Horror House of Gluten

If you want to really give yourself the willies, read up on the horror that is modern wheat.

To start with, its development reads like a hammer house of horror. Modern wheat is a mutant of 42 chromosomes to the 14 of old varieties, developed over years of genetic modification. It makes me think of those old paintings of rectangular cows, or Frankenstein. You can't see it, but you're eating Frankenwheat.

This Frankenwheat contains a whole load of new proteins that our bodies can't assimilate. If they can't be assimilated through our digestive process, they pass directly into the intestine where they are free to wreak havoc.

If you're one of the 1% suffering from Coeliac disease, it's like having Frankenstein on crack rampaging around your belly wielding a flail and inflaming your insides. Not nice. Torture, actually.

You might think that if you're not totally intolerant, you're okay. Unfortunately, a new study from the US shows that modern wheat is toxic for all of us. Even if you're in tip top good health, eating wheat products merely increases the permeability of your intestine by perturbing the intestinal hormone zonuline, with dire results.

Not only does your intestine struggle to assimilate the nutrients you're so keenly consuming (rather than stuffing your face with crisps, hotdogs and doughnuts), but it can't stop certain proteins getting into the blood stream to act as front-line terrorists triggering auto-immune diseases and upping the risk of cancer.

Two of these malevolent buggers are prolamines and glutenines which together form the infamous protein gluten. Don't be duped. Modern gluten is bad Bad BAD. More and more people are suffering from its effects, including diarrhea, bloating, depression, joint pain, etc.

So cutting out gluten could happily cure your digestive problems, make you feel happier, less open to infections and give you more energy.

Does that croissant/slice of toast/baguette sarnie/pizza/spag bol/cake look quite as appetising now?

Even if you're in glowing health, eating a gluten-free diet reduces the production of proinflammatory cytokines, and by consequence, makes you less at risk from the effects of inflammation (heart disease, cancer, depression, etc.).

Having given myself the willies, and tried to frighten the boys, with a marked lack of success, I decided to try eating as little gluten as possible. I'm not a gluten-free nazi, but when I'm in my own home, I'm just not eating normal bread, pizza, cake or wheat pasta. Funnily enough, my boys are bored with my bread machine bread (although not the pizza dough it makes...) and are thus eating less bread because they want me to buy baguettes, and I'll buy no more than one of those a day, if that.

Instead, I eat Pain des Fleurs buckwheat crackers, lentil pasta, and I've started making my own bread. It doesn't look anything like the dry yellow stuff you see under plastic in the gluten-free aisles in supermarkets, and tastes surprisingly good.

Stylish inside and out

In France, there's a stylish seasonal magazine on gluten-free cooking and 'art de vivre' called Niépi that my yoga teacher told me about. She lent me the latest copy where I discovered the recipe for egg-free, gluten-free bread. I have nothing against eggs, but thought I'd give it a go for the hell of it.

The recipe called for 40 minutes in the oven. If a skewer came out clean, it was cooked. My skewer did not come out clean after 40 minutes, or 50 minutes. I got cross at 55 minutes and shook it out of its silicone mould and stuffed it back in the oven, heat turned off.

It never actually finished cooking, but was sufficiently cooked to eat. When I tried it again a few days later in a metal Teflon mould, the result was even less cooked at 50 minutes. Does anyone have a suggestion about how long it actually takes?

Here is attempt one, looking pretty normal:

Gluten-free, egg-free bread (a bit undercooked)

It's made with rice flour, tapioca starch, buckwheat flour, flaxseeds, chia seeds, psyllium etc. My DB enjoyed too and took the recipe to see if he could make it in his bread machine as he has no oven.

Attempt two came out with an over-inflated top - I think I kneaded it too much, and I forgot the apple cider vinegar. And it was really undercooked. A mystery!

I found and tried a couple of other recipes in the mag, liked one of them so much I decided to splash out 20 Euro and buy all the electronic back copies.

All I need now is a Kindle Fire to read them on...

UPDATE 15/6/15
I emailed the Niépi people and they told me that gluten-free flour is not calibrated in the same way as wheat flour (Types 55,65,110 etc.) and so they absorb moisture to different degrees. It was suggested I reduce the amount of water, and leave the loaf in the oven on the rack once it had finished cooking. I tried this, and the third loaf came out perfectly. It rose properly and cooked properly, and tastes very good. Result!

Enemies of the Body State

Healthy eating comes in many guises. You can go from eating lots of standard fruit and veg plus meat (if you're not a veggie) from the supermarket to eating more and more organic produce and better quality meat, to eating totally organic. For some people, a vegetarian or vegan diet is the healthiest; for others, including meat is essential. Some even decide to adopt a totally raw food diet.

Never one for extremes, I like to pick and mix, but I'm becoming more and more aware that eating gluten and dairy produce is not good for you. This morning, I got an email from a newsletter I subscribe to (SanteNatureInnovation) which convinced me even more.

According to Dr Jean Seignalet, a dairy-free and gluten-free diet can relieve ninety-one major illnesses: auto-immune (psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, poly-arthritis, etc.), allergies, asthma, headaches, depression, insomnia and gastric/intestinal problems.

Apparently, giving up dairy and gluten for three months can be a life-changing experience for those who don't know they are intolerant. They regain their energy and morale; sleep well, feel good, and lose weight. Their hair looks better, and their pains and fatigue disappear.

Historically, people turned to wheat and dairy because they were not expensive, so they incorporated them into as many recipes as possible. Unfortunately, humans can't digest lactose in milk very well, and the protein casein provokes intolerance and allergies. As for calcium, only 30% is absorbed, so it's not such a brilliant body-builder after all! Wheat is poor in nutrients, containing starch (sugar), and some protein of which mainly gluten which 15% of the population is intolerant to, and a bit of fat in the germ.

Those who are intolerant to either or both know just how bad it can get (like this professional ballerina). The intestines get inflamed, become porous, and let proteins pass into the blood which set off inflammatory and auto-immune reactions throughout the body.

I'm not particularly intolerant to either, although I do burp after I eat bread (and it's probably getting worse), but I'm interested in what I can replace them with. I've started using different flours (buckwheat, chickpea, rye), in muffins, tarts and cookies, but I want to know more, and I don't want to spend (even more) hours finding out.

The newsletter invites us to register for a cookery course called Naturacook given (in French) by Benjamin Dariouch, founder of Naturacoach. It teaches the secrets of tasty eating gluten- and dairy-free, and how to use properly the different flours that are available. It's on for four months and is delivered through videos which can be watched and re-watched, plus pdf versions of the 120 basic recipes, the possibility to ask Ben questions, and how to transform normal recipes to gluten-/dairy-free.

I was asked recently to find out about cookery courses for an American couple who wanted to come to Montpellier for a couple of weeks. I was quite surprised at how much they cost. This course is €37/month for four months which I reckon is a good buy. I'll let you know how it goes.