Samuel Gee starched foods should be avoided. He forbids rice, sago, fruit and vegetables. Raw meat is recommended as are thin slices of toasted bread. Gee highlights particular success with a child "who was fed upon a quart of the best Dutch mussels daily". However, the child cannot bear this diet for more than one season. The cause of coeliac disease was eventually discovered to be an autoimmune reaction to gliadin, a gluten protein found in wheat, plus Secalin in rye and Hordien in barley. The lining of the small bowel is flattened, which interferes with the absorption of nutrients. Gee would
Prolamin disease in genetically predisposed individuals. Prolamin Prolamins are a group of plant storage proteins having a high proline content and found on plant materials mainly like in the seeds of cereal grains: wheat (gliadin), barley (hordein), rye (secalin), corn (zein), sorghum (kafirin) and as a minor protein, avenin in oats. They are characterised by a high glutamine and proline content and are generally soluble only in strong alcohol [70-80%] solutions, light acids, and alkaline solution. They do not coagulate in heat. They hydrolyse into prolin and ammonia. Some prolamins, notably gliadin, and similar proteins found in the tribe Triticeae (see