Category — Gluten

We’re just a little over a week away from the release of the new bread book, but we’ve already shipped hundreds of copies and I’ve had the chance to discuss the book with hundreds more families throughout the country! Through these discussions, I’ve encountered many common myths that are repeated over and over from a variety of sources. While this list is far from exhaustive, it’s a great start at getting many of the essential facts straight about one of humankind’s oldest and most loved foods.

Myth: The hybridization of wheat is how we got wonderbread and other uniformly light and fluffy loaves.
Reality: This bread was the result of a patented production process that was used for decades before the hybridization of yeast. The process was designed to mimic the best artisan breads produced at home, but with a streamlined and predictable method suited for distribution. Light and fluffy (healthy) loaves have been enjoyed for millennia thanks to kitchen skills that have been passed down through generations.

Half truth: White bread is bad for you; use whole wheat instead. Or freshly milled whole wheat instead.
Reality: Whole wheat, even if freshly milled, is still a high glycemic food that contributes to obesity, heart disease, diabetes and inflammation. It also contains a large amount of gluten, which is toxic for many people and can eventually lead to internal inflammation and damage. This doesn’t mean we have to abandon bread altogether. The key to a healthy bread is the process that has the ability to turn even store bought white flour into a low glycemic and low gluten or even gluten free food.

Myth: Soaking whole grains – as the ancients did – will reduce the phytic acid and increase the bioavailability of valuable nutrients.
Reality: Rigorous studies have shown that soaking does nothing to improve the health of whole grains, and there is no evidence found in history of any previous cultures soaking, dehydrating, then grinding grains. The practice was only used for legumes, beans, and as a cooking method.

Myth: We consume more wheat/flour than any previous generation.
Reality: We consume far less wheat/flour than almost all previous generations. Ancient cultures derived over half of their daily intake from bread and bread was a staple in most diets through many different cultures until a sharp overall decline in the early 1900s.

Myth: Refined flour is why we now have problems with gluten and sensitivities.
Reality: Refined flours have been in use since antiquity! The Romans produced a flour that was very similar to store bought white flour we buy today, and I have a collection of nutrition texts and cookbooks from throughout the 1800s that decry the use of whole wheat flour and warn that it should only be used medicinally and should never be allowed to contaminate a batch of good bread.

Myth: Gluten free diets are trends only to be used by hypochondriacs.
Reality: Evidence shows that the levels of gluten we consume today are harming everyone. While some individuals have experienced internal damage that requires a strict avoidance of gluten, all of us benefit from reduced intake. And the health concerns we face are often found to be dose dependent, which means the more we consume, the greater our risks of developing a disorder that requires strict avoidance.

And finally:

MYTH: The problem with modern bread is linked to the hybridized wheat, refined flours, and additives found in modern bread.
Reality: Countless scientific studies have shown that these factors all contribute to the perfect storm of events that ruined the bread that nourished the ancients, but elimination of all of these factors still will not produce a bread that is low glycemic, nourishing, anti-inflammatory, or healthy enough to form a significant part of the diet. The secret? The production process.

Want more details? For the full story, including over 350 citations for further research, check out the Vintage Remedies Guide to Bread: Unlocking the Mysteries of Grains, Gluten and Yeast.

So in the book, I provide detailed outlines for catching your own local starter. However, if you live in an area that does not have great tasting lactobacilli or if you’d just like to play around with various other starters, you can buy them from exotic locations and enjoy the flavor that has been enjoyed for thousands of years.

There are a few online suppliers of such starters, but I’ve had the best service from a small shop called Starting with Sourdoughs. The owner, Greg, is very knowledgeable and truly enjoys the health benefits and flavor of the breads produced from these cultures collected from throughout the world. These are what I use in my kitchen. I typically keep a few alive at a time with backups. Every so often I kill off the backup and have to order more, but the prices are so affordable, it’s usually cheaper and easier than trying to revive the one struggling to survive on my countertop!

