The baking of wheat bread depends on its gluten content. Wheat has three layers: the bran, the nutrient-rich germ and the enrosperm filled with starch and proteins. The important proteins in wheat are   more...glutens.


Those proteins are also found in rye, wheat, and barley. They is found in most types of cereals and in many types of bread. Not all foods from the grain family, however, contain gluten. Examples of grains that do not have gluten include wild rice, corn, buckwheat, millet, amaranth, quinoa [kinwa], teff, oats, soybeans, and sunflower seeds.

Gluten can be removed from wheat flour by rinsing bread dough [dou] and kneading /niding/ it until all of the starch is removed. Gluten helps make bread elastic and provides it with the chewy texture it has when eaten. For this reason, gluten that is removed from dough is sticky and feels much like chewing gum.

Gluten provides many additional important qualities to bread. For example, gluten keeps the gases that are released during fermentation in the dough, so the bread is able to rise before it is baked. In addition, gluten firms up when it is cooked and with the help of starch, helps ensure the bread maintains its proper shape.

Gluten also has an absorbent quality, which is why bread is capable of soaking up broth. Because of this feature, gluten is often used by those on a vegetarian diet as an imitation meat. On the downside, gluten is believed to be partly responsible for causing bread to become stale.

Between 0.5 and 1.0 percent of people in the United States suffer from a disease called celiac disease, which is an allergy to gluten. Individuals with celiac disease must eat foods that do not contain gluten in order to prevent illness.

Gluten intolerance is also called celiac disease and is an inherited condition that causes an extreme physical reaction when they ingest gluten from grains like wheat, barley and rice. The condition is not curable, and can become severe, damaging the small intestine and causing poor absorption of vitamins and minerals or malnutrition. Though it usually cannot be cured, gluten intolerance can be addressed by avoiding products which contain gluten. This is becoming easier to do with many low or gluten-free foods available, which make good substitutes for foods with gluten. Its a good thing that such foods have been marketed, since about one in 100 people may suffer from gluten intolerance.

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