What is gluten?

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- Nowadays when you take
a stroll down the aisle

at your local grocery store

you'll notice that a lot of foods

are labeled as Gluten free.

In fact, in 2014,

the U.S. sales of Gluten
free labeled products

was estimated to be
about 23 billion dollars.

So what exactly is Gluten

and why is everybody talking about it?

Well, from a biological standpoint

Gluten is composed of
two different proteins.

There is gliadin which I'll
represent as these blue circles.

And there's glutenin

which I'll represent as these red strings.

These two together are going
to form what's called gluten.

Now gluten is the main protein composite

of a lot of the grains that you eat.

This includes things
Wheat, Barley, and Rye.

And this is really important
because these are found

in a lot of the foods
that people typically eat.

For example, you may
see it in Bread, Pasta,

Salad Dressings, and even Sausages.

So this is just a handful
of the many, many,

many different types of foods
that contains these grains.

And by extension will contain the gluten.

Now why is gluten important in healthcare?

It's because there are
three major conditions

in which gluten can cause problems.

The first is known as Celiac Disease.

Celiac Disease is an Autoimmune Disease

in which the body's own Immune System

attacks the Small Intestine.

It isn't exactly a new condition

because it was first
described in the Late 1800s.

And in addition to that,
it's actually quite rare.

It affects about one for
every 70 to 300 people

depending on which country you live in.

In the U.S. that's equivalent
to about 2.1 million people.

The second major condition
is having an allergy

to the grains that contain gluten.

So much like how many
people have allergies

to things like peanuts or eggs

a lot of people can have
allergies to these grains.

However, this is even less
common than Celiac Disease.

So if Celiac Disease and Grain Allergies

are relatively rare, why is
everybody talking about gluten?

The reason is because
of the third condition

known as Gluten Intolerance.

The idea behind Gluten Intolerance

is that if you eat
something containing gluten

you'll experience all
sorts of different symptoms

associated with your bowels.

This can include things like
Diarrhea and Constipation

and Cramping and Bloating as well.

Now the whole phenomenon
of Gluten Intolerance

really began in 2011 when
a paper was published

in The American Journal
of Gastroenterology.

So right here I have the
exact title of that paper

which says, "Gluten causes
gastrointestinal symptoms

"in subjects without celiac disease."

Basically, this paper
concluded and I quote,

"gluten is indeed a trigger of
gut symptoms and tiredness."

Thus began the Gluten free sensation.

But in 2013, Dr. Peter Gibson

who is the author of this
study did a follow-up study.

Now this is actually a pretty long title

so I'm just going to read it off first

and then we're going to
digest it piece by piece.

So it says, "No Effects
of Gluten in Patients

"With Self-Reported
Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity

"After Dietary Reduction of
Fermentable, Poorly Absorbed,

"Short-Chain Carbohydrates."

So first we can focus on
this part right over here

this Fermentable, Poorly Absorbed,

Short-Chain Carbohydrates.

We have another word for this

and it's really just an acronym

it's simply known as FODMAPS.

The words in this acronym
are actually different

from the words here but
it's the same thing.

Now these FODMAPS are
basically just carbohydrates

that are known to cause
a lot of the symptoms

that I mentioned earlier.

The things like cramping, and
diarrhea, and constipation.

So this study basically
considered the fact that maybe

it's actually these FODMAPS
instead of the gluten

that's causing these symptoms.

So they basically did
mostly the same stuff

as the earlier study except
they removed these FODMAPS

from the situation.

It was kind of a confounding factor

and they wanted to eliminate that.

Then what they did was they put people

on first, gluten filled diets.

So I'll just label that
as positive (+) gluten.

And then they changed their
diets to gluten free diets.

So I'll just label that
as minus (-) gluten.

And they basically just wanted

to look at the effects of this.

So if the earlier hypothesis

that gluten causes these symptoms is true

then their symptoms should improve

because you're putting
them on a gluten free diet.

However, they found that there
were No Effects of Gluten.

So gluten actually didn't do anything.

It wasn't responsible for
causing all of those symptoms.

Now what does this all mean for us?

Well, if you have Celiac
Disease or Grain Allergies

you should absolutely avoid consuming

anything that contains Gluten in it.

However, these conditions are pretty rare

and they don't affect that many people.

So for the rest of us,

should we adopt this Gluten free diet?

Well, it's true that
these Gluten free diets

do tend to be healthy.

But that's not because they lack Gluten

it's because by their very
nature they're healthy.

They don't contain all
sorts of processed foods

and carbohydrates.

So because of that and not
because they lack Gluten

they are pretty healthy for you.

So the jury is still kind of out

on whether or not we should
adopt a Gluten free diet.

But the current scientific literature

probably wouldn't support
a Gluten free diet.