A Gluten Story, Part 1

Humans have been eating wheat (and therefore gluten) for ten thousand years. For as much as we hear about gluten today I feel like it is still very much a mystery, especially after seeing videos like this.

Gluten is a protein. Actually, it's one of the most heavily consumed proteins on earth. It is created when the molecules glutenin and gliadin come into contact and form a bond. An elastic membrane is formed as bakers knead dough and the result is a chewy texture to the baked bread. Gluten also traps carbon dioxide which adds volume to the loaf as it ferments. ^{Image Credit}

Wheat provides more nourishment than any other source of food and last year's harvest amounted to roughly two hundred pounds for every person on earth. It is easy to grow, store, ship, and is especially versatile, serving as an integral part of bread, pasta, noodles, cereal, soups, sauces, gravies, and snack foods. Wheat is even found in processed meats and frozen vegetables - nearly a third of the foods found in American supermarkets contain some wheat component, usually gluten or starch or both.

So, how could gluten, a staple food that has sustained humanity for thousands of years, have suddenly become so threatening?

About one percent of the population suffers from celiac disease, a severe gluten allergy. Exposure to gluten can trigger an immune reaction powerful enough to severely damage the brushlike surface of the small intestine. The incidence of celiac disease has increase more than fourfold in the past sixty years. Another twenty million people complain of discomfort after eating gluten products and a third of American adults say that they are trying to eliminate it from their diets. At present, there are no blood tests, biopsies, genetic markers, or antibodies that can confirm a diagnosis of non-celiac gluten sensitivity.

There are many theories but no clear scientific answers. William Davis, a cardiologist who wrote the book "Wheat Belly," argues that wheat genes have become toxic and are nothing like the bread of 50 years ago. David Perlmutter, a neurologist and author of "Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth About Wheat" believes as many as forty percent of people can't properly process gluten. And several small scale studies have found that removing gluten from a test subject's diet reduces digestive discomfort.

It's no secret that dietary patterns in the Western world have changed faster than human genes have been able to adapt. Most meals are full of sugary substances and refined, high-calorie carbohydrates. The wheat that we use today has been milled into white flour with few vitamins or nutrients. However, a recent study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found no evidence that a change in wheat-breeding practices might have led to an increase in the incidence of celiac disease. Other scientists agree that the wheat grain is not a lot different than it was fifty years ago. ^{Image Credit}

Wheat is more than just gluten - it is a combination of complex carbohydrates. An Australian team wondered if these could be responsible for the problems and devised another small scale study which identified FODMAPs, a type of carb that is found many types of foods that are high in fructose, like honey and apples as well as dairy products, like milk and ice cream. The study showed that FODMAPs might be the cause of digestive discomfort instead of the gluten. But these are harder to remove from a diet and harder for consumers to understand.

Gluten has been let out of the bag so to speak. The second part of this post will discuss how the process of making bread has changed over the years.

This blog is adapted from "Against The Grain"