The important and little-discussed reasons to avoid seitan, aka “vital wheat gluten” as a stealth ingredient added to sprouted breads and other foods. This additive completely negates any health benefits of sprouting and actually contributes to the development of digestive issues over the longterm.
It never ceases to amaze me how manufacturers so brazenly play bait and switch with the food labels for their products. The latest ingredient game that educated consumers need to know about is seitan. This is especially true for those who may be unknowingly eating it in the form of sprouted bread such as the very popular brand Ezekiel.
The Other “Wheat Meat”
In a nutshell, seitan is wheat meat. Wheat meat? Yes, people actually call it that! How can plant food be “meat”, you might ask? Let’s take an in-depth look at this immensely popular food ingredient with the groovy name.
So, what is this stuff? Seitan goes by many names that are all essentially the same thing:
- wheat meat
- vital wheat protein
- textured wheat protein
- wheat gluten
- vital gluten
- vital wheat gluten
… and more!
It seems food manufacturers are springboarding off the immense success of hiding MSG in processed foods using dozens of aliases to confuse the consumer.
Seitan: Masterful Marketing of a NonFood
You can see why branding gluten as seitan makes sense. It sounds rather hip, cool, whole, and healthy.
If you say “vital wheat protein” as you serve dinner, your guests may flee.
But if you say, “oh, this is just a little dish of seitan,” well, you are going to be the star! This is especially slick marketing since gluten-containing grains aren’t all that in demand these days. Especially with the well-deserved reputation of toxic conventional wheat.
But seitan is anything but hip, cool, whole, or healthy. Unfortunately, this ingredient is becoming more popular, especially among vegans and vegetarians who have to search high and low for sufficient dietary protein. This is especially true for plant-based diet fans who are allergic to soy. (1)
Those who espouse traditional diets are also eating it, mostly unknowingly. More on this below.
The Origins of Seitan
The Japanese word seitan is pronounced “say-tan”. Mmmm. Sounds a lot like the Western word “satan”. Freudian slip on the part of manufacturers? You be the judge after reading this exposé.
The word was coined in 1961 by George Ohsawa, an advocate of the macrobiotic diet (a diet associated with extreme Vitamin D deficiency). In 1962, wheat gluten sold as “seitan” began in Japan pioneered by Marushima Shoyu K.K. It was introduced to the West in 1969 by the American company Erewhon.
History of Using Wheat Gluten as a Protein Source
Where and when did this stuff start? Interestingly, a rather long time ago, as early as the 6th century in China. What was the main motivation? Religious groups, especially Buddhists, seeking to avoid meat were searching for a protein option to put on the table that was in line with their beliefs.
Besides being a non-meat source of protein, seitan’s other main attraction is its texture. Most meat substitutes don’t’ have a “meaty” texture at all. But seitan does. Tofu, tempeh, textured vegetable (soy) protein all make at best acceptable or endurable meat substitutes.
But seitan is different from these. It makes a rather good meat substitute, and thus, makes it all the more appealing to the unsuspecting masses.
Seitan is currently the most favored form for “mock meats.” It is so good at being fake meat that when you look at pictures of foods made from good quality seitan, you may be hard-pressed to tell which are made from wheat and which are made from real meat. (2)
5 BIG Reasons to Avoid Wheat Seitan
So, we now know what it is, but is it good? First, seitan is basically pure wheat gluten. So for anyone with gluten/wheat issues, seitan is the satan of all foods. It represents the purest and most potent form of gluten for those who are sensitive.
I wonder if its growing popularity at certain restaurants (especially vegan, vegetarian, and Asian) raises significant issues or problems with possible cross-contamination for those who are sensitive or allergic to gluten?
Second, this stuff is highly processed with a capital “P”. You can’t just isolate the gluten fraction of wheat with ease. This processing also means many brands of seitan contain lots of other stuff, like very large amounts of added sodium, MSG and other food additives.
Third, while it is high in protein, it is an incomplete and unbalanced source of this important macronutrient. It is very low in lysine, and ultimately considered a source of low-quality protein even by the most forgiving of critics. Being low in this amino acid is especially problematic and concerning if you are eating seitan as your primary source of protein with little other protein-rich foods in your diet. (3)
Fourth, if it is made from conventional wheat, it thus has been exposed to all the pesticides, herbicides, and other Big Ag chemicals that modern wheat production depends on. Organic seitan would be better in this regard, but that doesn’t undo the issues listed above.
Finally, seitan made Shape magazine’s list of the top seven foods even nutritionists won’t eat. (4)
Wow, if nutritionists won’t eat this stuff most who still think a frankenfood like margarine is healthy, that is saying something!
No wonder food manufacturers are so desperate to hide its presence on the label using a myriad of other names!
