Adverse Effects of Wheat Gluten

Abstract

Man began to consume cereals approximately 10,000 years ago when hunter-gatherers settled in the fertile golden crescent in the Middle East. Gluten has been an integral part of the Western type of diet ever since, and wheat consumption is also common in the Middle East, parts of India and China as well as Australia and Africa. In fact, the food supply in the world heavily depends on the availability of cereal-based food products, with wheat being one of the largest crops in the world. Part of this is due to the unique properties of wheat gluten, which has a high nutritional value and is crucial for the preparation of high-quality dough. In the last 10 years, however, wheat and gluten have received much negative attention. Many believe that it is inherently bad for our health and try to avoid consumption of gluten-containing cereals; a gluten-low lifestyle so to speak. This is fueled by a series of popular publications like Wheat Belly; Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health. However, in reality, there is only one condition where gluten is definitively the culprit: celiac disease (CD), affecting approximately 1% of the population in the Western world. Here, I describe the complexity of the cereals from which gluten is derived, the special properties of gluten which make it so widely used in the food industry, the basis for its toxicity in CD patients and the potential for the development of safe gluten and alternatives to the gluten-free diet.

Duodenal Bacteria From Patients With Celiac Disease and Healthy Subjects Distinctly Affect Gluten Breakdown and Immunogenicity

“…The Western diet contains about 20 g gluten per day. 42 Gluten proteins are resistant to mammalian protease degradation, but are good substrates for bacterial metabolic activity. 11 The use of proteases produced by environmental microorganisms have been proposed as pharmacologic therapy in CD.…”

“…[43][44][45] However, the ability of these proteases to effectively degrade the amount of gluten present in a normal diet before reaching the small intestine has been questioned. 42 This may limit enzymatic therapy in CD to prevention of gluten-induced effects due to inadvertent gluten consumption in patients who are already on a glutenfree diet. On the other hand, detoxification of gluten in situ by the metabolic activity of resident small intestinal bacteria could constitute an attractive approach.…”

Towards Healthier Life: Changes in growing of health-friendly food crops and products in Lithuania before accession to EU and after

“…Wheat is considered less health-friendly, because it is usually consumed highly processed in final food products, what leads to high levels of gluten in it. Koning [13] emphasizes the toxicity of wheat gluten. Aronsson et al [14] states, that gluten rich products, especially manufactured from highly processed wheat has long lasting negative effects on humans' health and twice fold increase the chances of celiac disease to children.…”

Doença celíaca e introdução do glúten na dieta infantil: avaliação dos riscos e benefícios

“…Hoje em dia, em algumas espécies o glúten representa até 100% desse total. Como se sabe, além do trigo, o centeio e a cevada também contém glúten (8).…”