Gluten can be a source of health problems and today you are going to try and figure out how well your body has been tolerating it. Gluten is, in fact the source of most ongoing digestive problems causing everything from gas to bloating to irritable bowel syndrome. Just cutting out gluten has been known to cure asthma and other chronic problems in children..
Gluten is the key component in most types of bread, and it’s found in a number of grains—namely wheat, rye, and barley. It is part protein, part starch or carbohydrate.
We generally think of gluten as being only in bread and pasta, but in fact it is now widely used in processed foods, with negative consequences to many people’s overall health. It’s important to check labels and read ingredients carefully.
Other names for gluten include: modified food starch (though this sometimes refers to corn on a food label), hydrolyzed vegetable protein, hydrolyzed wheat protein, textured vegetable protein, and, of course, wheat.
The rule of thumb is that the more highly processed a food is, the more likely it is that these ingredients will show up on the labels.
Gluten is often present in:
• Bagels
• Beer
• Bread and bread rolls
• Cake
• Cookies
• Couscous
• Crackers
• Deli meats (which are heavily processed)
• Flour, including wheat, spelt, semolina, and rye
• Muffins
• Noodles
• Pancakes
• Pasta
• Pizza Sauces (often thickened with flour)
There are gluten-free versions of these products available made from beans, rice, corn, nuts, soy, and potatoes. These are the foods you’ll want to choose when converting from an acidic to an alkaline diet.
Gluten is not a naturally occurring protein in the human body. In fact, some researchers call gluten protein a toxin.
How could something that we eat so much of be classified as a toxin? Some studies suggest that gluten damages the small intestine and allows food proteins to be released into the body, and the immune system then interprets these proteins as invasive and goes into high gear to defend itself.
In other words, you get an overblown immune response. This kind of immune response can possibly contribute to or mimic diseases like lupus, arthritis, and multiple sclerosis.
Problems with digesting gluten can also cause headaches, asthma, skin rashes and hives, weight gain and/or loss ,bloating, fatigue, and behavioral problems such as depression.
At the most harmful end of the spectrum is celiac disease. Commonly thought of as an allergy, it is actually an immune-system response to gluten.