Kamut Brand Khorasan Wheat the Aim of the First Study Is to Compare Gastric Emptying Times of a Standard Meal Consisting of Modern Wheat Versus KAMUT ® Khorasan Wheat
Our 4 recent research projects
1. Food Sensitivity 2. Antioxidant capacity, page 3 3. Dietary Fibers, page 4 4. DNA Fingerprinting, page 5
Food Sensitivity The expression “food hypersensitivity or sensitivity” refers to all types of overreactions that an organism can have against a food component. This includes food allergy, food intolerance and any other minor adverse food reaction. Food allergy is defined as an abnormal immunological reaction in which an individual's immune system overreacts to foods that are ordinarily harmless. The part of a food to which a person reacts is usually a protein and is called an allergen. Reactions may occur minutes or hours after the food is eaten. Because the immune system proliferates in particular areas, one or several organs may be affected, such as skin, lips, tongue, stomach, etc. Symptoms such as: nausea, cramps, sneezing, coughing, chest tightness, shortness of breath, and wheezing may follow. The most dangerous allergic reaction is anaphylaxis (life-threatening respiratory distress). Food intolerance is defined as a nonimmune reaction to food or food additives. Examples of food intolerances include reactions to monosodium glutamate (MSG), tyramine in cheese, caffeine in coffee, sulfites in wine, phenylethylamine in chocolate, or milk and its products in the case of genetic lactose intolerance. Food adverse reactions usually involve mainly the digestive system, with symptoms like slow and difficult digestion and swollen and or painful abdomen, sometimes together with somnolence and headache. The dividing lines between food allergy, food intolerance, and adverse food reactions are not always clear, except that food allergy is usually involved with the immune system, while the other two are not immune system mediated.
One of the most common observations about KAMUT ® khorasan wheat we receive from the consumers is that people suffering from adverse reactions to durum and soft wheat can eat KAMUT ® khorasan wheat products without suffering from the usual symptoms. To evaluate the characteristics of KAMUT ® khorasan wheat on this topic, Kamut International is sponsoring one in vitro and two in vivo studies:
∗Digestibility of KAMUT ® khorasan flour versus modern wheat flour in human diet ∗Allergenic characteristics of KAMUT ® khorasan wheat ∗Assessment of a KAMUT ® khorasan wheat based diet on children suffering from wheat allergy with chronic atopic dermatitis and/or gastrointestinal disorders
Kamut brand khorasan wheat The aim of the first study is to compare gastric emptying times of a standard meal consisting of modern wheat versus KAMUT ® khorasan wheat. This is to understand if the observation of consumers is due to a difference in the gastric emptying time. Recently, Kamut International sponsored an in vitro study regarding digestibility of KAMUT ® khorasan wheat pasta versus durum pasta. This research was carried out by the Institute of Food Research of Norwich (UK), using the model gut that simulates the digestive process of the human body. Unfortunately, by simply following the digestion process of these two types of pasta, there was no conclusive data. However, samples of different steps of digestion have been frozen for further analysis or research.
The other two studies focus on the still mostly unknown field of food sensitivity. In particular, the second study listed above, is an in vitro study that plans to: 1. Investigate the gliadin of KAMUT ® khorasan wheat by two complementary approaches (to examine the nucleotide sequence of the gene and assess the immunogenic characteristics of the protein itself). 2. Evaluate the allergenic properties of KAMUT ® khorasan wheat with reference to wheat food allergies. The last of the three studies listed above, is a pilot study which aims to study the role that KAMUT ® khorasan wheat could have for a particular category of patient, children suffering from wheat allergy together with chronic atopic dermatitis and/or gastrointestinal disorders.
KAMUT ® khorasan wheat, as well as other species of durum wheat, contains gliadin, a very well known protein that has the ability to promote hypersensitivity. However, research conducted in 1991 by the International Food Allergy Association of Illinois (Assessment of allergenic reactivity of KAMUT ® khorasan wheat versus common wheat) concluded: “It appears that a majority of patients with IgG delayed reactions to common wheat can tolerate KAMUT ® khorasan wheat better than patients who have IgE immediate reactions to wheat. Since most patients have delayed IgG reactions to all foods, it appears that KAMUT ® khorasan wheat can be an excellent substitution for common wheat if eaten on a rotational basis. However, everyone with a serious food allergy to wheat should be evaluated carefully by their physician before trying any new grains”.
Recent research (Laurière M. et al, Allergy 2007:62 890-96), has demonstrated that even little differences in the structure of the protein usually involved in the allergic reaction, can be of clinical relevance. So it’s possible to suppose that epytopes of the gliadin of KAMUT ® khorasan wheat, which are different from those of wheat, can give different results in term of reactivity. It’s even possible that the presence of different gliadin epitopes in KAMUT ® khorasan wheat can have a protective role in the promotion of tolerance to wheat. Sampson et al, in fact, demonstrated on JACI (Pons L et al., J Allergy Clin Immunol 2004;114:915-21) that using a vaccination towards minor determinants of soy, similar to the mayor epytopes of peanut, it’s possible to achieve full tolerance to peanuts in previous peanut-allergic patients. This means that the presence of minor different gliadin epytopes in the KAMUT ® khorasan wheat gliadin structure could take relevant part in maintaining wheat tolerance. Of course, only careful and thorough research can help us understand these vast topics.
