Myth or truth: Do you get sick from gluten?

2024-04-12 08:31:00, Shëndeti CNA

Pizzas, cakes, breads, pastas. all usually contain wheat, barley or rye. So they also have gluten. Most people enjoy gluten very much. For others, after eating, the torture begins with abdominal pain, vomiting, and other unpleasant symptoms. The number of people who cannot tolerate gluten is increasing.

This is not only evidenced by the data from countries like Finland. A 2020 quantitative analysis also shows that in the last decade more and more people have been diagnosed with celiac disease, a bad form of gluten intolerance.

But the disease may not be celiac to begin with. It may also happen that wheat allergy or so-called non-celiac gluten sensitivity are the causes of severe symptoms. So is gluten the devil itself, from which we should distance ourselves as much as possible?

What is gluten?

Gluten is nothing but a protein found in grains. In wheat flour products it plays a role in turning the dough into a pliable dough for rolling out or knitting. Along with wheat, barley and rye, gluten is also found in other types of original grains and cross grains such as: Wheat or spelt, Triticum Spelta, Second wheat, durum wheat, Wheat wheat, Emmer Triticum dicoccum, Wheat Tepa Triricum monococcum, Korasan wheat, A special type of spelled wheat, Triticale, hybrid wheat created by modifying the first wheats.

"Gluten is very interesting because it has very good functional properties and makes wheat into very good bread," says Katharina Scherf. She is professor for food chemistry at the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich. . Gluten is one of her main areas of study. "Otherwise, gluten causes certain diseases."

What does gluten do to the human body?

"There are three forms of wheat intolerance," says Scherf. One is wheat allergy, which is a classic food allergy, which can be seen by the appearance of certain antibodies in the blood. These so-called immunoglobin E (IgE) are created in the human body that reacts allergic to one or more proteins.

According to the Harvard School of Public Health, the symptoms of such an allergy are itching and swelling of the mouth, throat or. In cases of severe allergic reactions, there may be shortness of breath, vomiting, tightness in the body and even destruction of the blood circulation system. "Wheat allergy occurs more often in children than in adults," says Scherf. Allergies can "heal" over the years and disappear.

Unlike wheat allergy, proving so-called non-celiac gluten sensitivity is more difficult, says Scherf. Symptoms include abdominal pain caused by bloating or constipation, diarrhea and fatigue. Adults are affected more often than children. There is currently no evidence to diagnose non-celiac gluten sensitivity.

What is celiac disease?

This disease is better studied than others related to gluten intolerance. According to the German Celiac Society, Celiac disease itself is neither an allergy nor an intolerance to wheat or gluten. In the case of celiac disease, gluten causes an autoimmune reaction where antibodies attack one's own cells.

Celiac disease is partly genetic. But: "many people, although they have the relevant genetic prerequisites, do not get celiac disease," says Katharina Scherf.

How is gluten intolerance or celiac disease diagnosed?

Celiac disease or wheat allergy can be proven by the antibody test in the blood. It often takes a long time, however, for sufferers to be diagnosed with celiac disease, Scherf says. "Especially in adults, the symptoms are often not typical for diseases of the stomach and intestines." In their place, fatigue and exhaustion appear, which are explained by the destruction of the intestinal skin and the lack of food intake caused by it.

"Yet diagnostics have improved significantly," says Katharina Scherf. It is possible that this is the reason that the number of celiac patients is increasing.

During non-celiac gluten sensitivity there are no specific antibodies to prove the disease. In cases of doubt, only giving up the use of products containing gluten helps. "Until now there are no alternatives other than a gluten-free diet," says Scherf.

Gluten-free are for example: Corn, Rice, Millet Proso Wheat, Quinoa, Amaranth, Uncontaminated Oats

You might say it's easy to use gluten-free food, but it's not that simple. "One should be very concerned with the topic of food," says the food chemist. Because gluten is hidden as a binding agent or as an emulsifier in many ready-made foods.

The good news is that by giving up gluten, the unpleasant symptoms associated with pain also disappear. Even the intestines themselves, diseased by celiac disease, become fat again in the majority of cases.

It must be said that gluten is not harmful for all those people who are not allergic to wheat and have tolerance to it./ DW