In my kitchen, I always use the San Francisco starter for tangy breads and the Country French starter when I don’t want tang – cinnamon rolls for example. However, I’ve tried and enjoyed all of the starters he offers and find them to be amazingly easy to work with. The Italian ones are also favorites of mine. Regardless of the source you choose, you’ll want to make sure that the starter is free of all baker’s yeast and has been well maintained. For the health benefits outlined in the book, you’ll need to follow the details and instructions given in the book.

Here’s the link to the ebay store.

Curious to know what I’m talking about? For more information on bread, check out our upcoming release The Vintage Remedies Guide to Bread: Unlocking the Mysteries of Grains, Gluten and Yeast.

To those with celiac, allergies, and gluten sensitivities: We hear you. I’ve been involved in gluten free research and treatment for over a decade and even lived through it personally with one of my children. I’ve also worked with many clients that have celiac. In the book, I detail just how difficult it can be to even get a diagnosis with celiac, and I speak from not only professional but personal experience as I’ve walked through that path with close friends through the years. We even have several staff members at Vintage Remedies that have celiac or strong sensitivities.

I understand your frustration when you travel, the risk a restaurant with a “gluten-free” menu poses, especially when you’ve been burned by cross contamination due to one simple mistake. I know how the rest of the world misunderstands your condition. I’ve heard it all too – “would whole wheat work? no? how about a cracker then?” I’ve even taken the harsh comments by those who believed I was harming my child by eliminating gluten. I’ve lived through the anxiety of being a guests in someone’s home who didn’t understand gluten and it’s risks, I still travel frequently always keeping an eye out for nearby grocery stores where I can find safe food, and I understand the glances and the looks from those that think gluten-free is a fad diet – an excuse to be rude. In short, I know your lifestyle because I’ve lived it.

I know how groundbreaking the information in this book will seem and how implausible some of it may seem to those that have heard it all. I, too, had heard it all. Yet, for those of you familiar with Vintage Remedies, you know that we always err on the side of evidence based caution. We’ve taken heat for that stance many times as we refuse to jump on to the latest health fads and we don’t get our attention by launching conspiracy theory newsletters. We’re not opposed to modern medicine; we appreciate all that it has done. We are wholeheartedly in favor of evidence based medicine, believing that our families are not guinea pigs for our home experiments.

We don’t risk the health of our families by jumping to the latest diet – whether that diet is new or a revision of some so-called traditional lifestyle. Why should we when large scale clinical trials have examined these habits on thousands of individuals and can show us what to expect?

The same rings true for the upcoming bread book. In this book, I discuss the history of bread, the diet of the ancients (not as I see it, but as historians and medical anthropologists report it) and the issue with gluten. There is a lot to this subject and without reading through the book entirely, it is difficult to fully grasp the whole of this research. I encourage you to read through it, and if you have time, try to obtain access to as many of the hundreds of clinical trials that I cite as you can to verify what I’m saying. If you need help interpreting them, I plan on continuing to post about the subject here on the blog, so compile your questions and bring them back. I’d love to discuss the issue further!

Yes, in the book, I say that there is a method that can completely degrade the gluten in wheat. But I say much, much more than that and the process I recommend is reversing a “perfect storm” so it’s complex, and at the moment, not many home kitchens are equipped to manage a gluten free diet in this way. Which is why the book concludes with alternate options that begin with certified gluten free flours, including methods shown through clinical trials to make gluten-free bread lighter and fluffier, and can eliminate cross contamination. I think you need to read this research. I feel so strongly that I’ve spent countless hours over 3 years putting this book together to get this information out to you – more time than I’ve ever spent on a single book. Not because you can change things overnight, but because it brings hope. There is evidence that points to a brighter future – one that safely includes more dietary options for all of us.

The book also includes valuable information about the onset and prevention of celiac. With the knowledge researchers have about the onset of celiac, there are many steps we can take to prevent it from continuing to grow as an epidemic in our society. This is equally exciting news because researchers have documented that the prevalence of undiagnosed celiac is multiplying in the general population. This is a trend I’d love to see reversed – and I’m sure you would as well.

The book’s release date is March 20 and pre-orders are currently available through Vintage Remedies and Amazon.com Vintage Remedies will be shipping all pre-orders in early March. As the book is released and shipped, I’ll be posting more on the subject.