What is wrong with gluten?

Does a sprouted bread such as Essene Bread, baked at a low temperature, have gluten?

Gluten is a protein found in WHEAT and its relative grains such as barley, rye, spelt, kamut, and triticale and products like bulgur and semolina. Oats are included on the list of gluten containing grains because in many cases oats get contaminated during growing or processing. Whether you eat the whole grain or refined product from these list of grains, your body will be exposed to gluten.

However, there are other grains that are NOT related to wheat genetically and as such they do not contain this gluten protein in their genetic composition. These are:

Amaranth, Buckwheat, Corn, Millet, Montina (Indian rice grass, Quinoa, Rice, Sorghum, Teff and Wild Rice. I add flaxseed to this list even though they are seeds and not grains. I eat flaxseed bread which I get from my local healthfood store.

As you can see, you can still eat grains and not gluten whether whole or refined. My preference is to eat them WHOLE (without any processing)to gain greater nutritional value. By the way, your second list shows brown rice as containing gluten, I think that may be an error.

Sprouted breads contain the whole grain that has been allowed to sprout for an specified time before using it for bread making. As you know, a healthy diet should include sprouted vegetables and grains because they offer a greater nutritional benefit.

Does this help?

Free2beme, there are also a lot of people who have a slight gluten intolerance or allergy and may not know it, but when they stop eating it, they find themselves feeling better, losing weight and having more energy.

A story in USA Today discusses many aspects of the new trend toward gluten-free diets, and also mentions how many processed foods and fast foods have gluten in them. And that when people start to cut out those foods, they feel better. It might be because they are cutting out the gluten, but chances are it's also because they're eating more fresh food, fruits and vegetables.

Here's that story:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/painter/2008-08-17-gluten_N.htm

This is a great question! I can tell you from personal experience that once we decided as a family to eliminate gluten from our diet we started to lose weight.

The original plan was not weight loss but a way to detoxify the body. Within a week or so, I had lost 5 pounds, bloating and other intestinal symptoms improved or simply disappeared not just mine but the kids and my husband as well. Since then, we have limited our intake of wheat to sprouted or whole grain breads. However I still notice the difference on my body when I eat other types, I get bloated.

According to Peter Green, MD, director of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University in New York City, "no human digests gluten very well" this is because humans did not evolve on a diet that had gluten in it. Many people develop serious sensitivities to gluten but many go through life with symptoms that mascarade other health conditions that get wrongly treated with prescription drugs instead of dietary changes.

Here is a link to the Mayo Clinic that can help understand the differences between whole wheat, whole grain, gluten, etc. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/whole-grains/NU00204