What is Gluten?

Have you ever been listening to someone talk about eating gluten-free or avoiding gluten for health reasons and wondered to yourself...what in the heck is gluten anyway? 🤨

Let's chat about it!

Gluten is a family of storage proteins most commonly found in barley, rye, malt, and wheat.🌾 There are 4 types of these storage proteins called 1️⃣ globulins, 2️⃣ albumins, 3️⃣ prolamins, and 4️⃣ glutelins. (Super fun scrabble words if you ever play!🤪)

When you combine prolamins with glutelins you create gluten!💥

An example of this is wheat gluten. The way wheat gluten is made is by combining two proteins called gliadin (a prolamin) and glutenin (a glutelin) together with water. Disulfide bonds are formed creating a gluten mesh-like structure that holds food together and gives baked goods their 'stretchy' like quality.🍞🥞🍰

There are many foods that contain gluten, and not everyone reacts the same to consuming these foods. Stay tuned for PART✌🏼of this series where we'll dive into how gluten can affect the gut and immune system🦠, and what this means for your overall health.✨

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