What is gluten and what can you replace it with on the Dukan diet?

gluten listed as ingredients . And for the most part these were recipes for all kinds of baked goods.

Let's figure it out now - What is gluten?

So, gluten (aka gluten) is a protein found in many grains, especially wheat, oats, barley and rye. That is, in essence, this is the protein part of the flour, which remains after the starch is washed out from the dough with water. And through a long process of chemical synthesis, we obtain gluten - a pure natural product without any additives, dyes or improvers.

Gluten on the Dukan diet: what to replace, norm, dangers

What is the norm of gluten on the Dukan diet and what are its dangers.
What products can completely replace it? Vegetable protein from wheat, oats, barley and rye is what is contained in flour along with starch. Gray mass, odorless and tasteless. But it is precisely this that, when combined with water, allows flour to turn into dough. Many nutritionists do not like starch because it increases blood glucose, but gluten on the Dukan diet is an additional product that gives structure to dishes.

The most commonly used gluten is wheat gluten - the same one that is on the list of possibly intolerant foods along with lactose. But it is this that is allowed at any stage of the Dukan diet and is called “plant-based meat”, as an important part of the diet of vegetarians and vegans.

7-day menu for the “Consolidation” phase

Day No. 1

breakfast - tea, cheesecakes;
lunch - whole grain bread, fish soup;
afternoon snack - rhubarb;
dinner - boiled potatoes or corn porridge, chicken cutlets.

Day No. 2

breakfast – coffee, casserole with berries;
lunch - bran bread, solyanka;
afternoon snack - cheesecakes;
dinner – vegetable salad, chicken fillet.

Day No. 3

breakfast – low-fat cottage cheese, yogurt;
lunch - fish soup, boiled low-fat fish;
afternoon snack - vegetable mousse;
dinner - kefir, veal meat.

Day No. 4 (menu of the day from the Attack stage)

breakfast – omelet, coffee, zucchini;
lunch – lean chicken broth with meatballs;
afternoon snack – yogurt, bran;
dinner – green tea, seafood.

Day No. 5

breakfast - coffee, sandwich with lean ham;
lunch – salad, steamed veal cutlets;
afternoon snack - berries;
dinner – Frenchoza, baked fish.

Day #6

breakfast - cottage cheese, kefir, bran bread;
lunch - solyanka, salad;
afternoon snack - cheesecakes;
dinner – vegetable stew, rice.

Day No. 7

breakfast – sandwich with lightly salted salmon, green tea;
lunch – fish with vegetables;
afternoon snack – goji berries;
dinner – salad, turkey roll.

Adjustments can be made to the above diet, taking into account permitted and prohibited foods, while at the “Consolidation” stage it is important to ensure that one day a week is strictly protein.

Is gluten “legal”?

If Pierre Dukan does not oppose gluten , then it is necessary to decide on the standards for its use. Excess gluten causes discomfort in the digestive system: flatulence, bloating. In large quantities, it impairs the ability to absorb nutrients from food.

The word “gluten” is most often associated with celiac disease, an allergy to plant protein. Eating bread, cereals, and pastries, people do not think about abdominal discomfort:

whether gluten intolerance is the result of abuse of flour and its derivatives;
or other factors cause the body's inability to digest gluten.

The use of gluten on the Dukan Diet is a personal decision.

Gluten has disadvantages and advantages: it improves the final result of baking, it does not contain carbohydrates. But it is worth remembering that the product is not 100% safe just because it is found in small concentrations in the normal diet.

Methods of using gluten:

baking bread, pancakes, cookies;
preparation of semi-finished products.
extending the service life of baked goods;
improving dough elasticity;
increasing the yield of the finished product by 5-7%.

The purpose of the substance is to give the structure of bread softness and tenderness, which bakery product manufacturers have long appreciated. This is why there is so much hype around “gluten-free” diets, which are recommended for people with digestive problems.

