Five reasons why seitan, also called “wheat meat” or vital wheat gluten is an unhealthy food that harms gut health. Consumers should be on the lookout for this stealth ingredient in sprouted bread and other “health” foods.
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.
Seitan is “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
- organic wheat gluten
- vital gluten
- vital wheat gluten
It seems food manufacturers are springboarding off the immense success of hiding MSG in processed foods using dozens of aliases to confuse the consumer.
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 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, and 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 Reasons Seitan “Wheat Meat” is Unhealthy
So, we now know what it is, but is it good? First, seitan is basically pure wheat gluten.
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.
Seitan 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 few 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 Hides 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 Food For Life’s Ezekiel bread is guilty of this bait and switch perhaps more than any other commercial bread. (5)
Ezekiel markets its bread as “healthier” by using sprouted flour (which breaks down gluten to make it more digestible), charges an arm and a leg for a loaf, and then turns around and adds back the wheat gluten.
Talk about one step forward and three steps back!
The scam is reminiscent of the fake sourdough bread that seems to be everywhere too.
Watch out for “vital wheat gluten”, “organic wheat gluten”, or anything “gluten” in the ingredients of “healthy” bread choices.
If you are looking for a REAL sprouted loaf with NO wheat gluten, I recommend this sprouted loaf from a family bakery that will ship to your door.
Ultimately, wheat gluten as a food ingredient should have no appeal, organic or not, to consumers educated about traditional foods and gut health.
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.
(1) What is Seitan?
(2) What the Heck is Seitan, Really?
(3) Seitan vs Meat
(4) 7 Foods a Nutritionist Would Never Eat
(5) Food for Life (Ezekiel Bread) Containing Wheat Gluten
You are the reason why we are destroying ourselves, innocent animals and the earth.
Meat and dairy promotes cancer and heart disease. Watch the true doctors like Dr Mc Dougall, Esselstyn, Gregor and Campbell.
Animals are factory farmed and lead a torturous horrific life.
Watch Earthlings,Dominion 2018, Fork over Knives, What the Health” etc.
This is where vegans don’t seem to get it. You don’t have to consume animal products from factory farmed animals. I am against that too!
Going 100% plant based sacrifices your own health and for what? Nothing. You can obtain humane animal products such as eggs from backyard hens from a neighbor. I have hens and they LOVE to lay eggs for our family … very happy birds.
I agree with you when you say that there is not a moral high ground about not eating animals, is true that you are NOT a better person by doing so. But In this day and age, is extremely irresponsible to
Continue acting like we have unlimited resources. Maybe in the past you could afford to
Eat meat, and be spiritual because animals were treated differently and there were enough resources , but not anymore.
Choosing to eat meat nowadays is a
Selfish act and aggression to the planet, and being informed about it and still choose to side with it, is simply irresponsible and unkind.
If you buy meat from an environmentally responsible pasture based farm, there is no issue to be concerned with. What vegans overlook time and again is the crucial role animals play on the farm … they are an important component just like crops to keeping things in balance. If you monocrop vegetables which is what is being done today on mega-farms, the environmental destruction is just as bad as these horrific concentrated animal feeding operations. Going extreme and damaging your body in the process by foolishly ignoring the huge benefits of animal fats and proteins to health is not the right way to solve this problem.
Yeah, nah. Sorry Seitan is not Vital wheat gluten in the same way Bread is not wheat. Vital wheat gluten is the main ingredient in Seitan. And in the same way you can say breakfast cereal is really bad for you and hold up something like fruit loops as an example, doesn’t mean something like muesli is also bad, arguing some comercial brands of Seitan are bad, therefore they all are is a false argument. Yes, it is primarily gluten, yes some people are sensitive to gluten (though far fewer people are sensitive than the number who think they are). In which case they should avoid Seitan. I make my own at home, I throw in some brewers yeast for micronutrients, a selection of spices, get the ratio of dry to wet right, simmer it in a sauce pan of stock (home made from the garden) and vola! My vegetarian family has a tasty versatile and healthy meat alternative. And that includes my growing teenage son, who has never eaten meat. This article reflects much which is wrong with approaches to food these days.
Still spiritually better than eating an animal in my opinion. I have not had any issues with it but that’s not saying that others won’t have it. We should all find what works. My blood work convince my doctor though. Became healthier all across the spectrum. But that’s just my opinion.
There is no moral high ground in not eating animals … that is your personal belief only and nothing that holds any water in reality. Many very spiritually oriented cultures ate animals!
Amazing the people that flock to healthy eating blogs and slam every product mentioned. Simply not important if seitan is gut difficult for awhile because you overcome this as gut biome responds. Easy enough to make from wheat flours and really tastes great in regular or organic choices.
Did you? Seitan is not an ingredient! Vital Wheat gluten is! And I stated the process of obtaining gluten from wheat. And what third party study do you have to support your claim that it’s bad for gut health?
Seitan IS vital wheat gluten. That is the definition. It is PURE gluten. VERY hard on the gut. Look it up. 🙂
Highly processed?! This is a sad and laughable piece of opinion. To make Seitan get some flour, add some water, make a dough. Let it rest and then wash out the starch three times under water. Done! You can then dry it back out and grind it back down and you have vital wheat gluten flour. Such misleading fear mongering.
Did you read the article? Commercial seitan is extremely highly processed when used as an additive in sprouted breads and the like. Homemade is better but still highly indigestible. Eating it frequently is a great risk to gut health.
Uh don’t forget all the Buddhist and Asian vegetarians who has been eating those mock meats for years before it even got popular her. They didn’t get sick and died from eating mock meat!!! And one more thing, most foods are processed unless you grow your own food and eat it without changing the shape and taste of it (no cutting, boiling, frying etc)
Remember that the guts of Americans are far more destroyed that those living abroad still on their traditional diets. Processed foods, too much sugar and caffeine and on average 17 rounds of antibiotics before age 20 causes massive gut imbalances that make it virtually impossible for Westerners to consume seitan. Even with a healthy gut, it is a very hard to digest food … and these Buddhists don’t eat much of it. I know this having stayed in a Buddhist monastery myself 30 years ago … I didn’t even see it anywhere actually! So if they did eat it, it wasn’t often.
What does this guy have against Ezekiel bread? Even if everything he says is correct, the only people affected would be those who rely an seitan as their primary source of protein. The ordinary consumer who eats a slice of Ezekiel toast for breakfast and/or uses it for a sandwich is getting a gaining a source of nutrition instead of putting crap into his/her body.
My guess is that you are gluten intolerant.