- Hello.
(lighthearted, bouncy music)
You've probably heard a lot about gluten
in the news, right?
It's the stuff that makes bread chewy,
it's this protein formed by two chemicals,
glutenin and gliadin.
Humans have been eating this stuff
for at least 10 thousand years,
and it's one of the most heavily
consumed proteins on earth.
Recently though, gluten has become
the latest nutritional boogie man.
Anti-gluten evangelists claim
it causes everything from obesity to cancer.
Medical and nutritional experts, however,
take a dim view of these kind of claims.
So here are three of the biggest gluten myths
that they are trying to debunk.
Number one.
Lots of people are gluten intolerant.
Actually it's only a small number,
about one percent of the U.S. population
has a thing called celiac disease,
an auto immune disorder that
injures the small intestine and prevents
patients from absorbing other nutrients
from food when they ingest gluten.
And it can cause awful side effects,
from gastrointestinal distress
and chronic fatigue to anemia.
Additionally, another six percent
of the U.S. public may have
a controversial condition
called non-celiac gluten sensitivity,
or NCGS for those in the know.
Even for some people with NCGS,
gluten may not be the real problem.
In a 2013 study, researchers took
a group of people with NCGS
and they modified their diets.
They cut out a broad class
of nutrients called FODMAP's.
This includes everything from fructose
to like the fiber in bananas
and the fiber in asparagus.
When they cut this stuff out
of the patient's diets, the patients stopped
having gastrointestinal distress,
even when they ate gluten.
Okay, so maybe you need to stay away
from gluten because of celiac disease,
or NCGS, or maybe you're just convinced
that gluten is terrible for you.
Companies that manufactiure
gluten-free foods cannot wait to meet you,
and overcharge you.
Think about it, a bag of gluten-free
chocolate chip cookies, for example,
may cost close to five times as much
as the regular kind.
But you don't need to buy
a 13 dollar bag of cookies,
or a six dollar loaf of bread
to avoid gluten.
A lot of foods that naturally don't have
any gluten in them are all around you.
Stuff like fruits, vegetables,
meats, poultry,
I can keep going on,
fish, nuts, milk,
most cheeses, and yogurt,
herbs, spices, and oils,
butter, margarine, rice,
certain cereals, and
corn tortillas.
Eating a 100 percent gluten free diet
might be theoretically possible,
but according to National Foundation
for Celiac Awareness president Alice Bast,
in reality, it's nearly an impossible feat.
The FDA actually allows products to
be labeled gluten free even if they contain
gluten, up to 20 parts per million.
Furthermore, the FDA doesn't
actually require food manufacturers
to test their finished products
for gluten content.
The FDA reassures people with celiac disease
that all of this probably doesn't
put them at too much risk,
since research shows that most of them
can tolerate extremely small amounts of gluten.
However, for those who believe
that gluten is an intolerable poison
that must be avoided in any amount,
the reality is going to be difficult to swallow.
So, that's it,
and thank you for watching,
but what do you think?
Are people exaggerating the dangers
of this gluten stuff, or are they
ignoring a very real threat?
Let me know in the comments below
and for more information on this,
check out our article
The Ten Biggest Myths About Gluten
on HowStuffWorks.com.
Did we do it?
Are we hanging,
you can come out here.
Hey, were you back there the whole time?
- Yep.