Gluten: animator of the dough

Many cereal grains — but in particular barley, wheat, and rye — contain specific proteins that, when mixed with water and kneaded, create an elastic mass. This mass is called gluten. Two important types of these proteins are gliadins and glutenins. At the microscopic level, gluten is an elastic mesh of the protein molecules.

It allows the dough to rise and gives it its chewy character. The ability of gliadins and glutenins to create gluten makes them prized ingredients in the food industry.

This said, gluten is equally infamous for the allergic reaction it induces in some people. An enzyme called protease helps digest proteins but it doesn’t do a good job of breaking down gluten. When such gluten reaches the small intestine, the body can develop gastrointestinal problems.

The most well-known of these problems is coeliac disease (pronounced “see-lee-ack”). It’s characterised by a severe allergic reaction in the small intestine, prompting the immune system to produce a large number of antibodies that attack the body’s own proteins. The disease is present in around 2% of the general population.

Its primary symptom are severe loose diarrhoea and anaemia, but there are other symptoms too. In fact, while doctors can diagnose coeliac disease using a blood test, an endoscopy, and/or a test looking for genetic predisposition to the condition, diagnosis is often delayed the symptoms are often misattributed to a different cause.

Maintaining a diet very low in gluten is the only effective way to treat coeliac disease at present.