Antioxidant Capacity The generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) beyond the antioxidant capacity of a biological system, gives rise to oxidative stress. It is well known that free radical oxidative stress is implicated in the pathogenesis of a variety of human diseases. Cells and tissues normally possess antioxidant defense mechanisms to ensure the removal of reactive oxygen species. Some of these mechanisms are controlled endogenously (i.e. the antioxidant enzymes) and others are provided by diet. Antioxidant rich foods, as part of the regular diet, may influence the treatment/amelioration/prevention of many chronic diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular and inflammatory damage including cellular degeneration related to aging.
Due to its very high content of antioxidant factors, especially selenium, products made with KAMUT ® khorasan wheat could have a positive effect on reduction of oxidative stress on living organisms. To verify this, Kamut International is sponsoring two in vivo studies:
∗Evaluation of the antioxidant protective effects of the dietary consumption of KAMUT ® khorasan wheat based food in experimental animals ∗Assessment of antioxidant capacity of KAMUT ® khorasan wheat products in people genetically predisposed to oxidative stress
In the first study, the effect of a diet exclusively comprised of KAMUT ® khorasan wheat is evaluated on blood, organs and tissues. This is in order to have a complete understanding about the effects this type of diet can have on living organisms.
The second study involves the new fields of nutrigenomics and nutrigenetics. These two fields have distinct approaches to investigate the interaction between diet and genes with a common ultimate goal, which is to optimize health through the personalization of diet. More specifically, nutrigenomics (which comes from nutritional genomics), explores the effects of nutrients on the genome, proteome and metabolome. The major goal of nutrigenetics, is to explain in detail the effect of genetic variation on the interaction between diet and disease.
Dietary Fibers Each year a complete nutritional analysis is carefully performed on a representative sample of the entire crop. Additionally, Kamut International is about to begin a research project to study the content of dietary fibers in KAMUT ® khorasan wheat and how to optimize manufacturing processes to retain the dietary fibers in finished products (Integrated study for the evaluation of KAMUT ® khorasan wheat functional properties) . Preliminary tests suggest that KAMUT ® khorasan wheat contains 2-2.5 times more resistant starch than other durum or soft wheat. As a result, this research is narrowly focused on the resistant starch fraction of KAMUT ® khorasan wheat.
Functional food is the new frontier regarding healthy food and prevention of disease. Functional food means a type of food which, through regular consumption, is able to give a health benefit in terms of treatment and prevention of specific diseases or unhealthy conditions.
Resistant starch (RS) is a type of starch that escapes digestion in the small intestine. It is considered the third type of dietary fiber, as it can deliver some of the benefits of insoluble fiber and some of the benefits of soluble fiber. Some carbohydrates, such as sugars and most starch are rapidly digested and absorbed as glucose into the body through the small intestine and subsequently used for short term energy needs or stored. Resistant starch, on the other hand, resists digestion and passes through to the large intestine where it acts like dietary fiber.
Many public health authorities and food organizations such as the Food and Agricultural Organization, the World Health Organization, the British Nutrition Foundation and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences recognize resistant starch as a beneficial carbohydrate. Substantial research of natural resistant starches from high amylose corn indicates benefits in intestinal/colonic health as well as metabolically important benefits in glycemic management and energy. Consumption of foods containing natural resistant starch positively affects weight management in three ways.
Fiber fortification: Natural resistant starch increases fiber content without affecting taste or texture. In 2003, the World Health Organization concluded that dietary fiber is the only dietary component that had convincing evidence of a protective effect against weight gain and obesity.
Calorie reduction: Resistant starch lowers the caloric content of foods when it is used to replace flour or other rapidly digested carbohydrates. Natural resistant starch delivers between 2-3 kilocalories/gram (8- 12 kilojoules/gram) versus 4 kilocalories/gram (16 kilojoules/gram).
Lipid oxidation: Resistant starch helps burn fat and may lead to lower fat accumulation. A recent clinical trial with high amylose corn resistant starch showed that it increased fat oxidation after a meal. It also changed the sequence in which the body burns food, with fat burning being placed at the top of the list relative to carbohydrates and protein. These findings suggest a possible metabolic effect of resistant starch that may impact body weight.
DNA Fingerprinting In order to guarantee to consumers that what they purchase contains only original KAMUT ® khorasan wheat, Kamut International has defined a rigid quality control program for the grain itself, farmers and manufactures. Additionally, Kamut International is sponsoring research for the development of a molecular analysis system to identify the DNA fingerprint of KAMUT ® brand khorasan wheat (Development of a molecular analysis system for the Kamut® khorasan DNA fingerprinting realization) .
The goal of this research is to create a test which can be used on all varieties of finished products to distinguish and evaluate the content of KAMUT ® khorasan wheat from the content of all other types of durum and soft wheat, as well as other types of cereals. In this way consumers of products made with KAMUT ® khorasan wheat are guaranteed little or no contamination by common wheat and other cereals and are sure to receive all the healthy advantages of KAMUT ® khorasan wheat.