By Erica Osbourne

Erica Osbourne is a graduate student in the Pathology department at UBC. When she's not pipetting up a storm trying to help men with advanced prostate cancer, she enjoys running, volleyball and drawing.

WHEN WHEAT MUFFINS TURN TO THE DARK SIDE: ON GLUTEN AND YOUR DIET

(Published March 2013) Think about what you ate for breakfast this morning. You might have had some fruit or protein, but you most likely ingested wheat. This is a probable assumption because wheat is the most widely consumed food group in the North American diet [1]. Common wheat-based breakfast foods such as pastries, bagels, granola bars, pancakes, cereal, muffins, and oats all contain flours or starches prepared with wheat, rye and barley grains [1]. When flours are mixed with water, the wheat proteins create a 3D network giving dough elastic and viscous properties that food-processing companies have chemically manipulated to…