Vital Wheat Gluten: Where it is Inconspicuously Hiding in Your Food
In closing, let’s consider who is consuming this low-quality wheat by-product whether consciously or unwittingly.
A lot of bread makers use seitan even health food store brands. Many modern breads add additional “vital gluten” to improve the rise, texture, and elasticity of the bread. It also gives the loaf integrity while shipping long distances and for stacking in warehouses.
Watch out for Sprouted Breads!
This is especially true, and maddeningly so, for expensive sprouted bread. The popular brand Ezekiel is guilty of this as are MOST that The Healthy Home Economist examined.
These companies are making their bread healthier by using sprouted flour (which breaks down gluten to make it more digestible), charging an arm and a leg for a loaf, and then turning around and adding back vital wheat gluten? Seriously? Talk about one step forward and three steps back!
Watch out for this ingredient in your “healthy” bread choices from Whole Foods or local health food establishments. This is where most consumers are getting duped about this cheap, low-quality ingredient that is ultimately more harmful than just making bread with unsprouted flour in the first place. The scam is reminiscent of the fake sourdough bread that seems to be everywhere too.
Ultimately, wheat gluten should have no appeal, organic or not, to consumers educated about the issue. Reading food labels very closely is necessary to avoid it as it is increasingly appearing in pseudo-traditional foods that those in the health food community think are the real thing and are bringing into their homes.
Any suggestions for an alternative bread source? I know that ultimately, a homemade sprouted–or even better, sourdough, would be best. With five kids 6 and younger, I’m a little pressed for time to bake my own.
The best sprouted bread I’ve seen that is widely available at most health food stores around the USA is Berlin Bakery Sprouted Spelt. It does contain honey, which I don’t like. Cooking or baking with honey isn’t ideal, but at least it does not contain any vital wheat gluten. I’m sure there are other decent sprouted breads out there, but they are likely locally available only from small bakeries.
This bit about vegans and vegetarians having to “search high and low for sufficient dietary protein”, is utter garbage. As long as one is consuming adequate calories, then protein deficiency is not a thing. The daily minimum recommendation for protein (about 45 grams per day for women, and about 55 grams per day for men) can be achieved by eating nothing more than broccoli and brown rice – again provided sufficient calories of said broccoli and rice are consumed in a day. Let’s not forget that all protein originates from plants. If you think that chickens, cattle, and pigs are magical protein manufacturers then just ask yourself where your protein gets its protein. Nice little opinion piece, but that’s all it is – just an opinion. And not a very well formulated one.
Considering that no vegan source of protein is complete meaning that it contains all the amino acids that are essential to human health in the necessary proportions, then I would not consider that statement to be “garbage” at all 🙂
I hope you are perfect at plant protein combining 24/7/365, else your health is in serious trouble over the long haul! Eating meat simplifies things considerably and stacks the odds for health in your favor as ALL meat is complete protein. Every single bite.
Yes. As a vegetarian, I also found it quite an ignorant statement to say we need to search high and low for proteins. It suggests the author knows little about being a vegan or vegetarian. Plus, there is absolutely nothing wrong with powdered “vital wheat protein” in your diet unless you are gluten intolerant. It’s added to flours for making bread products. Store bought seitan may be filled with other ingredients, but there’s nothing wrong with consuming vital wheat gluten, unless you’re one of those anti-flour types who thinks eating flour is like eating sugar, or the notion that today’s wheat has no decent nutritional value. If that’s what you think, then stay away from it, but there’s no real reason there can’t be a place for it in your diet.
lol dude, come on. It’s way more nutritional than you’re giving it credit- especially if you use a little soy sauce, liquid aminos, or hemp hearts in it… In fact, all of that makes it a complete protein with TWICE the protein of beef by weight. Your article neglects to mention that wheat gluten in a dish is different than seitan, in the point that seitan is actually cooked wheat gluten. To be honest, you’re attacking a food that provides a lot of good quality nutrition at a much lower price than most meats- and don’t even get me started on how much worse meat is for you than seitan. If you like, I can post the nutritional information 🙂
How do you counter the fact that seitan is virtually indigestible as it is concentrated gluten … perhaps the most difficult to digest plant protein on the planet? You can eat all the perfectly combined plant proteins you want, but if you don’t digest it, the meal is worthless.
You aren’t what you eat; You ARE what you digest.
Gluten is not practically indigestible. That’s only true for people with celiac disease. People with gluten sensitivity are most likely actually reacting to FODMAPs in the food. Vital wheat gluten likely has less FODMAPs seeing as they’re carbohydrates.
Highly processed? I can make it by running water over a ball of dough. Scare mongering nonsense
Making it yourself is certainly a better option than the factory produced seitan which is indeed very highly processed. BUT, making it yourself does not eliminate the huge problem that seitan is a very low quality protein, virtually devoid of the amino acid lysine and indigestible to boot given that it is concentrated gluten.
