When first told to take gluten out of
their diet, most people feel like something you see in the cartoons.
The ground beneath them is suddenly gone. They're hanging in mid-air
waiting to fall. The struggle to cook gluten-free wasn't like that
for me. I had already learned about dealing with a dairy-free diet
and I had fell head-over-heels in love with heath food, herbs, and
the vegan diet.
During the ninety's I worked in a
health food store where I learned about the vegan diet. It felt so
good. Veganism naturally reduces gluten, corn, and bake goods from
the diet, and incorporates a larger variety of foods into the diet.
Unable to stay on the diet I continued to have health issues.
So, for me, the bottom didn't fall out.
It more at slowly crumbled. It started with starch. Starch, with its
high pectin content, is the quickest, easiest, and seemingly best
substitute for gluten. Gluten provides quite a bit of the nutrition
and the strength to hold a rise in breads and cakes. Starch's lack of
nutrition lead me to develop a number of my recipes free of it.
Although, cakes, breads, and cookies can be made without starch, pie
crusts, crackers, tortillas, and biscuits don't hold together,crisp
up or roll out with it's absence.
It was after embracing starch I hit
that emptiness. Potato and corn starches have larger starch
molecules. The larger the molecules the better it works as a
replacement for gluten. They also tend to be cheapest. Well, what do
you do if you're allergic to potatoes and corn. First there is
tapioca starch. It's too close to the potato family. Crossover
allergy problems happen there. So, scratch that. Arrowroot
starch is an excellent corn starch substitute. Turns out, it's not
unusual for manufactures to cut potato starch into a batch of
arrowroot, if they are a little short during bagging. Well, scratch
that. Kuzu starch made from the kudzu
plant costs 7USD for 3.5 ounces. Are you going to stick a cup of
it in your baking? I think not! Scratch that.
With so many foods scratched from my
diet, it has been an ability to cook from 'scratch' that has been the
biggest help in my struggle to live with, not only a large number of
allergies, but to also put together a family meal which considers
other family member's allergy concerns. It helps with remembering the
ingredient combinations needed to make a cake rise, or to take out
out one nutritious food and replace it with another. It makes me
brave enough to can my own food, so I can avoid the starch not listed
on a food label, but used to make factory canning machines work
smoothly without oil.
What has helped you the most in your
struggle with gluten/allergy-free cooking?
This weeks highly recommended website
for understanding gluten sensitivity.
The World's Ultimate Resource On:
Gluten Free Diets, Gluten Free Research, Gluten Free Help, Celiac
Disease, and Gluten Free Recipes. Gluten
Free Society
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