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Why Is Gluten Hard to Digest?

Why Is Gluten Hard to Digest? (1:09)

Gluten is difficult to digest because humans are not built to digest it properly; when we eat it, it creates inflammation and a host of other issues. Watch neurologist David Perlmutter, MD, explain why avoiding gluten is key for gut and brain health.

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So gluten while it's in almost every product you can think of is actually really very challenging for human digestion. We aren't designed to digest gluten, it's really not part of what we've been eating for close to 2 million years. And when we consume a gluten, again it induces the inflammation, corner stone of things like multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's and then even difficult things outside the brain like joint problems and skin problems.

So here is the real issue as it relates to gluten, and it was really made clear to us from the work of Dr. Alessio Fasano who is now at Havard and that is consume gluten it causes the cells in the intestines to secrete a chemical called zonulin. And what zonulin does is it immediately disrupts the connections between the cells in the intestines and now actually has been showed to cause leakiness of the blood-brain barrier as well.

So the issue really has to do with the effect of consuming gluten on the production of this chemical called zonulin and how that leads not only to a leaky gut but a leaky brain.