What's a gluten?

I've been hearing a lot about Celiac Disease and gluten-free diets. I know that gluten is found in wheat, but wasn't sure what else contained gluten...so I thought I'd look it up. Gluten-free and wheat-free are not the same thing. A gluten-free diet excludes more than wheat...and actually some gluten-free products may not be wheat-free. Here are some foods that contain gluten and should be excluded from your diet if you are told to eat "gluten-free" (unless of course they are prepared and labeled as "gluten-free"):

Bread
Baked goods
Crackers
Baking mixes
Pasta
Couscous
Cereal
Pizza
Stuffing
Pretzels

In addition to that, there are some lesser known ingredients that may contain gluten:

Starch
Autolyzed wheat protein
Brewer’s yeast
Malt
Farina
Kamut
Dextrimaltose or maltodextrin
Textured vegetable protein
Vegetable starch or meal

Look out for some of these foods that may contain those ingredients:

Malt vinegar
Malted cereal or farina cereal
Gravy
Soup
Baked beans
Chili
Salad dressing
Sausage
Pate
Stock cubes or bouillon
Cold cuts
Beer
Wine

(Information in this post was taken from WiseGeek and other websites.)