4 Health Reasons Not To Go Gluten-Free

These days, it seems like going gluten-free is the new craze. There are tons of websites, cookbooks, and doctors all devoted to the practice. And there are many health benefits to avoiding gluten, especially for those who have celiac disease, a true allergy to gluten.

Click here to see the 4 Health Reasons Not to Go Gluten Free (Slideshow)

However, less spoken of are the risks of going gluten-free, and how a gluten-free diet can actually negatively impact your body. The leading risks of eschewing wheat and grains are: lower essential vitamins and nutrients (especially depletions in vitamins B and D) which can lead to a variety of other problems, a decrease in production of "good" bacteria in the gut, constipation, and higher cholesterol levels.

Because of all of the potentially harmful risks of a gluten-free diet, perhaps you should only try this type of diet out if you really need to, meaning if you have a real allergy to gluten. To let you know what could happen if you go gluten-free, we've put together a list of the health risks in our slideshow.