It seems like a gluten-free pantry is de rigueur in a lot of households these days. But gluten-free cooking is a bit of a pain in the neck and a blanket reaction. Let's dig a bit deeper.
Several things happened over the past half century to produce more food and make it cheaper. One is agriculture on a humongous scale, the other is the industrialized manufacturing of food. Both are machine and profit driven. Any critter that comes in the way of the crop is a bother and threat to the bottom line, and shelf life is the consideration on the supermarket side. Hence crops are being genetically modified and sprayed with pesticides, Monsanto's glyphosate in this case, and industrial scale recipes were devised to make boxed and packaged foods long lasting. There is a price to pay for this. In addition, we have made eating more convenient by adding lots of wheat based baked goods for breakfast and snacks, and pizza and pasta for other meals. Hence, researchers have also played with the wheat strains by modifying them and increasing gluten amounts.
Gluten-free products have become yet another money making addition to the food industry's portfolio, and the ingredients are often way more strange than if you bought a loaf of bread made of wheat and water and yeast. A different consideration is that refined white wheat flour has a very high glycemic index (the body reacts to it like it does to sugar), nothing necessarily to upset your stomach, but it drives your blood sugar up, and if you have diabetes it's best avoided to reduce your insulin intake.
Without digging deeper you don't know what your stomach actually reacts to - the glyphosate (a poison!), the gluten excess (sits heavy in the stomach), the strange new wheat strains the body is not used to, or the overall need of your body to eat less grain based foods and more greens and vegetables. Digging deeper entails a process of elimination, which you can start on either end. Either going all out grain free and slowly adding items back in, or eliminating items out of your diet one by one.
You might remove refined conventional white wheat flour and try organic white or whole wheat flour. Consider trying the older wheat strains like Einkorn, spelt, emmer, triticale, kamut, or farro. They have less gluten and have not been altered as much as the modern wheat types. Organic is always preferable because it won't have the glyphosate in it, possibly the main culprit in this whole inquiry. If all that doesn't make your stomach less irritated you can indeed resort to wheat free recipes. But take a look at gluten-free supermarket products and be amazed at how many ingredients they actually have. Instead, cook from scratch and use the many gluten free flours now available, coconut, chickpea, green banana, almond, or teff to name just a few.
Over a year ago I tried the anti-inflammatory Gundry diet for a good three months, a diet that eliminates not only gluten-based products but also all foods with lectins (i.e. nightshades). It did absolutely nothing for me other than costing more money and more headaches in the kitchen. However, I had recommended it to someone, and her whole circle of friends adopted it and raves about it’s beneficial effects. You have to experiment on yourself what works and doesn't work, what's worth the bother and expense, and what's not. Every body is different!
