Well, as with many diet trends, the media has vilified gluten the way they did carbs 10-15 years ago when diets like Atkins and South Beach were popular, and they didn’t do their research first (because why should our media outlets waste time with silly things like the facts, right?). So let’s start off with a simple question: what is gluten?
Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, barley, malt, and sometimes oats depending on where they’re grown and how they’re processed. Seems pretty simple, so why is it such a problem? Well for many people it isn’t. But there are people with this thing called “celiac disease” where they can’t digest the protein, and it causes damage to the hair-like protrusions of the small intestine called villi. The undigested protein blocks absorption of necessary nutrients by the small intestine, leading to other health complications due to malnutrition (in simplest, definitive terms). There is some debate about whether or not non-celiac gluten sensitivity 1. exists, and 2. affects people seriously enough to justify a completely gluten-free diet. The truth of the matter is that human trials to determine the scope of medical problems caused by gluten in non-celiac individuals haven’t been extensive enough to establish trends either for or against the argument.
So how would someone know that they might have non-celiac gluten sensitivity? Gluten causes inflammation in the body, typically in the digestive tract, though some people present with migraines, rheumatoid arthritis, and other symptoms that are eased or even disappear completely after giving up gluten. That’s right. You have to actually try a gluten-free diet and see if it makes you feel better. Personally, a history of digestive issues that presented whenever I was under large amounts of stress led me to trying a gluten-free diet. I first developed gastritis in 2004 after our home was damaged by hurricanes Frances and Jeanne and we were forced to live in a FEMA trailer until repairs were made. Since then, I’ve also had cases of colitis and spastic colon, as well as resurgences of gastritis. Since giving up gluten, I feel considerably better even when insanely stressed.
Knowing this now, you’re probably wondering, “if gluten’s so bad, why doesn’t everyone give it up?”. Well, gluten-free foods tend to be more expensive, and many families can’t afford to have an entirely gluten-free household if just one member is gluten-sensitive. Many people also don’t even know they’re sensitive to gluten, and with the recent media hype, consider it to simply be the next diet trend that will fade out in another year or two. Most gluten-free foods also contain much higher amounts of sugar, salt, and fat to compensate for taste and texture differences compared to “regular” food. You also have to fix basically all of your meals, or spend about $7 for one tiny frozen gluten-free pizza from Udi’s at the grocery store, $5-7 for one loaf of bread (that’s also much smaller than the standard Nature’s Own loaf on the shelf, and has to be kept frozen or refrigerated), and you can’t trust restaurants to not cross-contaminate meals regardless of them saying they’ve trained their chefs to prep meals properly.
So where did this problem with gluten come from, anyway? It’s all about evolution. Grains that contain gluten have been a staple of the human diet since we first settled into agriculture, possibly even earlier. Through cross-breeding and planting heartier grains that could survive harsh climates, humans used artificial selection to evolve wheat and other gluten grains to contain even more gluten. The same process has not been used on humans who possess genes to digest gluten, and even those individuals with the genes may have trouble consuming such high quantities of it due to our advancement of gluten grains thousands of times faster than normal while we continued to adapt at a fairly normal pace through natural selection. What does this mean for those people? Well even if you can digest gluten, you should probably consume far less of it than you probably presently do.
Now that we’ve cleared that up, you’re probably wondering why people need another gluten-free blog. Well I’m not just covering stuff like deglutenizing favorite recipes like cinnamon rolls and bread (which I actually haven’t figured out yet…something about living in Florida…), but basic cooking techniques for everything from steak to salad. Would you believe that at the age of 25, most of my peers consider preparing Kraft Mac ‘n Cheese, stovetop ramen, and canned items like beans to be all the cooking they can manage? If you fall into the same category of culinary talent, then fear not. Soon I’ll teach you how to make amazing gravies, knockoffs of favorite cookies (I’m working on Thin Mints right now), how to melt and dip chocolate, and how to prepare classics like quiche, steak and mushroom sauce, omelets, veggie lasagna, and more!
Stick with me, and I’ll show you the basics of being a pretty awesome home cook, and maybe some fancy tricks I’ve learned through cooking shows on tv and spending too much time on the internet (like how to temper chocolate, that’s a fun one). We’ll make things from scratch, update our favorite mixes with a few tweaks, and explore how to add flavor and substance to even the most boring foods (like vegetables, and chicken for the fifth night this week). Enjoy my blog!