Your gluten allergy is most likely specific to type of gluten. Every grain has a particular type of gluten. We’ll look at these different gluten types.
Gluten is the name for a family of proteins, mostly prolamines and glutelins.If you have celiac disease, you should no that some but not all prolamines trigger celiac disease symptoms. This makes sense since celiacs have to avoid just some grains, not necessarily all.
Gluten Types of Interest
Lets start by looking at the different types of the gluten prolamine in various grains:
| Grain | Prolamine | % Total Protein | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wheat | Gliadin | 69 | |
| Rye | Secalinin | 30-50 | |
| Oats | Avenin | 16 | |
| Barley | Hordein | 46-52 | |
| Millet | Panicin | 40 | |
| Rice | Orzenin | 5 | |
| Sorgum | Kafirin | 52 | |
| Teff | Penniseiten | 11 |
Prolamine is a class of glutens found in various grains, with a specific type for each grain. At 70 %, wheat has the highest concentration of prolamine gluten protein of any grain. This helps endow wheat with its unique and prized baking properties that allows, for example, the making of very thin yet strong pastries.
Note that wheat, barley, oats and rye are considered to be triggers for celiac but not the other grains. Also, there is some debate about whether oats is problematic for celiacs or not.
If you have a gluten allergy rather than celiac disease, you may discover that you are sensitive to a different set of grains from those considered to be problematic for celiac disease. If this is the case, the gluten-free designation found on many food products may not apply to you. If you are unsure about this, you may have to cut out all grains, depending on other forms of starch for your carbohydrates such as potatoes and yams.
Which types of gluten are you sensitive to? Please leave a comment.