Talk:Gluten

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orgastic?

To some extent the article conflates allergy and intolerance ... I'm certainly no medical person, but I believe there is an important distinction to be made regarding the body's allergic response (histamines, and so on) and the immune response of the celiac.
- Scrafford

I agree... an allergy is a specific response (raised histamine levels) to the allergic agent. Coeliac disease is not an allergic response to Gluten and I propose this article is edited accordingly. CustardJack

Done. As far as I know, what people call "allergy to gluten" is really celiac disease, which most definately is not an allergy. I've fixed this now. Also, I'm pretty sure spelt is fine for people with celiac disease - the page on spelt seems to think so. I changed the last line in the article to reflect this, but it'd be great if an MD could weigh in on the subject. --Eirinn 09:40, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

The page on spelt is wrong as far as I know. I'm gluten intollerant and have always been told that spelt is off limits. Just my two cents

From looking around on the net it appears that spelt (and kamut) are bad for people with celiac disease (but not as bad as ordinary wheat it seems). I've updated the page to reflect this. --Eirinn 02:53, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Terminology problems

From Coeliac disease:

Maize (corn), sorghum, and rice are considered safe for a patient to consume. They contain types of gluten that do not trigger the disease.

This contradicts this article, which states:

No gluten is contained in rice (even glutinous rice), wild rice, maize (corn), millets, buckwheat, quinoa, or amaranth.

It appears the word gluten is being used in two different ways.

The applicable definition given in the Oxford English Dictionary is:

3. The nitrogenous part of the flour of wheat or other grain, which remains behind as a viscid substance when the starch is removed by kneading the flour in a current of water.

Further to this, the American Heritage Dictionary (which is known for using corpus linguistics and combining prescriptive and descriptive elements) gives the following definition:

A mixture of plant proteins occurring in cereal grains, chiefly corn and wheat, used as an adhesive and as a flour substitute.

This article defines gluten as "composed of the proteins gliadin and glutenin". This is a definition which appears from my research to be a common one among food scientists and celiac patients, but it is not the usual dictionary definition. I can find many cases of the broader definition in present use; for example, there are agricultural by-products called "corn gluten meal" and "rice gluten meal" which are used as animal feed. Also, the OED notes a historical precedent:

1876 HARLEY Mat. Med. (ed. 6) 371 Oats contain a larger proportion of gluten than any of the other cereals in use.

Comments? --Dforest 16:48, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

• Don't forget corn gluten as herbicide! There is clearly a distinction between the modern scientific meaning of "gluten" as spelled out in the article and what's been loosely called gluten in the past ("the stuff that makes dough sticky" back to the 18th century) and the recent present ("corn gluten"). This article very much should mention the different use of the terms, as the confusion leads to incorrect conclusions (for example, is corn gluten bad for celiac patients? No, not at all -- people avoiding gluten can eat all the corn tortillas they want, like I did yesterday for lunch.) But thanks for raising this question; I'm fairly new at the gluten-avoidance game, and myself was puzzled by the other uses of "gluten". --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 17:27, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

--- inconsistency between this page and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten-free_diet regarding whether kamut is or is not gluten-free (i.e. acceptable in a gluten-free diet). I have no idea what the truth might be.

visitor - Scott Carter

Kamut is wheat, and thus has gluten. However, for some reason, it appears to be suitable for people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 00:12, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Another terminology problem

Re: "Wheat flour with a high gluten content is called "strong" flour, and is used for breads, whereas flour with a lower gluten content is called "soft" flour, and is used for cakes."

I have lived across Canada and high-gluten-content wheat has always been called "hard" not "strong".

I have editted as such.