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Dietician Sheela Seharawat

What is Gluten? A Complete overview on Gluten.

Quite a popular term these days, gluten is a kind of naturally occurring protein found in certain foods …especially in wheat, barley and rye, as well as in some forms of oats. In technical terms, the world ‘gluten’ is applied to a combination of prolamin proteins called gliadins and glutelin proteins called glutenins, found in wheat and similar foods as mentioned above. It is also the same substance that helps, bread, pizza crust, and other baked goods get nice puffy air pockets.
The presence of gluten has helped baking techniques that bakers have used since the ancient times. But unfortunately significant number of people amongst us have adverse reactions when they consume glutinous foods and need to avoid it, or practically need a gluten-free diet. The sensitivity to gluten has been associated to a multitude of ailments like anxiety, depression, autism, dementia, digestive disorders, adrenal exhaustion, skin issues, seizures and many more.

Living a gluten free life
Intolerance to gluten is the most common food sensitivity health problem of the intestines. Consuming foods with gluten triggers an immune response in gluten intolerant peoples. At the initial stages, the intolerance to glutinous foods can manifest as stomach boating, diarrhea, uncomfortable motions (stool), flatulence, malnutrition and even weight loss. For such people, regularly consuming such foods may result in long-term damages like nutrient mal-absorption and intestinal scarring.
In cases where our intestinal linings are compromised, more of food antigens can cross the defence barrier and enter the blood stream, making the body more susceptible to these harmful micro-organisms and unwanted invaders. These all happens as gluten inhibits immune response in intolerant individuals and the white cells which recognizes and fights the antigens are as it is overwhelmed, it causes inflammation.

In order to live a gluten free life, it is important to understand which grains contains gluten and which not:
- Glutinous Grains : Wheat, barley, bulgur, rye, spelt, oats, semolina, pumpernickel.
- Gluten-free Grains : Rice (all varieties), buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa, corn, millet.

The big question in here is – how will one know that they are intolerant to gluten?

Since, gluten has widespread effects on the body, it is really very difficult and challenging to diagnose its intolerance at the first go. However, some common traits and obvious symptoms can always be kept in watch like bloating, abdominal cramps and pains, gas, constipation, gastric reflux in form of heartburns and diarrhea.
It makes more sense, if we keep a watch on systemic inflammatory response, it makes more sense to detect gluten intolerance at an earlier stage. Such symptoms include:

• Joint pains.
• Regular headaches.
• Fatigue and low levels of energy.
• Behavioral changes including depression, anxiety and irritability.
• Sudden weight loss or weight gain.
• Skin rashes and eczema.
• Deteriorating dental health.
• Asthma attacks and allergies.
• Intense food cravings for foods like baked goods and sweets.
• Irregular menstrual cycle, miscarriage and infertility.
• Presence of fats in stool.
• Numbness and cramps.

It’s not that, everyone who shows certain such symptoms, is allergic to gluten but may just have sensitivity only.

Gluten – A part of a healthy diet
All grains, both whole and enriched, play a vital role for healthy living. They are a rich source of vitamins B and E, anti-oxidants, fibers, minerals like magnesium, iron and folic acid, along with other nutrients. The presence of complex carbohydrates in grains are a great source of energy and are low on fats, sodium and cholesterol.

Celiac Disease and Gluten Free
Celiac is a serious auto-immune disease that occurs in genetically predisposed people, in where the ingestion of gluten leads to damage in the small intestine. This is a hereditary diseases and people with celiac, when consume gluten, the body initiates an immune response that attacks their small intestine. These attacks causes damage to the villi, small finger like projections that line the small intestine and promotes nutrient absorption. When the villi is damaged, nutrients are not properly absorbed in the body.

Extracting any source of gluten from diet can be really difficult as giving up pizzas, cookies and breads is a tough task altogether. But actually it is not that difficult as it seems. It is important to get enough fiber, folate, iron, riboflavin, selenium, niacin and thiamine. In addition, it is vital to ensure that one should not fill up their diet with too much of simple carbs as it is just not the right way.