What The Heck Is Gluten?

You can't walk by a grocery story in a trendy neighborhood without seeing the sign that says they carry gluten-free baked goods.

What is gluten and why should we avoid it? Gluten, is a protein found in wheat barley and rye and it turns out that as many as 50% of Americans are sensitive to this protein. What happens is that people who are sensitive to gluten don't produce the digestive enzymes that are need to break gluten down into amino acids, explains Shari Lieberman author of The Gluten Connection. What happens instead is that the body views it as a harmful substance and produces antibodies that cause inflammation.

And the inflammation can lead to plaque in the arteries, destruction of cartilage in the joins and organs and tissue damage says Liberman.

Avoiding gluten can help those with arthritis, ADHD, IBS and Lupus.

It can also cause headaches, fatigue, eczema, osteoporosis and weight gain.