I had eaten gluten just fine for years, no family history of gluten issues, DNA testing negative for celiac, etc.
Methods of growing and processing wheat have changed dramatically in the last few decades. Especially for pre-packaged sliced bread, buns for fast food, and anything else bought by a serious cost cutting purchaser.
i.e. The gluten found in any product you can buy for a few dollars in the U.S. or Canada is almost certainly different then the gluten any of your parents or grandparents had eaten.
This isn’t really talked about outside of industry experts and enthusiasts, and maybe some very agitated celiac adjacent folks, because there is no feasible way to go back to the old way of wheat growing and processing without bread doubling or tripling in price.
There are probably niche growers for luxury markets, and of course ‘gluten free’ bread, if you really want to eat bread regardless.
I’ve gotten the advice from a few people that I might be able to eat things made with “heritage” wheat, but realistically I’m not going to make my own bread, cakes, etc. in general to try this out.
If this pans out maybe over decades we could effect a shift to different varieties that more people can eat, but I think that’s going to require some strong evidence to get food industry players to align around the choice.
Isn’t making your own bread really easy, you just need a bread maker put a bunch of ingredients in, press the button and wait. Seems like it might be worth a try. But obviously you know more about your situation than me.
That it involves many more steps than put a thing in the microwave and pressing buttons means it’s a cooking task I’m only going to perform for special occasions, if ever. I realize others like cooking a lot more and would love an excuse to “have to” make their own bread, but not me.
I don’t know what the supposed changes in growing and processing wheat are, but a lot of that will presumably have happened by the stage it’s flour. So doing the mixing and baking yourself might not change anything.
At least if the factor involved is gluten, afaik, the heritage forms are often even higher.
I have heard anecdotally from a bunch of people that they do better on heritage flours, but I do not think gluten can be the cause of that. Notably, a bunch of people who do badly on wheat do perfectly fine when eating pure gluten (seitan), so I think they are avoiding whatever is the trigger only indirectly, and in the process, likely missing out on a lot of joy and wasting a lot of money.
But then, I also understand that anyone who has found something that works for once really no longer cares to make any experiments.
Methods of growing and processing wheat have changed dramatically in the last few decades. Especially for pre-packaged sliced bread, buns for fast food, and anything else bought by a serious cost cutting purchaser.
i.e. The gluten found in any product you can buy for a few dollars in the U.S. or Canada is almost certainly different then the gluten any of your parents or grandparents had eaten.
This isn’t really talked about outside of industry experts and enthusiasts, and maybe some very agitated celiac adjacent folks, because there is no feasible way to go back to the old way of wheat growing and processing without bread doubling or tripling in price.
There are probably niche growers for luxury markets, and of course ‘gluten free’ bread, if you really want to eat bread regardless.
I’ve gotten the advice from a few people that I might be able to eat things made with “heritage” wheat, but realistically I’m not going to make my own bread, cakes, etc. in general to try this out.
If this pans out maybe over decades we could effect a shift to different varieties that more people can eat, but I think that’s going to require some strong evidence to get food industry players to align around the choice.
Isn’t making your own bread really easy, you just need a bread maker put a bunch of ingredients in, press the button and wait. Seems like it might be worth a try. But obviously you know more about your situation than me.
That it involves many more steps than put a thing in the microwave and pressing buttons means it’s a cooking task I’m only going to perform for special occasions, if ever. I realize others like cooking a lot more and would love an excuse to “have to” make their own bread, but not me.
I don’t know what the supposed changes in growing and processing wheat are, but a lot of that will presumably have happened by the stage it’s flour. So doing the mixing and baking yourself might not change anything.
At least if the factor involved is gluten, afaik, the heritage forms are often even higher.
I have heard anecdotally from a bunch of people that they do better on heritage flours, but I do not think gluten can be the cause of that. Notably, a bunch of people who do badly on wheat do perfectly fine when eating pure gluten (seitan), so I think they are avoiding whatever is the trigger only indirectly, and in the process, likely missing out on a lot of joy and wasting a lot of money.
But then, I also understand that anyone who has found something that works for once really no longer cares to make any experiments.