Unless you have a wheat gluten allergy wheat meat is an excellent option for vegetarians. If you are concerned about pesticides buy organic, same as everything else. This expose rings hollow. ::Shrugs::
Not sure how you can consider eating pure gluten (virtually indigestible) that contains almost none of the important amino acid lysine a “good source of protein”.
Seitan is low quality protein at best that the educated consumer would only consider if starvation was the only other option.
Vital wheat Gluten is made from rinsing off the starch from flour…. It is a healthy whole food, “it is so processed” BS….
As mentioned in an earlier comment, making seitan yourself at home from rinsing the wheat flour is certainly better, but the factory produced seitan is heavily processed and loaded with additives, MSG and heavy on the sodium. And, all that starch is concentrated gluten and nearly impossible to digest for most people. This is why ancestral societies that ate wheat carefully sprouted, sour leavened or soaked their wheat before cooking thoroughly to break down the gluten to make it more digestible.
It’s a myth that no plant proteins are compete, so the statement is kind of garbage. As long as vegans eat a diverse diet, they probably won’t need to worry about protien. Also, don’t know anyone who eats seitan alone, like you seem to think. This article does not seem researched.
Bluff called. Name a single plant protein that is complete meaning it contains all the essential amino acids in adequate amounts consumed in a normal diet to support human health? THERE ARE NONE. Soy does have all the amino acids, but not in adequate amounts to support health. And no, simply eating a “diverse vegan diet” does not remedy the problem. This is why the vast majority of vegans are forced from ill health (usually rampant dental issues) to return to eating animal foods like eggs and dairy and even meat within on average 2-5 years. Very few can remain vegan for long periods of time. Those who do are the very rare exception rather than the rule and are probably very adept at figuring out the intricacies of perfect plant protein combining along with plenty of supplementation to keep their health from going into the tank. The vast majority of vegans are simply not going to be able to pull that off and will suffer the consequences of a poor quality protein diet over the long haul.
Replying to Sarah: Many, many plants contain all the plant protein that you need. Just in varying quantities. And you would never just eat one plant. At least I don’t know anyone like that!
Would you ever just eat one meat and nothing else? You’d end up with all sorts of deficiencies if you did that.
There are plenty of very healthy famous athletes who have been on a vegan diet for many years. They have absolutely no problem getting all the essential amino acids.
Here’s some names to look up:
– Patrik Baboumian
– Mike Tyson
– Carl Lewis
– Alex Morgan
I’m not saying seitan is good for you. This is such a large question, with so many things to look at. But your responses seem to show a severe lack of understanding of nutrition and the way the human body works.
It is VERY difficult to mix plant proteins up enough to get everything you need. AND, plant proteins are harder to digest than animal proteins (hence the simple stomachs of carnivorous animals and the complex stomach system of herbivore animals). This is why SO MANY vegans go back to meat (most in fact). Here’s just one of the more recent casualties.
https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/vegan-influencer-carnivore-healthier
So I literally have sprouted find corn wheat in my bread machine right now that I added a vital wheat gluten too so it would raise better. The last loaf I made turned out horrible so I figured the vital wheat gluten would help .
A lot of fake news in this article, was it written by someone in the meat, dairy industry. Meat and dairy are the real bad stuff you should avoid……
Interesting that the most common comeback from vegans who don’t like factual data that points out that their diet is nutrient poor and is highly likely to make them very sick over time is that the author is “someone funded by the meat and dairy industry”. LOL Sorry, that’s not an argument that supports the basic and very flawed tenets of plant based eating and if you read any other articles on this blog, you would know that the accusation isn’t accurate anyway! 🙂
It’s also interesting how plant based diet fans lump ALL dairy and meat into one “bad” category. Not all meat and dairy is conventionally produced. What about grassfed meats and pastured dairy from ethical, environmentally sustainable small family farms? This is the type of meat and dairy which are healthy ancestral foods that supported humans even BEFORE agriculture and cultivation of plants started. This is what so many vegans are realizing as they get sick on a plant based diet after a few years and make their way back to ethically produced animal foods to regain their health.
Thank you for the info! It feels like there are no good choices when it comes to buying bread. 🙁 I am so confused. I thought I was in the right direction buying sprouted bread only to discover it’s not really good. Is there anything ok to buy bread-wise which I can feed my children and not fear they are eating junk? Any recommendations for a truly healthy, affordable bread to buy?? Thanks!
Berlin Bakery has an excellent sourdough and a pretty good sprouted loaf too. This brand is widely available across North America. Also, numerous artisanal bakeries have wonderful sprouted loaves, but they are available only locally. They aren’t shipped because sprouted bread w/o vital wheat gluten added is quite fragile and does not lend itself to industrialized production. Many cities and town have excellent small bread companies nowadays.