Gluten is a mixture of different proteins. As a gluten protein, it is found primarily in cereals. People who suffer from [gluten intolerance]] (celiac disease) experience, among other things, digestive symptoms of varying severity when eating corresponding foods.
What is gluten?
Gluten is a mixture of various proteins. The colloquial language also refers to it as gluten protein: gluten is responsible for giving flour mixed with liquid a sticky consistency. Because of the protein mixture, the dough of bread or other pastries has a cohesive consistency and forms a homogeneous mass. The change in consistency occurs because the proteins in the dough take on a three-dimensional structure. This is not reversible (irreversible). Gluten is an adhesive protein, but not a gluten. Unlike gluten, gluten is made up of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, not just proteins.
Function, effect and tasks
Gluten in its entirety has no significance for health or the human body. The only exception is gluten intolerance or celiac disease. However, gluten is composed of various proteins. The proteins consist of long chains of amino acids. The splitting of the proteins releases energy that the body can use for its metabolic processes. At the end of this processing, the amino acids are free or broken into shorter chains. The body needs the amino acids as building blocks for other molecules, which serve as starting materials for all cells, hormones, transmitters, tissue types, etc. There are a total of 23 known proteinogenic amino acids, which can be used to make up an almost infinite number of proteins. Of these amino acids, eight are essential to humans, that is, necessary for life. They include isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine. In addition, the organism needs semi-essential amino acids: for example, in the case of an injury, it is necessary to have certain amino acids that help the body cope with this injury. When there is no injury, they do not have such a high importance for the functioning of the human body. The number and sequence of amino acids, as well as the spatial structure of the folded chain, determine the properties of proteins – comparable to letters strung together to form words. In addition to the proteinogenic amino acids, there are numerous other amino acids that are not used as building blocks in proteins. Biology refers to them as non-proteinogenic amino acids. They influence enzymatic reactions, for example. Researchers have been able to identify about 400 different nonproteinogenic amino acids to date.
Formation, occurrence, properties, and optimal values
Gluten is found in various cereals, but not in all of them. Spelt has one of the highest gluten contents, with 10.3 g of gluten per 100 g of flour. Oats, on the other hand, have about 5.6 g of gluten per 100 g of flour. The gluten in wheat forms the basis for the so-called wheat meat, seitan. It is an increasingly popular alternative to meat and, like meat, is very rich in protein. Gluten-free grains include millet, corn, rice and teff. Teff, or dwarf millet, is a sweet grass found primarily in Ethiopia, where it is very widespread. In addition to these grains, buckwheat, amaranth and quinoa do not contain gluten. From a biological point of view, however, they are not cereals; botany therefore refers to them as pseudocereals. The two components of gluten are prolamin and glutelins. Prolamins do not serve as building materials and are not enzymes: they are storage proteins that the plant forms in the seeds. At germination, these proteins are available to the new plant. That is why biology also calls them reserve substances. Prolamins are not single-variety proteins, but are also composed of different proteins.
Diseases and disorders
Gluten intolerance represents a common disorder related to gluten. Medicine also refers to it as celiac disease or gluten-sensitive or gluten-induced enteropathy. This disorder is a cross between allergy and autoimmune disease. It is thus distinctly different from wheat allergy, which can, however, show similar symptoms. People who cannot tolerate gluten are hypersensitive to the building blocks of gluten.As a result, chronic inflammation of the intestinal mucosa manifests itself. Without dietary measures, it leads in many cases to destruction of the epithelial cells in the intestine. As a result, the body can no longer absorb nutrients correctly. Digestion remains incomplete. This disorder triggers various symptoms. Characteristic are mainly digestive complaints such as diarrhea, but also vomiting, loss of appetite, weight loss, depressive symptoms, fatigue and concentration problems. In children, celiac disease can also disrupt physical development. Affected children develop physiologically slower than healthy peers. Medicine refers to this clinical picture as failure to thrive. The extent of the symptoms depends on how severe the gluten intolerance is in the individual case. Some sufferers experience only mild digestive symptoms, while others experience severe functional impairment. Gluten intolerance can be hereditary. People with celiac disease suffer symptoms throughout their lives when they consume gluten; there is no cure. However, affected individuals can control the disease by changing their diet and avoiding foods containing gluten. Not only do they need to stop eating gluten-containing grains, but they may also need to consider contamination in other foods. People with uncontrolled celiac disease are at increased risk for certain cancers and diabetes.
