disease Still Stumps Scientists](http://time.com/3511235/gluten-free-celiac-disease/ "undefined") GF bread lovers, if you’re out there, don’t get too deflated. Those who have a medical reason to avoid regular bread can find it useful, say both **Ciaran P. Kelly**, MD, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Celiac Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and **Tricia Thompson**, an RD who calls herself the Gluten-Free Dietitian. (Thompson cautions, however, that if you suspect you’re sensitive to gluten, evicting it from your diet won’t necessarily prove you have an allergy. “If you start a gluten-free diet before being tested, you may never receive an accurate diagnosis,” she says, because while just 1% of us have Celiac disease, only about 17% of those who have it have been diagnosed.) Some experts also contend that while you can take gluten out of a loaf, you can’t take out the carbs. That’s a problem for **David Perlmutter**, MD, author of_Grain Brain_ and _The Grain Brain Cookbook._ “Carbs pave the way for metabolic problems like diabetes,” he says. “So no bread, even if it’s gluten free.” There you have it: five solid thumbs down. Nothing unites gluten lovers, gluten haters and carb-alarmists quite like a gluten-free loaf. _Read next:_ [_Should I Drink Coconut Water?_ ](http://time.com/3559621/coconut-water-nutrition/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3576306/gluten-free-bread-celiac/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3576306/gluten-free-bread-celiac/"},"headline":"Should You Eat Gluten-Free Bread?","datePublished":"2014-11-13T15:46:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:07:07.091Z","description":"For people who don't have celiac disease or a gluten allergy, leave the GF stuff on the shelf, say all five experts","url":"https://time.com/3576306/gluten-free-bread-celiac/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition","Gluten","gluten free","celiac disease","should i eat this?"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mandy Oaklander","jobTitle":"Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3576306/gluten-free-bread-celiac/","name":"Should You Eat Gluten-Free Bread?"}}]}] ```