Wheat or gluten - substitution of values

Before continuing our story about the adventures of gluten protein, we need to shed a little light on one event that indirectly influenced his future fate. This happened in connection with the desire to overcome hunger.

The first problem is to get a good harvest in poor environmental conditions. Having solved it, you are faced with a storage problem. It is difficult to preserve grain, as it spoils quickly. And if you consider that this is the main food product all over the world, it turns out to be a global problem.

The solution to these problems was to develop grains that would be resistant to bad weather conditions, contain more nutrients and could be stored for a long time. And such grain was bred in the fifties by breeder Norman Borlaug. The peculiarity of this variety is its high gluten content.

Everyone loved this variety, but not because it solved the problems of hunger, but because it contained a large amount of gluten. Wheat natural protein, which was extracted from high quality flour, became more valuable in the eyes of manufacturers than wheat.

Gluten levels on the Dukan diet

The nutritionist recommends using up to two tablespoons of gluten in cooking . But do not use it, that is, do not make a rule out of it, but only use it as an additional component.

Since dough does not rise without flour, gluten allows you to make baked goods more attractive and more pleasant in texture.
Adding gluten eliminates the “heaviness” of baked goods for the stomach, since bran interacts heavily with yeast, and the dough rises poorly. This additional product is responsible for the airiness of the bread.

Secret test item discovered

The quiet and unknown life of gluten changed dramatically in the distant 18th century. People began to rapidly understand the world in which they live. This also affected food production. Until this time, women baked bread every day and did not attach any importance to this process. Sometimes they complained that the flour was somehow unruly, did not want to knead, the dough did not rise, and the bread crumbled.

This is not how male cooks behaved at all. When faced with similar difficulties, they did not complain, but tried to understand why the same process proceeded differently. As a result of a long search, the famous Cesare Beccaria was able to declassify the composition of the dough and isolated gluten from it. What did this give to humanity?

Now they have learned to separate gluten from flour and use it independently. As it turns out, this is very easy to do. You need to leave the finished batter in water. Gradually the water will dissolve everything except the gluten. The starch solution is drained, and the remaining gluten is crushed, dried and compacted. In industrial conditions, this process is carried out using thickening separators. Dry protein is packaged and actively used in the food industry.

Is vegetarianism on Dukan nonsense?

However, vegans also need to expand their protein sources. Wheat gluten contains all the macronutrients and has a brown, firm, and meaty texture. It has no cholesterol .

Gluten from soy proteins is known as tofu, and from wheat proteins - seitan. The product is made by washing dough made from wheat flour in water until the starch is washed out. The remaining insoluble fiber is processed before consumption. Seitan was first produced in China and has long been popular in Japan and many other Asian countries. Buddhists who do not eat meat often eat it.

Gluten on the Dukan diet is needed for baking bread. You will need bran (oat bran - 35 g , wheat bran - 10 g ), one package of dry yeast, gluten ( 100 g ). First, bran is mixed with water, yeast, and salt is added. Then gluten is mixed into the dough and left for an hour. After which the mass is transferred into a mold and baked in the oven at 200 degrees for 35-40 minutes .

Side effects of the war on gluten

Other food manufacturers have taken advantage of people's desire to be healthy by eliminating gluten. What did this entail? Vegetables, fruits, natural fish and meat, beans, and nuts have become fashionable. However, new concepts in cooking have also appeared. For example, today people have the opportunity to try gluten-free bread. What kind of bread is this and how were they able to make it?

Most often, flour products that do not contain gluten protein are made from the flour of those cereals that do not contain this protein. It can be rice, buckwheat or corn flour. However, more fats and synthetic thickeners have to be added to such dough so that it does not crumble and has viscosity. The result is that the product does not contain gluten, but is still harmful to the body.

Dangers of Gluten

Gluten sensitivity and celiac disease are cases associated with a complete ban on products with this substance.

