The Benefits Of Wheat Gluten In Your Diet

Wheat gluten has become such a staple in the American diet (despite the fact that many Americans have never even heard of it) that we need to seriously consider the impacts it has on our diet. Wheat gluten is used as a meat substitute and filler product in nearly all processed foods in one form or another and is used to provide "texture" as a supplementary ingredient from everything to bubble gum to ketchup. Even plastic sporks are partially made from gluten. But how does all of this gluten affect us?

To start with, you must understand that the food industry is about making money. Meat is expensive and doesn't have much of a shelf life. Americans are obsessed with "ready-made" just throw in the microwave and heat it up processed foods. Unfortunately this is the life that we live and gluten plays a very large role in it. The good aspect of this is that gluten does provide many positive benefits besides 'texture'. Gluten is a high source of protein and is used to enhance protein rich breads and meat substitutes. So as a filler product, it does provide a healthy contribution, unlike many other filler products which provide negligible or no health benefit whatsoever - many are very unhealthy.

Wheat gluten also provides additional small quantities of minerals that are beneficial and healthy such as calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper and selenium. It contains no cholesterol, sodium, manganese or fluoride and very low values of saturated fat. There are other positives as well such as the omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids that it contains and low carb dietary fiber. It does not contain any starch or sugars.

The main and principal benefit of adding wheat gluten to your diet would be as a very healthy source of protein. As previously mentioned, it is high in protein - containing approximately 21g of protein per serving. In many ways, however, gluten truly is a "filler" product. Think of it much like tofu. In and of itself, tofu is not terribly attractive. But it is commonly used to enhance other foods. Furthermore, many of the tofu recipes lean on seasons and broths which lend their flavor to the tofu. The same is true with wheat gluten, though wheat gluten is not nearly as common in non-commercial usage as tofu is.