Abstract
This paper provides an overview of the related scientific literature, with some of our own targeted research, to investigate the possible causes of the recently increased prevalence of various forms of dietary cereal sensitivities. Detailed scientific investigations do not support the controversial idea that human practices, particularly modern wheat breeding, may have contributed to the increase in celiac disease (CD) prevalence during the latter half of the twentieth century. Each of the primitive wheat relatives and each historic or modern bread and durum wheat variety contains more or less amounts of toxic/allergenic epitopes. In the last 120 years, health-related quality attributes have not been considered in pre-breeding or breeding, but the yield- and functional quality-oriented selection procedures have resulted in unintended spinoff effects on the amounts of harmful compounds in new lines. Because of the trend of decreases in overall protein content, as well as the alteration of the glutenin-to-gliadin content to improve dough strength, older varieties are higher in gliadin content with consequent higher CD antigenicity. Meanwhile practices, introduced during the last 50 years in utilizing wheat in the food industry, have significantly increased the consumption of untreated prolamin proteins, including gluten proteins. Other factors for consideration are the incorporation of vital gluten as a cheap protein supplement in some food products and the reduction of fermentation time during bread making. Beyond the obvious effects of improved and more widely used diagnostic tests in medical practice, the increased incorporation of untreated gluten proteins and residual FODMAPs might be major reasons for the increasing prevalence of wheat sensitivity.
Published Version
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