Can you imagine a life without bread ? The history of bread goes back to ancient times and anthropologists tell us that wheat has been cultivated by man since before recorded history. The ancient Greeks and Romans ate bread as a staple food. The Lord's prayer asks God to "Give us this day our daily bread" - the bread here symbolizing moral sustenance as well as satisfying physical need. If there is one food unites the world it is a love and appreciation for bread. Be it leavened or unleavened all cultures consume some version of this food; in Jamaica there is a Hard Dough bread; Barbados, has Salt Bread; Guyanese, love their tennis Rolls, British Virgin Islands has Dumb Bread while Trinidadians crave Hops bread and Roti in it's various forms. If there is one food that the world can agree upon, it is the love and appreciation of bread in all forms.
So what happens if you are allergic to wheat the fundamental ingredient in bread?
As a mom, it's my job to stay informed and make the best dietary decisions possible for my family. This is even more important when someone in your family has a food allergy.
Although he was breastfed for 10 months, we realized early on that Little Bear had problems digesting his food. I had to eliminate all peas and beans from my diet as they made him uncomfortable and gassy. Certain foods also aggravated his eczema. It was difficult to pin down exactly which foods in my diet were the culprits and for the first year we struggled to determine the likely offenders. A few thousand dollars in doctors bills and dietary adjustments later we have determined that he is sensitive to tomatoes, melongene (eggplant), ochros (okra) and gluten. Gluten causes the most severe reaction. Not only does it flare up his eczema but he also gets allergy like sniffles and painful tummy cramps. His stomach gets rock hard. He screams for hours and is inconsolable.
Celiac Disease is a digestive tract disorder. When people with celiac disease eat foods which contain gluten, it creates an adverse reaction that damages the small intestine so that nutrients from food are not properly absorbed. While his doctor hasn't diagnosed celiac disease, we have been advised to keep his diet gluten free (for now anyway). My fingers are crossed that it will be as the doctor says and he may very well outgrow this sensitivity. In the meantime I have set about learning about gluten free food so that I can feed Little Bear stuff that doesn't make him ill and cause him pain. I am trying to remain hopeful that as he grows and his digestive system matures, things will work themselves out.
It is a challenge to maintain a gluten free diet because gluten is the protein found in wheat, oatmeal*, barley and rye. Wheat is the fundamental ingredient in bread; a food so universally important in the diet of so many cultures it has been described as the staff of life? But what if you are allergic to this staple food and all the other foods made with wheat flour like , pies, pizza, pastries, cookies, cakes, roti, doubles, dumplings, pasta, macaroni pie, noodles, lasagna, fried chicken, muffins, and pancakes? And those are only the obvious gluten containing foods.
More difficult to avoid is the 'hidden' gluten that is often present in commercially prepared foods. Wheat flour is often used in processed foods as a binder, emulsifier, and a filler. Here are are some foods which may be a source of hidden gluten: sausages, luncheon meat, soy sauce, snacks, malt and malted milk, icings, baking powder, some curry powder powders, some types of cocoa, some seasonings where flour is used as a flow agent, Ovaltine, Milo, baked beans (there may be gluten in the tomato sauce), textured vegetable protein, yogurt, chewing gum, potato chips, popcorn, ice cream cones, beverage mixes some pharmaceuticals and even some toothpastes.
Initially it was easy to avoid gluten because in the Caribbean we are blessed with a wide variety of starchy foods that can be substituted for cereal. Little Bear's first foods were primarily porridges of sweet potatoes, eddoes, tannia, dasheen, breadfruit, green figs, yams, and cassava. Many parents today start their babies on rice cereal followed by barley, oatmeal and wheat. It is easy to forget that this is a fairly new dietary change brought on by our convenience food culture. These cereals do not grow here and have only recently become staples. Many West Indians still choose to start baby on our fresh, local foods which are nutritionally superior than anything coming out of a box that was packed with preservatives and shipped halfway around the world. Listen I am not saying I don't keep a box of baby rice cereal flakes in the cupboard for emergencies but for the most part I don't find it at all difficult to boil a root vegetable and smash it with a fork with a bit of milk.
Little Bear is a 'big' boy now and the proud owner of 4 spanking new teeth. These teeth need substance. No more mushy mush for those bad boys. Biting (not always food related) is almost an obsession with him. I suppose chewing will come later. Sigh. At times it's alarming the huge chunks of food that he bites into and swallows without chewing. He bites everything. Furniture, toys, his clothes, paper, a grasshopper ( well almost - we got to poor Jiminy in the nick of time).
Time for some toast so small man can gnaw his way to biting nirvana. I used the only gluten free flour available to me, Doves Farms flour Gluten and Wheat Free Brown Bread Flour. At $7Us it's not cheap. I have made this twice and both times it produced a dense loaf with a depression in the middle. I am a bit puzzled by the picture of the well risen, loaves shown on the Doves Farm site since mine sagged in the middle. The recipe on the website mentions that the dough should be pressed inwards and upwards to form a domed top. I did not do this as it was not mentioned on recipe on the the package of flour. So maybe that's the reason.
