What is Gluten? Is Gluten totally Bad for your body? Find out the truth and lies about Gluten as explained by the Expert
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What is Gluten? Is Gluten totally Bad for your body?
Find out the truth and lies about Gluten as explained by the Expert.
Gluten appears to be in practically everything, including bread, pasta and beer to cosmetics and nutritional supplements.
There’s plenty of hype about gluten––what is this ubiquitous ingredient and is it bad for you?
Selvi Rajagopal (M.D.), specialist in internal medicine and obesity at Johns Hopkins, explains the facts and myths surrounding gluten.
What is gluten?
“Gluten is a protein present in the wheat plant and a few other grains,” Rajagopal explains.
Gluten is naturally occurring, but it can also be extracted, concentrated and added to food and other products to boost protein, texture and flavor. It also functions as an adhesive to hold processed foods together and give them shape.
Where does gluten come from?
Wheat isn’t the only source of gluten — it also comes from rye, barley and triticale (a cross between rye and barley). Sometimes it’s in oats, but only because oats might have been processed along with other foods that contain gluten. Oats are naturally gluten-free.
What happens to your body when you eat gluten?
We humans have digestive enzymes that allow us to process food. Protease is the enzyme that assists our body in digesting proteins, but it isn’t able to digest gluten entirely. Gluten that has not been digested reaches the small intestines. Most digest gluten with no problems, including undigested gluten. But gluten can cause a severe autoimmune response or other unpleasant symptoms in some people.
Celiac disease is an autoimmune reaction to gluten. Celiac can cause damage to the small intestine. Some people without celiac disease still appear to feel ill after eating foods that include gluten. They might feel bloated, have diarrhea, headaches or skin rashes. This might be a response to poorly digested carbohydrates, not only gluten.
These insoluable carbs ferment in your gut and are known as FODMAPS. That fermentation can cause discomfort in people with sensitive guts, not gluten.
Research indicates that certain individuals may have malfunctions in their small intestines. The lining may not be sufficiently prohibitive and allow some undigested gluten, bacteria or other material to pass the lining, enter the bloodstream and cause inflammation.
Is gluten bad for you?
“There is a lot of confusion about gluten being an evil food.” “Gluten is not inherently bad for most people,” stresses Rajagopal. “For us as humans, we’ve had gluten since the time of bread-making. “For thousands of years, foods containing gluten have been supplying protein, soluble fiber and micronutrients.”
Gluten per se — particularly gluten contained in whole grains — isn’t bad for healthy people, whose systems can handle it.
Grains like wheat, though, are processed into foods like snack crackers and potato chips. “These refined products have absolutely little or nothing in common with the basic wheat plant itself, which is actually quite nutritious,” Rajagopal explains.
“They’re often made with white rice flour and starches but not whole grains.”
Most people who go gluten free and still consume processed foods end up with continued weight gain, blood sugar swings, and other health problems. It's not the gluten in these foods that is making them sick but the high salt, sugar and other additives in processed foods.
Who should avoid gluten?
Rajagopal says gluten can be harmful to those with:
2.Celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that attacks the small intestine of those who eat gluten.
Non-celiac gluten sensitivity (gluten intolerance), which refers to gastrointestinal irritation from gluten in people who do not have celiac disease.
2.Wheat allergy, an allergy to wheat, but not to other grains or gluten itself.
3.Gluten ataxia, an uncommon neurologic autoimmune disease that makes your body attack parts of your brain when you consume gluten.
What do I do if I suspect I have a gluten problem?
If you suspect gluten may be harming your health, speak to a physician. Your doctor may recommend bloodwork to look for celiac disease or a wheat allergy.
Relying solely on researched-free claims is going to be detrimental to anything.
Before you eliminate gluten from your diet, work with a registered dietitian who can help you prepare an eating plan that works in your favor.”
For forther assistant on these click here for professional advice from
Selvi Rajagopal (M.D.), specialist in internal medicine and obesity at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
