Brooke Owen

Abstract Organismal nutritional needs vary across time and context, with consequent impacts on foraging decisions. In collectively foraging social groups, this includes variation in nutritional needs among group members. In social symbioses, such as between ants and their farmed fungus in a leafcutter ant colony, nutritional decisions are being made for multiple species as well as multiple group members, and the optimal nutrient balance may vary accordingly.

Gluten is a protein containing two sub-proteins called glutenin and gliadin. These components are responsible for the luxurious texture of items containing gluten, i.e. breads, doughnuts, the delicious list goes on. When gluten is present, elastic bands between the sub-proteins form, trapping air and making the food light, fluffy, and stuck together. I have heard the highest praises about a gluten-free diet. My boss told me avoiding gluten helped him with congestion caused by seasonal allergies.