It is difficult to completely eliminate gluten consumption, since it is present in sauces, semi-finished products, and any baked goods, even those without sugar, cocoa, or chocolate, but in minute quantities. The Dukan diet advocates replacing flour with gluten and consuming almost 60 g per day , although the maximum health limit should not exceed 5-20 g for a person who tolerates the substance normally.

The effect of gluten on the human body

What happens in the body when gluten enters it? The benefits and harms of this protein are determined by two factors - heredity and quantity.

Firstly, there is a small group of people on the planet who are not friendly with gluten from birth. They suffer from a syndrome discovered by several doctors in different countries. This disease is called Guy-Herter-Heubner syndrome. The body of this group of people is unable to produce the enzyme that breaks down the peptide gluten chains.

Secondly, people whose diet consists of foods containing gluten consume it in very large quantities. It accumulates in the body, the digestive system wears out. As a result, a person develops an acquired allergy to gluten - the so-called gluten intolerance.

How to replace gluten on the Dukan diet?

Like gluten, protein isolate is a source of protein—your choice of milk, beef, egg, or soy. Dukan recommend using soy product , but it is not complete in terms of amino acid composition. There are different types of products that can become the basis of desserts:

Protein isolate, like gluten, increases the volume of baked goods. Replaces corn starch and is used to create desserts.
Guar gum is also a natural product made from the bean of the guar tree, adding bulk to products including dough, thickening and being used instead of flour.
Psyllium, or soluble fiber, replaces yeast in baked goods, lifting the dough much like gluten does.

Each product has found application in dietary recipes . For example, for pancakes you need to take two eggs, 20 g of protein, 100 ml of milk, guar gum on the tip of a knife and a sweetener. Mix the dough and spoon into the frying pan, frying for a minute on each side.

For the buns, take two measuring spoons of psyllium, four tablespoons of milk, two eggs, which we beat and add other ingredients. Add 200 g of soft cottage cheese, sweetener, baking powder, three tablespoons of protein isolate and two tablespoons of bran. You will need cinnamon to taste. The dough is kneaded and buns are formed. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for about half an hour.

The dangers of overeating gluten

The digestion process takes place with the participation of gastric juice. If the intake of gluten in the body is small (as it was when we consumed it in its natural form as part of normal cereals and bread), the enzymes of a healthy person are able to process them. However, if gluten is consumed in large quantities, the body cannot cope.

As a result, unprocessed residues accumulate in the intestines. Gradually, they destroy the villi of the mucous membrane, and the papillae, which are supposed to absorb nutrients, stop responding and lose their sensitivity. As a result, two painful conditions develop: poisoning and starvation.

Harmful substances enter the blood through damaged intestinal walls. They poison the body, destroy the nervous system, and harm the functioning of the brain. Due to the fact that the intestinal villi are not fully capable of absorbing nutrients, a person does not receive many microelements from food that the body itself is unable to produce.

What is it and what is it eaten with?

In its pure form, gluten is a grayish, tasteless mass. But it is thanks to gluten that flour mixed with water turns into an elastic, sticky mass - dough.

This is what dry wheat gluten looks like.

From the above it follows that of gluten (oatmeal, barley, rye), but only wheat gluten is widely used. You and I are interested in it, and we will continue to talk about it.

Where do they use it?

Wheat gluten is used in baking various bakery products, in the flour-grinding industry, in the pasta industry, in the preparation of frozen foods, etc.

Gluten gives baked goods a special tenderness. In addition, it acts as a preservative - adding dry gluten extract to flour significantly extends the shelf life of baked goods made from this flour. In the bakery industry, it is used specifically to increase the firmness and elasticity of dough. Gluten also allows you to increase the yield of the finished product by 2-7%

Why is gluten interesting for us?

I want to honestly tell you that gluten has been known to me for a long time, but I still didn’t dare to cook baked goods with gluten - there is too much information about gluten-free diets, allergies and products with “Gluten free” labels.

