Wheat

Wheat (Triticum spp.) is a grass, originally from the Fertile Crescent region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize (784 million tons) and rice (651 million tons). Wheat grain is a staple food used to make flour for leavened, flat and steamed breads, biscuits, cookies, cakes, breakfast cereal, pasta, noodles, couscous and for fermentation to make beer, alcohol, vodka, or biofuel. Wheat is planted to a limited extent as a forage crop for livestock, and the straw can be used as fodder for livestock or as a construction material for roofing thatch.

Wheat is a globally important source of dietary carbohydrate (starch) and protein, but cannot be eaten by people who have an adverse immune reaction, called Celiac disease, to gluten, one of wheat’s component proteins. Statistics for people in the United States) indicate that between 0.5 and 1.0 percent of the population has celiac disease.

(Source: Wikipedia)