Going Against the Grain: Gluten - Friend or Foe?

Odor. It’s a powerful thing. There are those smells that take you back to your days as a child, walking into grandma and grandpa’s with her freshly-made double chocolate chunk cookies (she always claimed they were ONLY made when you visited). Then there are the odors that, well, since memory can trigger phantom smells, I’ll just say there are other odors that we wish we couldn’t remember.

One of my favorite odors is the sweet, hot smell of fresh bread. France and Italy could over-stimulate the senses in the mornings as their shops open for their first customers. And if you are in the right neighborhood in New York, you know the baker is opening his door at just the right moment, teasing you and tantalizing your nostrils so you can’t help but go in for a bite. Bread appears to be a symbol for friendship, (Amish friendship bread anyone? Check quick bits for a recipe!), of life and of love. Many Christian faiths include the breaking of the bread, symbolizing the body of Christ that one takes into their own. And yet recently, it seems as though bread, flour, pasta, all of those wholesome, heavenly foods have been under attack!

Choosing to be ‘gluten free’ (GF) is so popular today that it almost seems like it is just the latest trend. Hollywood diets, Dukan, nutrition articles (check out this one!) are all telling you to STAY AWAY! How could a food that has been a staple of human history have all of a sudden become a menace?

Go in to almost any restaurant and ask for a GF menu, and most likely they are going to give you one. My new friends at Winger’s Roadhouse Grill also have a GF menu to ensure their flour-less patrons may still enjoy some sticky finger goodness (I was pleased to see the Original Amazing Sauce is GF). Having tested a “life without gluten” myself, I decided to do a little bit of research on what ‘gluten’ really is and why/how it could be so dangerous (Celiacs disease, for example, is an allergy to gluten). Here is what I found:

First let’s cover Celiac’s Disease (CD). This is an actual allergy to gluten in which the body responds by attacking its own tissue causing eventual irreversible damage to the intestines. According to MayoClinic and WebMD, long-term effects of CD can cause weight loss or water retention, to being more severe and causing infertility and nerve damage. This is due to the inability of the villi, which are destroyed in those with CD, to absorb the necessary nutrients the body needs.

Gluten-Intolerance is a different story. Some authors and bloggers that I read think of it as more of a “rich white person trend”. But there is some true science behind it (for some at least). For someone with gluten intolerance, a diet that includes gluten (so bread, pasta, most things with wheat and/or barley) will make your stomach feel like it is tying itself in knots, along with other things that just aren’t so nice to write about so we will stay away from those (look it up here if you really want to know). As I previously stated, I have attempted to go GF myself, having suffered from ulcers since the age of ten (I have been tested twice now with no trace of CD, not even IBS) and must admit I have noticed a bit of a difference. However, I noticed the BIGGEST difference when I stopped buying bread from some big company (and even some small ones) and just made all of my bread at home. Knowing exactly what was going into my bread (and being able to pronounce all the ingredients!) seemed to make all the difference. I saw a quote by nutritionist Joanna McMillan in an article from the Sydney Morning Herald that fit well with my opinion on the rise of evil wheat:

“Some people cannot tolerate gluten and yet suddenly everyone thinks gluten is bad. The truth is; it is modern, refined foods that are causing most of our health problems. Not the individual components of food. We’re missing the point.”

I must say I agree. With all of the things we are putting into our food to make it grow faster, taste “better”, and keep up with the demand of the world, we are losing the quality that once came from true “homemade” food and our bodies are rebelling. Other scientists and nutritionist may claim that, even though we have been eating gluten since we discovered the great combination of ground wheat and water, our bodies just aren’t made to eat gluten (the Paleo diet says it’s just plain bad for you, along with others). Well here I must say, to each his own. Through healthy eating the HOMEMADE way, my body seems completely content and good with gluten.

Have a favorite bread recipe? Post it in my comments section for others! I’d love to add something new to my cookbook.