Is Einkorn Gluten Free?
If you’re asking yourself whether Einkorn contains gluten, the answer is “Yes, it absolutely does!”…but I have a secret to tell you. And I should probably disclose that this is not something your “everyday family doctor” is going to tell you. Here’s the secret: not all wheat gluten is created equal.
I like to explain by comparing sucanat and aspartame sweeteners. Imagine pouring a perfectly sweetened blueberry syrup over your hot-off-the-stove pancakes for your morning breakfast. If that syrup is made from natural sucanat sweetener or aspartame, it’s going to taste great either way. However, inside your body, the aspartame is killing brain cells while the sucanat is an unmodified substance that most people’s body can process naturally, without any damage to the body.
Einkorn has an entirely different genetic makeup than modern wheat. Modern wheats have been hybridized through years and years and millions and millions of $$$ in research. The goal of hybridization has been to increase yields, fight against plant disease, pests, weather conditions, etc. and many are starting to wonder if this long history of hybridization is the explanation for the rising number of people with a high intolerance to gluten.
I’m not saying I have all the answers…that’s why I have this website and it’s why I am researching the history and nutritional properties of Einkorn.
Einkorn differs from modern wheat in 3 important ways, all of which may contribute to gluten intolerance:
- Most modern wheat is a hybrid of many different grains and grasses.
- Einkorn has a 14 chromosomes , whereas modern wheat has a 42 chromosomes which changes the gluten structure
- Einkorn is considered more nutritious than modern wheat, based on the higher level of protein, essential fatty acids, phosphorous, potassium, pyridoxine, and beta-carotene.
Is it any wonder that so many people today are plagued with allergies and even extreme sickness as a result of eating modern wheat?
Anyway, getting back to the original question of whether Einkorn flour contains gluten. Most people ask this question because they would like to start eating bread again. I hope my answer gives you some hope.
Additionally, I have met some doctors who are working with suffers of celiac and gluten intolerance to see if they can safely eat specific, tested sources of Einkorn. These patients are going through a healing regimen first to get to this point and the initial results are very promising.
Stay tuned…I think we’re on to something here.
122 thoughts on “Is Einkorn Gluten Free?”
Fascinating trail of articles that ties together the introduction of a super high gluten wheat (dwarf wheat) in 1979 that IMMEDIATELY precedes the dramatic rise of obesity in the US. Fascinating and scary.
1. Normal Borlaug wins the Nobel Prize for “inventing” dwarf wheat with twice the gluten chromosomes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug
2. How Borlaug wheat compares to the “old” 14 chromosome Einkron wheat:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einkorn_wheat
In contrast with more modern forms of wheat, evidence suggests the gliadin protein of einkorn may not be as toxic to sufferers of coeliac disease. Einkorn wheat does contain gluten, but is different from most wheats in that it contains only 14 chromosomes as opposed to 28 in emmer or 42 in modern wheats. This alters the gluten structure which may be why it does not affect those with gluten intolerance as much as other wheats
3. Oops! Why Borlaug’s wheat is BAD:
The old fourteen chromosome containing Einkorn wheat codes for the small number of gluten proteins and those that it does produce are the least likely to trigger celiac disease and inflammation. The new dwarf wheat contains twenty-eight or twice as many chromosomes and produces a large variety of gluten proteins, including the ones most likely to cause celiac disease.
http://drhyman.com/blog/2012/02/13/three-hidden-ways-wheat-makes-you-fat/
4. Borlaug’s wheat is introduced to the US:
http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/CAT80742336/PDF
By late 1979, 147 semi-dwarf varieties of wheat and 6 of rice had been
released. Many of these included varieties developed in the international
centers in their ancestry. Semi-dwarf wheat was planted on about 22 percent of
the U.S. wheat area in 1974 and roughly 29 percent in 1979. Semi-dwarf
rice varieties represented about 9 percent of the U.S. rice area in 1979. The
semi-dwarfs have represented an evolutionary rather than revolutionary change.
Their use is likely to expand.
5. ONE year later Obesity rates start to skyrocket:
From 1980 to 2008, the prevalence of obesity in children aged 6 to 11 years tripled from 6.5% to 19.6%. The prevalence of obesity in teenagers more than tripled from 5% to 18.1% in the same time frame. Obesity rates have increased for all population groups in the United States over the last several decades.[12] Between 1986 and 2000, the prevalence of severe obesity (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2) quadrupled from one in two hundred Americans to one in fifty. Extreme obesity (BMI ≥ 50 kg/m2) in adults increased by a factor of five, from one in two thousand to one in four hundred. There have been similar increases seen in children and adolescents, with the prevalence of overweight in pediatric age groups nearly tripling over the same period. Approximately nine million children over six years of age are considered obese. Several recent studies have shown that the rise in obesity in the US is slowing, possibly explained by saturation of health-oriented media or a biological limit on obesity.[13]
CDC info map here (scroll down and watch the map change, starts in 1985, 6 years after the introduction of Borlaug’s wheat):
http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
6. This mutant wheat (now 42 chromosomes) accounts for 99% (no pun intended) of the wheat grown worldwide.
Yikes!
