What Is The Difference Between Gluten And Glucose?

on September 21, 2022

Gluten and glucose are two common ingredients in many foods however if you’re unfamiliar with what each one does you may be wondering what the differences between these two things are.

Gluten is a naturally occurring protein in wheat, barley, rye, and oats that some people have an intolerance to which is often referred to as coeliac disease. Glucose on the other hand is a sugar that is naturally occurring in many types of foods and is responsible for providing us with energy.

Glucose units are often joined together to form what we refer to as complex carbohydrates. These complex carbohydrates can be broken down readily by our bodies into glucose and then absorbed through our digestive tract.

As the volume of grain-based foods we eat is extremely high in the western diet this causes lifestyle diseases such as diabetes which is becoming increasingly prevalent. Diabetes occurs when your body develops insulin resistance, which is the hormone that helps the sugar to exit the bloodstream and enter the cells. When your body develops insulin resistance it is unable to remove sugars from your bloodstream efficiently resulting in high blood sugar concentrations which can create a number of associated health issues.

Gluten on the other hand is just a protein that is held within many of these grains. It has unique elastic properties which are responsible for creating the soft fluffy texture that we enjoy when we eat bread made from wheat. When the bread is made from flours that do not contain gluten the texture is relatively dense and crumbly and generally not that pleasant.

Is Glucose Syrup Considered Gluten?

Glucose syrup is not considered gluten and is therefore not problematic for celiacs irrespective of how is manufactured. Much of the glucose syrup that is used to manufacture food is produced from grains such as corn and wheat. If glucose is derived from wheat food labeling laws require the manufacturer to disclose any allergens that are present.

However, even if glucose syrup is derived from wheat it does not contain any gluten and therefore is safe for someone with gluten intolerance to eat. The reason for this is that the grain has been so highly processed that any gluten that was originally present has been removed. But despite this companies are still required to declare any allergens that have been used in the manufacture of the product that they sell which can cause much confusion.

What Is A Safe Level Of Gluten For A Coeliac?

If you are somebody that has been diagnosed with coeliac or gluten intolerance you may be wondering what is considered to be a safe level of consumption. The answer that you were likely to get is that no amount of gluten is safe for a coeliac, however, the reality is that there is a minimum detectable level which is typically around 20 parts per million. So as a general rule most people provide the guide that you ideally want to consume less than 20 milligrams per day for that amount of gluten which is considered negligible.

As the level is quite low many dietitians recommend that coeliacs attempt to avoid gluten completely including unintentional cross-contamination of food which can likely be caused by the things like the use of common spreads such as margarine which may have crumbs in it from the pieces of bread that the spread has been applied to or the use of a common toaster.

So if you are living with a coeliac you do need to take reasonable precautions to ensure that you do not inadvertently cross contaminate food prepared in a kitchen that is used for gluten-containing and gluten-free foods.

Does Gluten Cause Diabetes?

Gluten does not directly cause diabetes it is a protein that is contained within the grains that are used to make common products such as bread. However, the two are somewhat linked because much of the source of carbohydrates and sugars in our diet comes from things like wheat which do contain gluten so there is some degree of natural association between gluten and diabetes.

It has become a little bit of a fad for people to go gluten-free even if they do not have coeliac on the belief that it is a healthier diet. However, the reality is that many of the grains that do not contain gluten such as rice also have large amounts of carbohydrates in them and therefore are just as problematic as products containing wheat.

Therefore, a gluten-free diet is also problematic as it also relies upon large volumes of carbohydrates which as mentioned earlier can lead to issues such as diabetes.

What Causes A Gluten Intolerance?

Gluten intolerance is generally something that occurs as a result of our genetic disposition rather than due to constant exposure to gluten. Generally, those people with a European background particularly from the UK have a greater risk of developing coeliac disease.

Typically the rates of coeliac disease in these higher risk communities are typically 1 to 2% depending upon the specific ethnic group involved. Coeliac disease does not always present immediately it can sometimes take several years to appear.

For example, in the case of my wife, she develops coeliac disease or at least became aware of the disease when our first child was born because the child was not putting on weight when it was being breastfed.

This issue was found to be associated with the fact that my wife had coeliac disease which affects the capacity of the body to take in nutrients. As a result of this, she needed to move to a gluten-free diet and has subsequently become relatively sensitive to the presence of gluten.