However, I still turned to baking with gluten when the daily intake of gluten on the Dukan diet decreased to 2 tbsp. in a day. And now I will tell you about all the pros and cons of gluten that I was able to discover.

So, the advantages of gluten:

- on the Dukan diet, gluten is not considered an additional supplement

- can be used on a diet in the amount of 2 tbsp. per day (new norm from October 26, 2014)

— can be used at any stage of the diet, starting with Attack

— by adding gluten to the dough, the volume of the finished product increases.

— gluten increases the shelf life of baked goods

— since we mainly use bran for the dough, the dough turns out “heavy” for the yeast. In this case, adding gluten will help make the dough more elastic and easier to rise.

— baked goods using gluten are actually more tender and airy.

Cons of gluten:

- Gluten is harmful for some people - people with a special disease - celiac disease. These people should not eat gluten.

- gluten sensitivity not associated with celiac disease (symptoms can be easily found on the Internet)

There are a lot of wheat gluten producers, both foreign production - France, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Kazakhstan - and our domestic producers (Adygea, Tula, etc.). The choice is very wide.

Chocolate pancakes Dukan style

These pancakes are a great option for those with a sweet tooth who are experiencing the true torment of unsweetened life on Dukan. Chocolate cakes + chocolate syrup will charge you with positivity and energy for a long time, without disturbing your diet regimen.

Ingredients

Eggs – 2 pcs.;
SOM (skimmed milk powder) – 3 tbsp;
Stevia – 1.5 tsp;
Vanilla flavoring – 3 drops;
Water – 2 tbsp;
Cocoa powder – 1.5 tsp;

How to bake pancakes according to Dukan

To prepare pancake dough, we need to add eggs, COM (2 tbsp), cocoa (1 tsp), sweetener (1 tsp), flavoring, water (1 tbsp) and mix everything until smooth.
After that, bake pancakes in a greased frying pan.
Now let's prepare the syrup. In a saucepan, mix 1 tbsp. water, cocoa (1/2 tsp), COM (1 tbsp) and ½ tsp. stevia, then mix all the ingredients, put on the fire and bring to a boil.

Fold the pancakes into triangles, place them on a plate and pour the sauce over them. Bon appetit!

As you can see, even with so many prohibitions, you can lose weight deliciously and with pleasure, the main thing is to know the approach. Dukan pancakes, even without the use of corn starch, turn out successful, incredibly aromatic, appetizing and even less calorie and carbohydrate-free.

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Gluten on the Dukan diet: what to replace, norm, dangers

What is the norm of gluten on the Dukan diet and what are its dangers. What products can completely replace it?

Vegetable protein from wheat, oats, barley and rye is what is contained in flour along with starch. Gray mass, odorless and tasteless. But it is precisely this that, when combined with water, allows flour to turn into dough. Many nutritionists do not like starch because it increases blood glucose, but gluten on the Dukan diet is an additional product that gives structure to dishes.

The acquaintance begins

If we ask chemists or biologists what gluten is, we will hear from them the answer: it is a complex organic compound, a protein that is insoluble in water.
It is based on combinations of various amino acids, such as gliadin, prolamine, glutelin. We think this answer will satisfy only chemists. Naturally, the term “gluten” is not Russian; in Latin it sounds like gluten. We call it the familiar word gluten. Hearing this familiar name, many housewives immediately remembered the process of kneading dough. It was in the dough that gluten was born.

Is gluten “legal”?

The word “gluten” is most often associated with celiac disease, an allergy to plant protein. Eating bread, cereals, and pastries, people do not think about abdominal discomfort:

whether gluten intolerance is the result of abuse of flour and its derivatives;
or other factors cause the body's inability to digest gluten.

The use of gluten on the Dukan Diet is a personal decision.

