What is Gluten?
What is the deal with gluten? Gluten is a protein found in wheat that gives dough its tough, elastic character. Other grains also contain gluten such as rye, barley, malt, triticale and spelt. Oats are safe if from a dedicated farm, but historically are harvested on shared fields that have produced gluten containing grains. For this reason caution is given because of contamination. Gluten is also found in everyday products such as medicines, vitamins, and lip balms. Thus label reading must become second nature. For those with Celiac disease, ingestion of gluten results in potentially life-threatening malabsorption, and over time can lead to many chronic, debilitating health conditions. The only treatment is to remove gluten from the diet. Those with allergies to gliadin, a component of gluten, also need to avoid ingestion.1 What is the Difference between Celiac Disease and a Gluten Allergy? Celiac disease, which affects approximately 1% of the we...