section_path: As a food/Nutrition
section_name: Nutrition
paragraph_text: Nutrition
  
  Raw red winter wheat is 13% water, 71% carbohydrates including 12% dietary fiber, 13% protein, and 2% fat (table). Some 75–80% of the protein content is as gluten. In a reference amount of 100 grams (3.5 oz), wheat provides 1,368 kilojoules (327 kilocalories) of food energy and is a rich source (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) of multiple dietary minerals, such as manganese, phosphorus, magnesium, zinc, and iron (table). The B vitamins, niacin (36% DV), thiamine (33% DV), and vitamin B6 (23% DV), are present in significant amounts (table).
  
  Wheat is a significant source of vegetable proteins in human food, having a relatively high protein content compared to other major cereals. However, wheat proteins have a low quality for human nutrition, according to the DIAAS protein quality evaluation method. Though they contain adequate amounts of the other essential amino acids, at least for adults, wheat proteins are deficient in the essential amino acid lysine. Because the proteins present in the wheat endosperm (gluten proteins) are particularly poor in lysine, white flours are more deficient in lysine compared with whole grains. Significant efforts in plant breeding are made to develop lysine-rich wheat varieties, without success, as of 2017. Supplementation with proteins from other food sources (mainly legumes) is commonly used to compensate for this deficiency, since the limitation of a single essential amino acid causes the others to break down and become excreted, which is especially important during growth.