WHAT IS GLUTEN?
Gluten is a protein found in certain grains like wheat, spelt, rye and barley. Other grains can easily be contaminated if they come in contact with gluten containing flour due to the volatility of flour. The cross contamination can occur from the harvesting machines, to the milling and all the way up to the premises where products are made.
Gluten is a spiral shaped protein that when mixed with water, it forms a sticky cross-linked network of proteins, giving elastic properties to dough and allowing bread to rise when baked. This glue-like characteristic gives gluten its great versatility and it allows wheat mainly, but also rye and spelt to be moulded into different forms.
Baking and Patisserie courses and crafts are all about understanding how gluten works and then be able to create various types of pastry. So for example, if you coat the gluten protein with a fat (such as butter) before mixing the water or fluid in, as in when you make short crust pastry, the wheat acquires a totally different shape and becomes friable and crispy.
But if you mix it with water and then stretch the dough, it becomes elastic and bouncy, making very fluffy and amazing breads.
So you can see why wheat has become the main flour used by food companies: it is easy and cheap to grow, it is extremely versatile and it is therefore the default flour used by all food companies.
For a flour to be gluten free, it must contain up to 2% gluten in it. But as I said earlier other flours can be contaminated if worked in the same premises as normal wheat/rye/spelt/barley flour, as it tends to fly and deposit everywhere. So be very careful to so called ‘gluten free’ products in bakeries that sell mainly gluten containing products.
A gluten free product has to be made and packaged in premises that are free of any gluten containing flours.
WHY SO MUCH GLUTEN INTOLERANCE NOW?
Nobody knows why wheat and gluten allergy has increased so much. There are a few theories that could all be right:
- Wheat used nowadays has a lot more gluten in it- the more gluten it is in the flour, the better the product will look. Therefore manufacturers now use flours with high contents of gluten, such as Canadian wheat that has 3 times the gluten level than the European ones.
- Wheat has been genetically modified since the 1940s to make it more productive. Plants used to be over 6feet tall in the 1940s whereas nowadays they are only 2 feet tall.
- Wheat is treated with many chemicals during its growth, that then get absorbed by our bodies
- It is believed that 1 in 100 are coelic, but unless you are prepared to do an intestinal biopsy, the tests to diagnose coeliac are not very reliable.
- Up until very recently coelic disease and non-coeliac gluten sensitivity has often been misdiagnosed.
- Our bodies nowadays are more exposed to allergens such as chemicals, pollutions and additives that it reacts faster to allergens than before
- Autoimmune illnesses have always been around, but it is only recently that the connection has been made with highly allergenic products, such as wheat or chemicals
- Our diets nowadays are very wheat based, so an increased daily exposure of wheat can easily cause an intolerance to it
WHY GO GLUTEN FREE?
Wheat is not easily digestible by humans and to some degree each one of us has a wheat intolerance. The undigested parts of wheat begin to ferment in the guts, causing gas. The fact that it is undigestible, makes it an inflammatory agent. Wheat in particular converts very easy to sugar, causing the body’s insulin level to rise that then increase the inflammatory process.
Due to its undigestible and inflammatory characteristics, when gluten reaches the digestive tract and is exposed to the immune system, they mistakenly believe that it needs to be eliminated by the body and they start attacking it.
When the inflammation is in the gut, then it can cause leaky gut syndrome, where the guts have become porous and leaky, so stuff from the gut end up in the bloodstream, including toxins. At this stage the inflammation is not only localised to the guts, but it has become systemic.
In addition to that, here are more reasons to avoid gluten in your diet:
- The biggest impact of gluten is in the brain. There are studies that link gluten to illnesses such as Alzheimer’s, depression, dementia and Parkinson’s. A recent study also linked Multiple Sclerosis from a gut problem and Cerebellar Ataxia, a condition that involves inability to coordinate balance, movements, talking
- Other symptoms and illnesses linked to gluten are: headaches, foggy brain, mood swings, depression, skin issues, insomnia, back and joint pains, muscle soreness, bone deterioration and osteoporosis
- Gluten has also been linked to ADD, ADHD, Autism and weakened immune systems. Many people suffering from it have shown antibodies against gluten in the blood
- Gluten may be addictive. When broken down in test tubes, gluten releases peptides that can activate opioid receptors in the brain, the same ones that are activated with addictive substances. Therefore it may be quite plausible to get cravings for wheat.
- Gluten is associated with Autoimmune diseases such as Hashimotos Thyroiditis, Type 1 Diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis, Autism, Coeliac disease and many more
WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF GLUTEN INTOLERANCE?
Coeliac is a gluten allergy where the small intestine lining (called villi) gets destroyed and nutrient absorption becomes a problem. Non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) is an intolerance to gluten but without the intestinal lining destruction. However the symptoms can be virtually the same.
The main symptom is diarrhoea due to the fact that the body cannot absorb nutrients.