Zack, thanks for piecing together that trail. An interesting parallel is the formation of the International Wheat Gluten Association (IWGA) in 1979 http://www.iwga.net . It seems we have them to thank for our globally glutenized world.
In their own words–
> Since the International Wheat Gluten Association was chartered in 1979 by ten companies that manufactured wheat gluten in Australia, Canada and the United States, the Association has grown to its present size with members on four continents — Australia, Europe, North America and South America. Currently, the members of the Association represent approximately 90% of all world-wide wheat gluten production. One of the Association’s primary objectives is to help food technologists identify those areas where wheat gluten can play an important role in new protein-based product development. Today’s consumers require products with excellent appearance, flavor, nutrition and price-value.
As a natural food, the increasing awareness of the unique functional properties of wheat gluten coupled with the growing use of all vegetable proteins augurs well for significant market growth in the years ahead. <
The rest of the site openly details all the industries gluten can be applied to http://www.iwga.net/21applications.htm . There is one outside link for Celiac disease. Otherwise, no comment on gluten risks.
Ok, so just how do more chromosomes change gluten? Isn’t gluten just gluten and has a particular biochemical structure? Do you know how chromosomes work at all? I’d like to hear this. And more people today are getting sick from everything. It’s not gluten, it’s people. Auto immune diseases are WAY up with everything so gluten is not the culprit.
So much wrong thinking going on out there it’s no wonder we are falling behind the rest of the world. Too many guillable, non-thinkers.
I know this is a bit dated, but felt the need to correct what I think is a common misconception. People have the same kinds of confusions about sugar and fiber as well.
No, gluten is not “just gluten”. You incorrectly infer that there is merely one molecular configuration of one chemical, “a” protein called gluten. It just isn’t so.
Gluten is a catch-all term referring to a family of proteins and sometimes the cohort of associated enzymes and other chemical constituents. The two most important components are the gliadins and the glutenins, the balances of which, and the exact electromechanical configurations of which, like the rest of the cohort depend upon what the genes code for.
Different genes give different proteins in differing relative abundances, which are then modified by different chemcal pathways arising from the different enzymes.
Ok, so just how do more chromosomes change gluten? I’d like to hear this. And more people today are getting sick from everything. It’s not gluten, it’s people. Auto immune diseases are WAY up with everything so gluten is not the culprit.
So much wrong thinking going on out there it’s no wonder we are falling behind the rest of the world. Too many guillable, non-thinkers.
Kate asks, “Ok, so just how do more chromosomes change gluten?”
I don’t pretend to be a biologist or geneticist, but if I recall correctly from my college genetics and biology courses, chromosomes (via DNA/RNA transcription) code for every protein that an organism produces. The hybridization process (via polyploidy) almost always multiplies the number of chromosomes, introducing new genes from new sources with the potential to alter everything about the plant–from the quality and quantity of its proteins to its observed height and yield.
Kate concludes: “Too many guillable [sic], non-thinkers.”
Kate, your comments might gain more traction with readers if you eliminate the spelling errors in the sentence(s) wherein you accuse others of being “non-thinkers.”
I would love for you to provide me some proof that gluten is not the culprit. No one in my family has ever had a gluten intolerance and now my son and daughter do. Nothing else makes them sick. I would love to provide you information on how chromosomes can affect things. Take for example downs syndrome. One extra chromosome and the person is magically mentally retarded. I wish you would think about what you are typing before sharing with us. Thanks
Look up Wheat Belly on the internet or buy the book and read it.
Its a thingy called Gliadin and it rips your insides out. The wheat that has completely taken over the market right now comes from … The Rockefeller Foundation … so how can it be beneficial to us?
Read Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD. He explains your question in a succinct way. He also explains why people are getting a myriad of diseases/health problems. It has been very eye opening!
So if the problem is gliadin, not gluten, then einkorn is no better for you than any other wheat.
Marie, whether it’s gliadin or gluten, einkorn contains completely different proteins from modern wheat. Are those things present? Yes, but they are very different. It’s the difference between a diploid and a tetraploid.
