What Exactly Is Gluten?

Gluten is commonly found in foods such as:

• Breads
• Baked goods
• Soups
• Pasta
• Cereals
• Sauces
• Salad dressings
• Roux
• Malt (malted barley flour, malted milk and milkshakes, malt extract, malt syrup, malt flavoring, malt vinegar)
• Food coloring
• Beer
• Brewer’s Yeast

Some people should not eat gluten, such as people who have: 

• Celiac disease
  • A condition that affects the body's ability to break down certain foods
  • Consumption of gluten can make people with celiac disease very sick
• Non-celiac gluten sensitivity, also referred to as gluten sensitive enteropathy (GSE) or gluten intolerance
  • Similar symptoms to celiac disease, but without the accompanying elevated levels of antibodies and intestinal damage
  • GSE is diagnosed based on symptoms and a negative test for celiac disease
• Wheat allergy
  • An allergy to protein found in wheat
  • Most often seen in children
• Dermatitis herpetiformis (DH)
  • A skin rash that results from eating gluten
  • People with celiac disease may also have dermatitis herpetiformis, but people with dermatitis herpetiformis don’t always have celiac

Should I Stop Eating Gluten?

Unless you have a specific medical condition such as those listed above there is no reason a healthy diet cannot include products that contain gluten. Many foods that contain gluten are often quite healthy, such as whole grains. 

• Numerous studies have linked consumption of whole grains with lower rates of heart disease and stroke, development of type 2 diabetes, and deaths from all causes.
• Gluten may also act like a prebiotic and stimulate the activity of bifidobacteria in the colon, a type of “good” bacteria found in a healthy gut. Decreased activity or amounts of bifidobacteria are associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), colorectal cancer, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).