A Wheat of Caution

We talked last week of how oat needs to be understood well by knowing its potential side effect--celiac disease. Here's another example on why we should be normally cautious even when dealing with familiar natural foods.

SOMETIMES it is more helpful to know how things can go wrong. It covers your downside. In health, downsides can be as worse as terminal illness or even death.

You learned of the silent threat waged by the avenin in oatmeal. This week you will know that avenin is not that bad in comparison to another naturally occurring protein in foodstuff. That protein is gliadin. And it is found in wheat.

Yes, wheat, that very same cereal you find in wheat bread, wheat flour, and even certain cereals consumed by kids.

Like avenin, gliadin is a gluten protein. But it is at least 40- to 400-fold more immunogenic in triggering the appearance of celiac disease in predisposed persons.

According to the Celiac Sprue Association, USA, celiac is an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine that occurs in people of all ages.

While celiac may be noted with symptoms such as chronic diarrhea and fatigue, persons may remain asymptomatic. According to Isabel Camino, lead researcher in a 2011 study published in Gut, inflammation usually occur in the initial parts of the small intestine, and once celiac sets in results to “a permanent intolerance to gluten.”

Upon exposure to gliadin, the enzyme tissue glutaminase... [Read more.]

This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 13 July 2011.

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