I also used to be one of those people that thought (arrogantly) that outside of celiac patients, the whole gluten free thing was a farce. Admittedly, there ARE many people out there that are jumping on the GF bandwagon for no verifiable reason other than they think it’s “cool” – without having any real understanding of what gluten is. It’s like a naive college student that gloms on to a cause without having done the research.
However, I have autoimmune diseases and finally decided to try cutting gluten. Almost immediately I felt better.
It didn’t change the fact that I have a broken immune system or a faulty immune response. It did, however, change my level of pain, the location of pain in specific joints, and (and this is the scientifically verifiable part) my labs that showed my inflammation was abnormally low for someone with rheumatoid arthritis and Sjogren’s. Removing gluten was the ONLY thing I’d changed.
Can I have gluten? Yes. Does my body respond to it negatively? Yep – almost exactly 20 minutes after ingesting it I, and quite possibly the people in my vicinity, know it.
If you don’t have a negative reaction to it, be thankful. But please don’t insult the rest of the population that has a genuine physical response to it. You never realize how right everything goes with your body until something goes terribly awry.
Hi Stan my son and husband are intollerant to cultivated wheat, my son gets really ill when having things containing modern wheat flour, he is not intollerant to gluten but to cultivated wheat, would this be a good flour in your opinion to try? I want to make him some bread but he is also intollerant to yeast do you know of any other raising agents that work that I could use in conjunction with the einkorn flour to make bread, thankyou sarah
Hi Sarah,
Why don’t you ferment your own sourdough starter ? Go to culturesforhealth.com
Linda
After years of escalating misery I finally found instant relief by eliminating gluten from my diet. All my symptoms disappeared and life was good…but back then there were little choices available and what was out there gluten-free was tasteless and not worth the ridiculous price so I began experimenting on my own. I got very good at utilizing non-gluten grains/seeds and made very tasty bread and pasta for those times I just had to have some.
I researched just as you did and came to the same conclusions. I decided to venture out on a limb and experiment with old variety wheat grains using myself as a Guinea Pig. I discovered that, in moderation anyway since I have been very conservative, I can eat Spelt, Kamut and Einkorn without any of my gluten-induced symptoms. It has opened up a whole new world! Thankfully the choices are getting better now that people are starting to see that a LOT of us are having issues with gluten. Now if I can just find a reliable source for Einkorn (that’s my new favorite!)
I am glad I found your page…keep up the good work.
Jovial’s Einkorn pasta products are the best tasting and most nutritious wheat I’ve ever found and tasted. My 6 year-old’s skin (eczema) doesn’t react to Einkorn wheat like with the modern wheat varieties of today. I order the pasta by the case and am looking into ordering the flour so that I make my favorite recipes again.
Thank you Jovial!! We love you!!
USA
Stan,
I have an organic homestead and remain unclear on this: Please explain the possiblility that hybridized types of wheat (or corn, etc.) growing within pollinating distance from an ancient wheat crop (Einkorn), may cross the Einkorn and render it changed.
I have also wondered if the sterile corn plants were to cross pollinate a conventional corn crop–would the conventional crop seed be sterile?
My search today is a result of the Wheat Belly book (Davis) and his assertion on Fox today that wheat has evolved for the worse.
Hi Trace,
Sorry I’ve been putting off trying to address your question since the answer is not a simple one. Wheat, Corn (Maize), Einkorn and all true grains are types of grasses. So, they all rely on the wind for pollination and it really depends on the variety of grass as to how susceptible it is to (1) cross-pollination and then (2) successful hybridization. First, a Colorado State Ag study showed that the maximum cross-pollination rate at 200 ft. for one set of wheat varieties, was 1 in 10,000. Wheat pollen only remains viable for a short time, I think a few hours depending on the weather, so timing would also play into this. In order for a cross-pollination event to result in a successful (fertile) seed being developed, the genome types would need to be compatible. Generally, a hexaploid (6 sets of chromosomes) like common (or GMO) wheat will not successfully fertilize a diploid (2 sets of chromosomes) like Einkorn. The chances of this occurring naturally are pretty slim, plant breeder have to work at making new varieties of wheat or other grains. The exception to that may be corn (maize), since the pollen is produced at the top of very large stalks and in much greater amounts. Well, that’s my take on the topic, if anyone else has better information, please chime in.
I have searched for hours, looking for seed. Where do I buy Einkorn seed. I found one site for saving heritage seed, but Einkorn was not available to buy. Are there any sites that offer the seed? I also found one in Canada, but the site did not offer me to order outside of Canada.
Try this link
https://www.azurestandard.com/shop/search?query=eincorn&brand=Azure%20Market%20Organics&brand=Azure%20Husbandry