What is the difference between wheat-free and gluten-free?

BY: DR. MELINA ROBERTS

Wheat has a large amount of a protein called “gluten”, but there are other grains that have gluten in smaller amounts such as barley, rye and spelt.  Therefore a “wheat-free” diet excludes the foods with wheat but you can still have other grains that contain gluten such as barley, rye and spelt.  “Gluten-free” is taking things a step further than wheat-free which means that you have to avoid wheat, barley, rye and spelt.