The nutrients malabsorption can also show as high levels of fat in the stools that make them foul smelling, greasy and frothy and difficult to flush down the toilet
Other symptoms include:
- bloating or stomach pain
- wind and a noisy stomach
- easy bruising
- iron deficiency anaemia, or B12 or folic acid deficiency
- weight loss due to nutrients malabsorption
- tiredness and fatigue due to nutrients malabsorption
- skin blisters that are itchy
- recurrent mouth sores
- arthritis
- tingling and numbness in your hands and feet
- fluid retention with swelling of hands, feet, arms and legs
There are many autoimmune diseases associated with coeliac disease and non-coeliac gluten sensitivity such as:
- Dermatitis herpetiformis
- Type 1 Diabetes
- Autoimmune thyroid disease such as Grave’s disease and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Systemic lupus
- Ulcerative colitis
- Liver disease such as autoimmune hepatitis, primary biliary cirrhosis
- Addison’s disease
- Sjogren’s syndrome
- Sarcoidosis
- Infertility
- Lymphoma and small bowel cancer#
- Lactose intolerance
- Autism
- Alopecia areata
- Psoriasis
- Pancreatic disease
HOW DO I TEST FOR IT?
First you will do a blood test for gluten antibodies:AGA- anti- gliadin antibodies
- EMA – anti-endomysial
- TTG – anti-tissue transglutaminase
- DGP – Deamidated Gliadin Peptide
Then, if the blood test comes back positive, a small intestine biopsy will be carried out to check state of villi and to assess any damage.
If you have been diagnosed with coeliac then further tests will be carried out to assess bone density health, iron level and nutrients absorption.
Please note that you should not undergo a gluten free diet prior to testing, as this will affect the test results
With regards to NCGS there are no tests to assess the wheat intolerance apart from an exclusion diet to monitor the symptoms. You eliminate wheat completely for 6-8 weeks and then reintroduce it slowly in your diet and monitor symptoms.
HOW TO START GOING GLUTEN FREE?
There are foods that clearly contain gluten such as anything with wheat, rye and barley in them. But other foods may contain hidden ingredients of wheat that you may not be aware of.
That is why at the beginning it is quite confusing and complicated to go Gluten Free. The best option is to initially cook your food from scratch and focus the diet on the foods that are naturally gluten free like meats, cheese, egg and fruit & vegetables, until you get used to what you can or cannot eat. Also be careful when eating prepared meals as flour is often used as a thickener for sauces.
But if you cannot always cook your meals, here is a list of foods that you can eat on the go:
- omelette with salad or jacket potato
- jacket potatoes with filling
- salads (check ingredients in salad dressing)
- sushi (do not have the soy sauce though)
- rice/ potato/ quinoa/beans based meals (again check ingredients in sauces)
I find that chain stores now have a good selection of gluten free meals:
- Itsu have many rice based dishes such as sushi or hot meals, however soy sauce is not gluten free, but it is served separately.
- Leon menus mark their foods as gluten free or not, with a good selection of gluten free options
- Wasabi has similarly many rice based dishes, but obviously avoid anything with soy sauce in it or breadcrumbs.
- Pret a Manger has many salads and power meals that are gluten free, but ask at counter about the content of salad dressing and sauces.
- Eat has a list of the most common allergens in its menu and quite a good selection are wheat free
- If you buy meals in supermarkets, your best options are salads and sushi which are available in most sandwich and prepared meals section in Tesco, Sainsbury’s, M&S and Waitrose (always check ingredients on label for wheat).
Something that I always keep in my cupboard is a couple of tins of Amy’s Kitchen Tinned Soups. They are really tasty and the ideal meal if I only have 15 minutes to eat my meal.
Last but not least by any stretch of the imagination is the Gluten Free Bread issue. Gluten Free bread sucks, it tastes sweet and the texture is nothing like normal bread.
I miss pizza, baguettes, croissants and ciabatta bread!! To the point that I have now attended a few Gluten Free bread courses and I am seriously considering starting a Gluten Free bread Range!! Whereas Gluten Free cakes I can deal with as they are much similar to the normal ones.
With that premise out of the way, I now always keep in the house a packet of Gluten Free pittas that all supermarkets sell that I use to make filled sandwiches or that I eat with soups. I tend to cook a few meals (one day a week) that I keep in the fridge. So I would cook 4-5 portions of brown rice, new potatoes, roast a big batch of vegetables, make a pesto and make a soup that I keep in the fridge for 2-3 days, so when I come home from work I can cook or reheat a meal in 10-15 minutes.
WHICH FOODS TO AVOID?
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Some foods can be consumed when labelled gluten free like oats because they do not contain gluten, but are more likely to be contaminated. But if they are processed in a gluten free environment they are safe to be consumed.
Other foods that you should be careful and make sure to read ingredients on label are:
PLACES TO CHECK FOR GLUTEN
soy sauce
imitation crab
liquorice
oven chips (batter often contains wheat)
seasoning packets
natural flavoring
BBQ sauces
salad dressings
hard sweets
cornflakes and rice krispies
chocolate
ice cream
broth
chipotles in adobo sauce
yogurt and other dairy products such as sour cream
miso
some fermented kimchi
fish sauce
oyster sauce
mole
beverages such as sports drinks or iced tea mixes
malt vinegar
oats (you must not eat anything with oats unless made with certified gluten-free oats)
mayonnaise (malt vinegar)
ketchup (malt vinegar)
pickles & chutneys
NON-FOOD ITEMS THAT COULD CONTAIN GLUTEN
makeup and shampoos
lipsticks
filler in medications
NATURALLY GLUTEN-FREE FOODS THAT MIGHT BE CROSS-CONTAMINATED IN A FRYER
tortilla chips
french fries
anything fried
WHAT IS USUALLY GLUTEN-FREE BUT WELL-MEANING FOLKS WILL TELL YOU TO AVOID
wine
vodka
cider
white wine vinegar and all vinegars
caramel coloring
MSG
baking powder
Most supermarkets have a good range of free from products now.