Fad food products: Good for profits, not necessarily health

The search for healthier food options combined with an increase in nutrition-related diseases has given rise to nutrition fads such as eating gluten-free, taking supplements and adopting restrictive diets. This, in turn, ...

A more healthful, gluten-free flour made from sweet potatoes

Orange, starchy sweet potatoes are great mashed, cut into fries or just roasted whole. But you likely haven't considered grinding them into a flour and baking them into your next batch of cookies—or at least, not yet. Recent ...

Common weed could spell bellyache for gluten intolerant

New research has identified proteins in a common weed which could play havoc for Australian farmers growing gluten-free crops, such as millet, buckwheat and sorghum, and people suffering from gluten intolerance.

page 1 from 4

Gluten

Gluten (from Latin gluten, "glue") is a protein composite found in foods processed from wheat and related grain species, including barley and rye. It gives elasticity to dough, helping it to rise and to keep its shape, and often giving the final product a chewy texture.

Gluten is the composite of a gliadin and a glutelin, which is conjoined with starch in the endosperm of various grass-related grains. The prolamin and glutelin from wheat (gliadin, which is alcohol-soluble, and glutenin, which is only soluble in dilute acids or alkalis) compose about 80% of the protein contained in wheat seed. Being insoluble in water, they can be purified by washing away the associated starch. Worldwide, gluten is a source of protein, both in foods prepared directly from sources containing it, and as an additive to foods otherwise low in protein.

The seeds of most flowering plants have endosperms with stored protein to nourish embryonic plants during germination. True gluten, with gliadin and glutenin, is limited to certain members of the grass family. The stored proteins of maize and rice are sometimes called glutens, but their proteins differ from gluten.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA