Gluten is what we'll be chatting about this week.
Gluten is a protein that's made up of two proteins - gliadin and glutenin - which are cojoined with starch. You find it in wheat, rye and barley and it's the stuff that gives dough its elasticity. This is what helps give that lovely, chewy texture to bread and cakes.
Gluten is an important source of protein worldwide and also has other functions, such as acting as a stabilizing agent in things like tomato ketchup.
Whilst it's just a natural protein, some people have an intolerance to it and this is known as coeliac disease. Your small intestine are full of tiny finger like tubes called villi which help you to absorb nutrients from your food. If you have coeliac disease, that means your villi have flattened and your body therefore can't get all the goodness from your food. This is something called malabsorption. Coeliac disease results from an immune reaction to gluten and there's still a lot to be learnt how or why gluten can harm the intestine in some people.
Now, fruit does contain small amounts of protein but it's not gluten. Which means all our fruit smoothies are gluten free. Our yoghurt, oats, raspberries and blueberries thickie is the only drink recipe which contains gluten.
As ever, if you've got any questions, just drop me a line.
Bye for now,
Dr. Shilps
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