Gluten-Free and Wheat-Free Flours
Sunday, September 26th, 2010Many are allergic to gluten and wheat. Some experience clear signs of their gluten intolerance or wheat allergy, many others experience much more subtle effects of such sensitivity.
It can be argued that our human digestive system did not evolve to to eat wheat and gluten as the paleolithic hu(wo)man ate mostly meats, fish, roots, berries, and seeds, not farmed grains.
It is also a fact that most of today’s flour has been stripped from it’s nutrients, bleached, grounded so fine to prolong shelf life (so even bugs can’t survive by eating that de-natured food) or to make using the flour easier, especially in the industries that want to create tasty and good looking pastries very fast. I will write other articles to talk about what to look for when buying wheat flour, I will also talk about the best method to prepare pastries using fermentation (not using baker’s wheat) in future articles.
For those of you that want to avoid wheat and gluten all together, I have good news. There are many alternatives, many are healthier than wheat.
I listed below “flours” that are alternatives to wheat flour and that are also gluten free. Remember, you’ll have to adjust any recipes you are using and maybe do some experimentation before you get the right quantities.
Amaranth flour: Amaranth flour is made from the seed of the Amaranth plant, which is a leafy vegetable. Alternative names: African spinach, Chinese spinach, Indian spinach, elephants ear.
Buckwheat flour: Buckwheat flour is not wheat, buckwheat is related to rhubarb. The small seeds of the plant are ground to make flour. Other names: beech wheat, kasha, saracen corn.
Millet flour: Comes from the grass family. Don’t use too much of this as millet has been shown to not be thyroid-friendly because it limits the uptake of iodine to the thyroid.