Methods of using gluten:

baking bread, pancakes, cookies;
preparation of semi-finished products.
extending the service life of baked goods;
improving dough elasticity;
increasing the yield of the finished product by 5-7%.

Gluten euphoria in the food industry

Having isolated gluten into a separate product, food manufacturers quickly found application for its main properties:

It improves the structure of the dough, is a good preservative - instead of flour, pure gluten is added in large quantities to baked goods (dough, pasta, cookies, cereals, sliced bread), so the product does not become damp, does not become stale, has a crispy crust, and remains airy for a long time.
Gluten does not dissolve in water and, when interacting with it, forms fibers - this property is very popular among manufacturers of semi-finished meat products (frozen cutlets, dumplings, sausages, minced meat, sausages, crab sticks, sausages, chips, ham, all smoked products), as they use this component in their products in order to replace some of the raw meat with them.
It is a thickener due to its starchy and viscous properties. This property is used in the production of those products where it is necessary to achieve a uniform structure and thick consistency: sauces, processed cheese, ketchup, ice cream, mayonnaise, sweets, yogurt, cottage cheese, semi-finished dairy products, filled candies, dressings, gravies.

Culinary experiments gradually began to bear fruit. The urban population is accustomed to eating semi-finished products that contain large amounts of gluten. What does this mean for the body?

Imagine that you eat cottage cheese for breakfast, sausages or frozen cutlets with bread or wheat porridge for lunch, and crab stick salad or ice cream for dinner. During the day you snack on buns or chips. If you remember the gluten content in the foods you ate, then at the end of the day you realize that your body received a monthly dose of this substance in a day. Guess how he will feel after this?

Although more and more people are switching to healthy eating, food manufacturers are not giving up, and relatively recent discoveries in the chemical industry have given them a new round of optimism. What is it based on?

For a long time it was believed that corn grits did not contain gluten. However, today many people hear the concept of corn gluten. What kind of paradox is this? This is a new invention of food scientists, which was obtained completely by accident.

Since corn is primarily used for feed production, it is often processed. When they tried to produce starch and molasses from corn, they ended up with waste in the form of gluten. The most interesting thing is that this type of gluten protein is not harmful to the intestinal villi, so new products await us ahead, which will include a new type of gluten.

Gluten levels on the Dukan diet

The nutritionist recommends using up to two tablespoons of gluten in cooking . But do not use it, that is, do not make a rule out of it, but only use it as an additional component.

Since dough does not rise without flour, gluten allows you to make baked goods more attractive and more pleasant in texture.
Adding gluten eliminates the “heaviness” of baked goods for the stomach, since bran interacts heavily with yeast, and the dough rises poorly. This additional product is responsible for the airiness of the bread.

Gluten-free dead end

How to avoid the dangerous effects of gluten foods on the body if gluten-free analogues are also harmful? The answer is very simple! There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Remember what gluten is. He is not an enemy, he lived in a grain of wheat from the very beginning until he was made a hero.

If you want to avoid its harmful effects, simply eat as you did before. Prepare delicious dishes at home, especially from vegetables. Do not overuse store-bought processed meats. If you have a congenital gluten allergy, follow the diet.

Is vegetarianism on Dukan nonsense?

However, vegans also need to expand their protein sources. Wheat gluten contains all the macronutrients and has a brown, firm, and meaty texture. It has no cholesterol .

Phase No. 4 – “Stabilization”

The final stage of the Dukan diet is the “Stabilization” stage, which provides for a diet for life.
Let's consider the main limitations that are important to consider in the process of its formation.

Water. The consumption of non-carbonated purified liquid per day should be at least 1.5 liters.
Sport. To maintain shape and tone your muscles, you should do morning exercises every day, walk for 0.5-2 hours, and walk at least 10,000 steps a day.
Oat bran should be added to food in the amount of 3 tbsp. spoons/day.
Protein day. Once every 7 days, meals should be organized according to the principle of the first phase.
Balanced diet. Be sure to eat a piece of cheese, two starchy foods, two slices of bread, vegetables, fruits and high-protein ingredients every day.
Moderation in food intake.
Limit your fish consumption, or better replace it with other seafood.
Avoid stressful situations.

