In supermarkets, cafes and restaurants, you can increasingly see products labeled "Gluten-free" and "Caution, gluten."What is this - gluten? And than he is dangerous?
Scientists from the United States first focused on the danger posed by this protein, and to date this theory finds more and more confirmation. In 2011, the amount of gluten-free products in the US increased from 2( five years ago) to 10 percent. Some people are sure that food deprived of gluten not only improves health, but also helps to lose weight.
What is gluten and where does it occur
Gluten( from Latin - "glue"), or gluten is a group of storing proteins found in seeds of cereal plants. Most of it in wheat, rye, oats and barley. It is present wherever flour or other components of these cereals enter: bread, pasta, sweet, various sauces, mayonnaise, sausages, crab sticks, fermented milk products, ice cream, hops and even decorative cosmetics. The reason for its wide use is the ability of this substance to make almost any substance more elastic.
Causes and consequences of gluten intolerance
But nowadays more and more people suffer gluten intolerance. Approximately 1% of the inhabitants of our planet, it is laid down at the genetic level and is called "celiac disease"( from Latin "celiac disease").In the human body with such a genetic feature, the use of gluten causes a very violent inflammatory reaction. The consequences can be quite serious: chronic diarrhea, underweight, diabetes, anemia, various disorders, depression. Getting into the body of such people, the substance affects the food tract, brain activity, joints and many other organs in the body.
Gluten intolerance is even more common, caused by autoimmune causes and an allergic reaction to it. In this case, the immune system identifies gluten as a hostile object and attacks it using all available means. Currently, it is believed that some form of gluten intolerance is present in every third, fortunately, in most cases it is poorly expressed.
Over the past few decades, the number of people suffering from gluten intolerance has increased many times. It is for this reason that this problem has become particularly acute. The quality of food in our time is much lower than before. In addition, more and more seductive food from an aesthetic point of view provokes an increase in the consumption of gluten compared to the indicators of century ago. It is important that gluten-free food is considered to be medical, although, rather, the situation is exactly the opposite: the producers, with the aim to make gluten-free products more delicious and tempting, begin to add more sugar to it. But do we not replace one problem with another, no less dangerous?