Is gluten a problem for your health?

acChristian Peterson ECB Publishing, Inc. Gluten-free food has been exploding in popularity over the past few years. Ten years ago, no one cared about gluten. Now, every store has a gluten-free section; gluten-free cookies, cakes, bread and even makeup have begun popping up everywhere. But, what is gluten? How does it affect people? How does it relate to health? Gluten is a group of storage proteins, previously known as prolamins, commonly found in some grains, most obviously wheat, barley and rye. Since gluten is an overarching term there are a lot of specific prolamins related to specific grains. For example, wheat has glutenins and gliadins; secalins can be found in rye and hordeins