Wednesday 27 March 2013

What is Gluten anyway?


Gluten is an elastic protein that is found in wheat, rye and barley. The latin root for the word actually means “glue”. Ironically enough, this is what makes the regular gluten foods most people are used to hold together and retain their elasticity. You know that awesome French bread that everyone loves? Especially when it’s fresh and chewy? Yep that’s the gluten.

“Can I still have oats?”:
Some people say yes, some no, it depends what your sensitivities are.  One issue with oats is cross contamination, the other problem is that there is still some similarities that could cause problems for people sensitive to gluten, click here for more information.

“Gluten is only in stuff like breads and noodles right?”:
Well you would think wouldn’t you?... Almost all baked goods and pastas contain gluten
However,… gluten is lurking everywhere. You name it: breads, cakes, pies, pizza, pastas, sauces, most processed meats, the list could honestly go on and on (it will be a blog post all in itself later)… but you get the general idea.  

“Wheat free = Gluten free?”:
It's important to note that a Wheat allergy and Celiac Disease/Gluten Sensitivity are completely different. Just because something is wheat-free doesn’t necessarily mean its gluten-free.

Wiki has a really good description of what gluten is too actually, if you are interested to read more in depth information I suggest to check it out:

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