How can you call gluten today — a friend or foe? The idea that gluten harms the body has gained popularity in recent years. Nutritionists are promoting gluten-free diet options, and manufacturers are putting gluten-free products on supermarket shelves. How does gluten affect our body, and can it harm us? Guide Online has collected all the essential information about gluten and will tell you about its natural benefits, harm and how it affects the body.
What is gluten?
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Gluten is a plant protein consisting of glutenin and gliadin. It is found in cereal plants such as wheat and barley. Often, gluten is called gluten because glue is translated from Latin as glue. He provides elasticity and fluffiness to bread, pasta, pastries, and cereals.
People often think of gluten as a wheat protein. After all, wheat contains almost 80% of gluten. Gluten can also be found in many daily foods: sauces, sausage, candy, pasta, ketchup and mayonnaise.
What is the harm of gluten?
Gluten is harmful for people who have an autoimmune disease — celiac disease. With this disease, the body cannot digest gluten. Several symptoms will help you understand that you have an intolerance. These include diarrhoea, cramping, bone pain, and nausea. Abdominal bloating, anaemia, heartburn, and headache are less common.
If you experience these symptoms after eating products that contain gluten, it is better to consult a doctor. There is a medical treatment for celiac disease, but the most effective way is a gluten-free diet. It is crucial to exclude gluten from the diet and find suitable substitutes.
What is gluten good for?
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Whole grain products that contain gluten are beneficial for the body. After all, gluten is a valuable carbohydrate that includes copper, zinc, iron, and magnesium. Also, such products are rich in vitamins of group B, which support the body's immunity and ensure the excellent functioning of the intestines and digestive system.
Therefore, if you do not have a confirmed gluten intolerance, you should not refuse it. For people with a healthy body, it does not bring harm, only benefits. But gluten-free products will not get such benefits because they often lack the most valuable substances necessary for humans.
Which products contain gluten?
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Gluten is found in most products that make up our daily diet, namely, in all products that contain processed grain. First of all, it is bread, pastries, crackers. Gluten can also be found in pasta, breadcrumbs, and cookies. Mass production adds grain flour, crab sticks, sauces, gravies, and factory candies to sausage products.
Interestingly, gluten is contained in vegetarian meat. After all, you can replace animal protein with vegetable protein, namely gluten. But there are gluten-free types of plant-based meat. You need to look at the labelling carefully.
One of the primary sources of gluten is fast food. It is found in burgers, chips, beer, and spices added to snacks. Wheat flour thickens the sauces used to dress salads and add to burgers and French fries. Even some types of wine contain gluten.
Which products do not contain gluten?
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People who have gluten intolerance need to follow a gluten-free diet, that is, exclude entirely gluten products. It is better to replace all gluten products with healthier alternatives. Ordinary wheat flour can be replaced with rice, pea or buckwheat flour.
Instead of crackers, grab an apple, mixed nuts, or a set of carrots and hummus for a snack. For breakfast, instead of oatmeal, you can boil buckwheat flakes or bake pancakes from pea flour. You can cook white or brown rice for lunch and dinner and prepare pasta from corn flour. Also, there is no gluten in meat, fish, cheese, milk, sour cream, corn, potatoes and legumes.
Many gluten-free foods are labeled "Gluten Free".
How to remove gluten from the body?
If you have accidentally eaten gluten and realize that your body is beginning to react negatively to it, you need to remove it from your body. You can do this with the help of simple actions:
Drink more liquids: plain water, broth, and tea.
Rest, and better go to sleep. This way, you can avoid overloading the body and allow it to fight gluten.
Drink vitamin C because it will help strengthen immunity.
Ginger and mint tea will help relieve nausea and inflammation and calm the digestive system.
Gluten is a vegetable protein that is not an enemy of the body. It is beneficial and saturates the body with trace elements, vitamins and minerals. However, gluten can be very harmful to people with celiac disease. Use our cheat sheet always to remember which products it is and where it is not, and how to remove gluten from the body.
