The word “gluten” is an umbrella term for proteins found inside many
grains and seeds, namely wheat, rye, barley, spelt, kamut and triticale.
Although most of these foodstuffs, especially wheat, are considered a
mainstay of the human diet, not everyone can digest them.
Indeed, grains in general are a relatively new addition to the human
diet. Our ancestors began eating them, at the earliest, 15,000 years
ago, which is a blink of an eye in our 2-million-year history. Some of
us have adapted; others have not. It turns out that roughly 30 percent
of northern Europeans (those who lived farthest from the origination of
dietary grains in Mesopotamia) carry the genes for gluten intolerance —
far more than most health experts previously believed.
At center stage is gluten-heavy wheat. Today, up to 90 percent of the
protein in wheat is gluten, a 10-fold increase in the past 100 years.
The average American consumes about 150 pounds of wheat each year. Think
that sounds high? Stop to consider that nearly all processed foods
contain wheat flour, which is often used as a breading or binding agent.
Then, of course, there is our national obsession with bread, baked
goods and pasta.
“By the time you have toast for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and
pasta for dinner, you’ve had gluten at every meal,” says Wilson.
When it comes to baking, gluten is the tie that binds. It traps gas
bubbles in dough as it rises, giving bread its elasticity and
pliability. Gluten also imparts greater tensile strength to foods, like
crackers, allowing them to be shipped long distances without breaking.
But it’s the pleasing texture, spongy lightness and addictive chewiness
in bread that keeps us hooked on gluten. As Wilson puts it, “We love our
Wonder Bread.”
Of course, you know that the path to good health is not paved with
fluffy white tiles of Wonder Bread, but you might not know that your
all-natural, whole-wheat bread and multigrain cereal may be undermining
your health almost as badly.
For people who digest gluten well, whole grains can, in moderation,
be part of a healthy diet, delivering a host of macro- and
micronutrients and complex carbohydrates. But for people who are gluten
intolerant, even the most wholesome-looking grains can cause discomfort,
fatigue, inflammation and disease.