How Does Gluten Affect Your Body

We have all experienced digestive issues at one point or another such as heartburn, IBS, stomach aches / cramps, gas pains etc. And as you can attest these feelings are all very unpleasant. For some this is uncommon and happens every now and again and its not a big deal. For many others this happens more often than not. And for those that it happens to it could all be related to gluten and because of this we want to find out how does gluten affect your body.

Whether you have gluten sensitivity or you are gluten intolerant or maybe have celiac disease these digestive issues mentioned earlier are a part of your everyday life, especially in the current environment we are living in with so many processed foods and food containing gluten.

All these symptoms can happen over and over until you realize gluten might be the issue or if you are diagnosed with this problem. The only way to prevent this once you realize what the problem is is by removing gluten from your diet.

In the past before we all were aware of these issues it was harder to go gluten free. However, since people have become more aware of this it has gotten easier to put together your gluten free diet.

All this being said the question comes up:

What is gluten and how does it affect the body?

This part gets a little technical so bear with me for a minute while we dig into what gluten actually is. Gluten is a collective term which contains a series of proteins that we find in grains. These grains exist mainly in wheat, barley and rye.

Grains all derive from plants. The grains are seeds and what plants use for reproduction. Which means all plants come from grains – its the full circle.

Seeds all consist of 3 parts. Endosperm which is the interior section, The Bran which is the shell on the outside and The Germ which is the core of the seed.

These seeds contain proteins and are referred to as sticky proteins because they help retain the nutrient stores with in the plant.

These sticky proteins are why we see the stretchiness and stickiness when we make dough.

And because it is so sticky it is why we find it in so many processed foods. It is used to easily keep all the ingredients bonded together.

For some when they eat gluten there is no obvious issue – but unfortunately for those that are sensitive to gluten it becomes a problem

Now that we know what gluten is let’s discuss how gluten affects the body and what happens when we eat gluten and your allergic?

When people who are sensitive to gluten or have celiacs disease eat bread for example which contains a lot of gluten and that gluten reaches your small intestine wall tissue (known as transglutaminase) the tissues starts working on breaking it down into gliadin and glutenin which are the basic ingredients of gluten.

So basically your body is breaking down the bread back into its original form of gluten.

This happens while the grain goes through your digestive system and while it is traveling your gut-associated lymphoid tissue aka GALT starts breaking down the food. Your GALT is like the immune system of your gut. It’s like the bouncer – making sure only the stuff that is supposed to get in get in and kicking out the riff raff.

For those who have no issue with gluten this process works great – and everything goes according to plan.

If on the other hand you have gluten issues then your body using GALT sees the gluten or gliadin protein in this instance as the riff raff.

And to fight against the riff raff your body sends more bouncers or antibodies to fight the intruders known as gluten.

Thats’ a good job by our body buuut … the antibodies that are sent not only fight the gliadin they also attack the transglutaminase tissue

Once this happens our cells panic and disrupt the gut cells or microvilli. The Microvilli are responsible for absorbing our nutrients. And because the cells are in panic they are unable to absorb the nutrients.

Which causes the inflammation in the gut – which in turn leads to all the symptoms mentioned earlier such as stomach aches or pains and gas and IBS can occur depending on your sensitivity.

Why is gluten such an issue now?

With more and more studies done on gluten many of the experts feel that the gluten in our wheat today is much more harmful than it was originally in previous generations. The reason for this belief is due to the fact that our wheats and grains today are modified genetically and processed so much that the proteins in the grains are a total new type of protein.

These new types of protein seem to be the proteins causing the gluten sensitivity, intolerance, celiac and other issues in our body.

This is why gluten has become such an issue now with so many more people.

Even people who have never suffered gluten sensitivity issues by feeling the pain have started to adopt a gluten free diet. These new proteins may be causing inflammation in other areas outside the gut and causing overall body pains. And once they stop eating food with gluten they report feeling much better and never go back to a diet that includes gluten again.

Can a gluten intolerance cause headaches

According to Healthline.com if you suffer from regular headaches or migraines without any apparent reason you could be getting them due to gluten. If you are gluten sensitive you maybe more prone to headaches. You can go gluten free and monitor your headaches to see if it helps.