9781422280461

Gluten

a simple “I don’t know.” Not one of the interviewees understood exactly what they were so studiously avoiding. The lesson? Gluten may be all over the news, with a glut of gluten-free cookbooks sagging the shelves of bookstores and gluten- free options popping up on restaurant menus, but there is still a lot of misinformation (and just plain confusion) about this humble protein. Derided as a “poison” or “silent killer” by one person and brushed aside as harmless by the next, gluten remains one of the most controversial—and widely

Educational Video

What is Gluten?

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consumed—food products on earth. Understanding gluten’s potential benefits and adverse effects can help you make educated choices about its place in your diet. It starts by answering the question that those Kimmel subjects couldn’t: What is it?

B uilding U p G luten The simplest definition is that gluten is a protein. Proteins are large molecules found in the cells of all living organisms. They are crucial to all aspects of physical growth and development, and they also participate in many cellular functions, from setting chemical reactions in motion to transporting water and minerals into and out of the cell. Some proteins are storage proteins, meaning that they store reserves of amino acids (the building blocks of protein) for the future maintenance and growth of the organism. Proteins in wheat and other cereal grains are classified into four groups: 1. albumins, which can be dissolved in water; 2. globulins, which can be dissolved in salt solutions; 3. prolamins , which can be dissolved in some alcohol solutions; and

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