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
Gluten Gluten Gluten (from Latin "gluten", "glue") is a composite of storage proteins termed prolamins and glutelins that is stored together with starch in the endosperm (which nourishes the embryonic plant during germination) of various cereal (grass) grains. It is found in wheat, barley, rye, oats and related species and hybrids (such as spelt, khorasan, emmer, einkorn, triticale, kamut, etc.), as well as products derived from these grains (such as breads and malts). Glutens, and most especially the Triticeae glutens, are appreciated for their viscoelastic properties, which give dough its elasticity, helping it rise and keep its shape and often leaving