Compliance with these rules will allow you to stabilize and maintain the result within certain limits, obtained as a result of the three stages. Unlike most methods focused on the consumption of mono-products, which undoubtedly leads to depletion of the body, the developed new Dukan diet allows you not only to achieve the desired effect without compromising your health, but also to “saturate” it with healthy foods, and also gradually adapt to the new diet .

Dangers of Gluten

Gluten sensitivity and celiac disease are cases associated with a complete ban on products with this substance.

A side effect of gluten is its ability to accumulate in the body. It can stick together the hairs of the small intestine, causing degeneration of the mucous membrane. As a result, the ability to absorb nutrients from foods is lost: vitamins, minerals.

The result of excess gluten, even without celiac disease, is:

inflammatory processes;
liver and gallbladder diseases;
acne.

An organism experiencing a lack of vitamin and mineral elements reports this with weakness and sleep disturbances.

Advantages and disadvantages of the technique

The Dukan diet involves using exclusively natural healthy ingredients that enrich the body with essential vitamins and minerals. However, such a nutrition system has some pros and cons, contraindications that are important to consider in the process of losing weight.

Advantages of the technique

Stabilization of weight and maintenance of results for a long time.
Safety.
High efficiency. If you follow the diet and basic requirements, weight loss per week will be from 1.5 to 6 kg.
There are no restrictions on the amount of food consumed and on the time of eating.
Significant weight loss from the first days.
A wide list of products, the use of which allows you not only to quickly lose weight painlessly, but also to prepare delicious culinary masterpieces without compromising your figure.

The Dukan protein diet eliminates the possibility of using special chemical additives for weight loss, which have a destructive effect on the body.

The Pierre Dukan diet, among other methods of losing excess weight, has a distinctive feature - it can be carried out at home, at work, on a business trip, at a resort or even in a restaurant. To do this, it is enough to know the permitted products by stages.

Cons of a protein diet

Limited fat intake. At the same time, their deficiency in the body can lead to deterioration of the skin condition, the development of atherosclerosis, disruption of cholesterol metabolism, inhibition of reproductive function, and deterioration of the nervous system.
Imbalance of the diet, the need to take vitamin and mineral complexes throughout the entire period of weight loss.
The difficulty of adapting the body to a new diet, as a result, a person’s performance decreases and fatigue increases.

The Dukan diet necessarily requires the daily consumption of oat bran.

Often in settlements remote from the city it may be difficult to purchase this product, which is why before you start losing weight, you should first stock up on it. This will eliminate the dependence of losing kilos on the delivery time of bran.

How to replace gluten on the Dukan diet?

Protein isolate, like gluten, increases the volume of baked goods. Replaces corn starch and is used to create desserts.
Guar gum is also a natural product made from the bean of the guar tree, adding bulk to products including dough, thickening and being used instead of flour.
Psyllium, or soluble fiber, replaces yeast in baked goods, lifting the dough much like gluten does.

How to cook Dukan pancakes without starch

Diet food is a priori considered monotonous, tasteless, bland and uninteresting, which already drives us into depression in advance.
However, the enormous popularity of the protein food system has given rise to a lot of excellent recipes for every taste, and even Dukan pancakes without starch have a place here. Yes, corn polysaccharide is allowed in this diet, but many people try to reduce carbohydrates as much as possible for greater effect, but they always want to eat something tasty. For those who have been living according to the Dukan regime for several days, they have probably repeatedly encountered in recipe descriptions such cunning components as isolate and gluten, with the help of which you can prepare various delicious baked goods without using forbidden flour and even quite carbohydrate-intensive starch.

What are these wonderful components? And what is the Dukan Diet's ruling regarding their use?