It is absolutely astonishing to think how much gluten exists in
our foods and in the common diet. I mean, somehow, it has found its way
into most everything you can imagine. In fact, I often find when talking
with patients, that there is gluten in every single meal.
"Where is the gluten?," you might be asking.
Think of it this way, what do most people eat everyday?
Breakfast: cereal and/or toast
Lunch: sandwich and/or soup
Dinner: pasta, pizza and/or bread
Dessert: cookies, cake and/or pie
Each of the foods just mentioned (unless they are the gluten-free version) contain gluten.
Let's step back a bit and ask: what is a grain? I find that grains are not often something people talk about.
Grains
are foods made from wheat, corn, barley, oat, rice, millet, quinoa, and
amaranth. Examples are bread, pasta, tortillas, cereal, and cookies.
So
then, what is gluten? Gluten is a protein in certain grains: wheat,
rye, barley and oats. Gluten is what makes bread soft and chewy.
Even
more specifically, there are two main proteins in gluten, gliadins and
glutenins. One particular gliadin, found in wheat, is what leads to
celiac disease and gluten sensitivity.
Barley and rye contain a
gliadin that looks very similar to the one in wheat, and therefore, when
the body reacts to wheat gluten, it usually reacts to barley and rye
gluten too. Oat gluten is slightly different, but also often causes the
same reaction.
What is the bottom line? To avoid gluten, you need
to stop eating anything made from wheat flour. Not just "whole wheat."
Anything that says "wheat" in the list of ingredients. Then you also
need to avoid rye, barley and oats.
Wheat flour and gluten are
also often found in foods that you might not think of as containing
wheat. For example, soy sauce and many other sauces, as well as gravy
and soups, contain gluten. In the case of sauces and soups, gluten makes
them thick and creamy.
Gluten is a nice thing in cooking and
baking; It makes foods look and taste good. However, in the human body,
especially in people who have an allergic response to gluten, too much
(or even a little) is not a good thing.
After repeated exposure
(every meal, or most every meal, for years and years), and stress in
general (which we all have), many people (many more then are actually
diagnosed) start reacting to gluten.
For some people the reaction
begins at an early age (less then 1 in some cases). For others, it may
be later in life (I see patients of all ages who have discovered that
they have a gluten sensitivity).
It is almost impossible to
imagine that the foods we love, like bread and pizza, might actually be
causing our health problems. It is as if we think we will have nothing
to eat if not for gluten. And for good reason. It is in most everything
that is commonly served and sold in stores and restaurants.
In reality, it is BECAUSE most all of our foods contain gluten that so many of us (myself included) have become sensitive to it.
The
wonderful news is that there ARE many foods available that do NOT
contain gluten. It takes a bit of a shift in thinking about what to eat,
but there is no doubt in my mind that we can live without gluten.
Actually, at this point, we can't live with it.
DONIELLE WILSON, ND is a natural health expert and Naturopathic
Doctor with a private practice in New York City, Port Jefferson, NY, and
Connecticut. She specializes in showing women, men and children how to
achieve their wellness goals by finally getting the answers they've been
looking for to their most perplexing health challenges.
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