In any case the center depression in my loaf makes it look like the bread is smiling when you cut it, don't you think? It has a nice crust but the texture is rubbery. If you don't expect this to taste like bread then you won't be disappointed with the flavour, which isn't off putting. It's just very bland. Think of it as a delivery method for your sandwich fixings. If I was gluten intolerant it would be an acceptable substitute for a sandwich but I can't see myself rushing to eat a warm buttery slice of this bread straight from the oven. It's not bread; just an acceptable substitute.Gluten Free Bread
16 oz Brown bread flour (Doves Farms)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp Quick yeast
2 tbs Sugar
12 floz warm milk
1 tsp vinegar
2 eggs
6tbps oil
Mix together the flour, salt, yeast and sugar. In a large bowl beat in the milk, vinegar and eggs. Add the flour and mix to form a sticky dough. ( Looks wet and spongy). Continue mixing adding the oil. Place the dough in an oiled 2 lb bread tin, cover and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
Bake in a pre-heated oven for 40- 45 mins 425 degres F
*Oats on their own do not contain gluten. However, they are not gluten free because of the potential for contamination during growing and processing.
My fingers are crosseddecision possible, but it's irritating when you wonder if your server really knows if there is a dollop of cream, or butter in your dishWe dined out often when my first son was a toddler Beers brewwed the tradiyonal way contain gluten .roti! doubles, pizza, fried chicken. Great but eating out I don't Just to be sure I called up gfree
Chefs are not dieticians but ceratinly restaurants have a responsibility to be knowlegedebale about food allegies and knowlege of ingredients so as to guide inform patrons food choices. I onnec had a friend end up in the Er shelfish allery. It turns out that cross contamination occured when the cutting board used to prepare her dish had been used earlier to prep shrimp.
A call to one of the country's ptremier restaurants revealed the extent of
Good evening. Do you offer any gluten free meal options on your menu.
Uhmm gluten free. Everything in this restaurant is gluten free.
uhhh huh. Yes mam please hold while I check that wit the chef for you.
The chef assures me that he doesn't cook with gluten and everything is gluten free. . Do you serve pasta? Yes we do.
I'm already frustrated at how little servers know about the food they are serving. I haven't even dined out that often with our little boy, )
You do know that pasta contains gluten
Does it?
Thanks for your help good evening.
Tips fpr dining out. Okay then.
Clearly
my favourite restaurant
It's been a while since I penned a blog entry for this site and it's been something I've missed. I intended to post something in June, but the gluten-Gods had something else in mind for me, and on June 20th I was seriously gluten-poisoned while eating out at an Italian restaurant - and have been suffering the serious physical and mental consequences ever since.
As much as I love home-cooking, I certainly also enjoy a nice meal out and the social life that usually accompanies dining outside the home. Since being diagnosed as a celiac disease nine years ago, I've learned to navigate through many restaurants safely and with confidence, yet on the other hand, there have also been many times when the message of cooking gluten-free was not properly transmitted from server to chef, and I've paid the serious price for their lack of awareness via a very sick body.
This past incident, however, has made me really angry and that's not like me - but when a restaurant so blatantly goes to great lengths to advertise and serve homemade gluten-free pastas on their menu, in my opinion, they are announcing that they have not only the understanding but the full awareness of exactly what gluten-free food preparation entails - this was so sadly not my experience on that lovely June evening. In fact, I went to great lengths to speak with the restaurant staff, and server five times from when the reservation was made on line, to a phone call, and throughout my meal. What more can a paying Celiac customer do to ensure their safety?
As it turns out, the special gluten-free pasta that I ordered ahead of time was then prepared with a basil cream sauce that was mixed with wheat flour, and then poured all over my delicious pasta and served to me. I instinctively asked the server as the beautiful plate of too-good-to-be-true pasta was placed in front of me, "okay so this meal is 100% gluten-free, correct?"...."Yes, enjoy!"....I was told.
It's this kind of negligence, and lack of understanding about how Celiacs and gluten-intolerant folks truly have to eat to ensure safety, that really incenses me.
I'm sure there are many of you out there who have experienced similar situations, and hopefully survived to tell about it. Our voices need to be heard and in my opinion when gluten contamination of food in a restaurant happens, it's not simply a stomach ache that ensues...there are serious symptoms involved that restaurants all across this nation need to be educated about. It's really a matter of life and death.
Malt vinegar Outcast outsider Please God don't let my baby have celiac disease. Other food allergies Dougnuts, bakery cookies, pies, pastry's, pasta (although wf is not that bad, it's just trying to convinve my parents to eat it), chicken noodle soup, ice cream in a cone, pretzels, raisin bread, sultana cake and basically the freedom of eating out without having to order salad after salad. with themit is understandable that breakfats is a bit of a challenge. It would be nice to break up the monontony of breakfast with the occaisiona l sandwich, or pancake or muffin. i had to look for agluten free bread for sandwiches, pancakes
Dougnuts, bakery cookies, pies, pastry's, pasta (although wf is not that bad, it's just trying to convinve my parents to eat it), chicken noodle soup, ice cream in a cone, pretzels, raisin bread, sultana cake and basically the freedom of eating out without having to order salad after salad.
At 4500 for of flour that yields two breads! Ouch it's a good thing he is the only one eating them Here is my bread lover opinion. Do not expect it to taste like bread. It has anice crust but the tecture The texture is somewhat rubbery.
This is my second attempt at this bread and bothe times the results were tthe same. NOw he eats from the family meals. I have struggled with finding a bread substiturewas especially frustrating since and we have to wait untilmost time
