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Gluten has a couple definitions; one is technically correct but not commonly used, and the other is commonly used but not technically correct. For the purposes of most of this book, here’s the common definition: Gluten is a mixture of proteins in wheat, rye, and barley. Oats don’t have gluten but may be contaminated by having been processed on the same equipment as gluten-containing grains, so they’re forbidden on a strict gluten-free diet, too.

You can find lots of information about what you can and can’t eat in Chapter 4 of Book I, as well as a detailed listing of safe and forbidden ingredients at www.celiac.com or other websites. But you need to have a general idea of what kinds of foods have gluten in them so you know what to avoid. Foods with flour in them (white or wheat) are the most common culprits when you’re avoiding gluten. The following are obvious gluten-glomming foods:

✔ Bagels

✔ Beer

✔ Bread

✔ Cookies, cakes, and most other baked goods

✔ Crackers

✔ Pasta

✔ Pizza

✔ Pretzels

But along with these culprits come not-so-obvious suspects, too, like licorice, most cereals, and some natural flavorings. When you’re gluten-free, you get used to reading labels, calling manufacturers, and digging a little deeper to know for sure what you can and can’t eat.

You have to do without those foods, but you really don’t have to do without. There’s a subtle but encouraging difference. Food manufacturers make delicious gluten-free versions of just about every food imaginable these days. You find out more about those options and where to buy them in Book II, Chapter 3.

You may see lots of labels proudly declaring a product to be wheat-free (some of which, like spelt and kamut, aren’t really wheat-free at all). When something says it’s wheat-free, it doesn’t mean the food is gluten-free.

Gluten is in wheat, but it’s also in rye and barley – and most people don’t eat oats on the gluten-free diet, either. So something can be wheat-free but still have other gluten-containing ingredients, like malt, which is usually derived from barley. In that case, the product is wheat-free but not gluten-free.

Anyone who’s spent more than a day on planet Earth has been barraged with messages hailing the virtues of wheat – especially in its whole form. Wheat and other grains hog most of the food pyramid(s), suggesting you should eat gobs of it, and it’s touted as a good source of fiber and nutrients. Wheat does provide some health benefits, but you can find those benefits in other food sources, too. So how can wheat be at the root of so many health problems?

For three reasons, wheat may not be the key to perfect dietary health:

✔ Wheat was invented yesterday. Wheat wasn’t introduced until the Agricultural Revolution, about 10,000 years ago – that’s yesterday, evolutionarily speaking. Before that, people ate lean meats, fish, seafood, nonstarchy vegetables, berries, and fruits. When wheat came on the scene, it was completely foreign.

✔ Humans don’t fully digest wheat. Human bodies have to adapt in order to tolerate wheat, and lots of people don’t tolerate it well at all. Most humans have only one stomach – and one just isn’t enough to digest wheat. Cows have four stomachs (actually, four chambers within one stomach). That’s why Bessie the Bovine does okay with wheat. The wheat goes from one stomach to another and another and – well, you get the picture. By the time it reaches tummy number four, it’s fully digested and Bessie’s feeling fine.

✔ Wheat contributes to leaky gut (Z is for zonulin). When people eat wheat, they produce extra amounts of a protein called zonulin. The lining of the small intestine is basically a solid wall of cells that most materials can’t pass through on their own. On the lining of the small intestine, zonulin waits for nutrients to come along. When important vitamins and minerals are present, zonulin tells the passageways in the intestinal wall to open so those nutrients can pass into the bloodstream. The blood then carries the nutrients to other parts of the body.

When some people eat wheat, they produce too much zonulin and the gates open too wide. All sorts of stuff gets into the bloodstream, some of which, like toxins, shouldn’t be there. This increased permeability of the lining of the small intestine, or leaky gut syndrome, can cause lots of different health issues.