http://glutenfreehealthyfood.com Fri, 10 Sep 2010 01:38:34 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 http://gluten-free-blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/gluten-free-equals-variety-of-flours.html http://gluten-free-blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/gluten-free-equals-variety-of-flours.html#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:19:00 +0000 Gluten Free Foods
One major misconception that people have about gluten-free / Celiac disease diets is that it is just "flour" (i.e., white wheat flour) that must be avoided. So, I quickly enumerate the wheat, barley, and rye, as well as any derivation thereof. Then comes a discussion along the lines of "what can you eat then?" and so on.

Yesterday, a couple of nice ladies that were really interested in the house for the kitchen (fellow cooking aficionados it seems!) commented something to the effect that I must be limited to just baking with rice flour due to the Celiac Disease, at which point I started listing a whole host of additional gluten-free grains/flours and the like that we bake with (both in our cookbook recipes, and in our day-to-day cooking and baking). After browsing through our Gluten-Free Desserts cookbook, I think they got the idea, and quickly noticed that we (gluten-free types) have all sorts of variety and can bake and consume everything from cookies to cakes to cheesecakes and pies, and so on.

After presenting a "gluten-free grains quick list" to a various people over the past couple weeks, it struck me how much more VARIETY we Celiac and gluten-free diet types have when it comes to our daily flours and grains as compared to the "normal" (i.e., wheat-eating) population. The typical American diet is rather narrowly focused around processed white flour (wheat-based), and some occasional whole-wheat flour, and some corn starch perhaps.

But, here is what we Celiac Disease and gluten-free consumers have at our disposal and use regularly (or, can use regularly if we choose) for our flours of choice:

• Rice
• Corn
• Potato
• Teff
• Sorghum
• Amaranth
• Quinoa
• Buckwheat
• Millet
• Chia Seed
  
• Various bean-flours
• Squash flours (e.g., pumpkin)
• Cinnamon, Cocoa, and other spices (that I use in large quantities like flour when desired)
  
• and many more...

In addition, it seems that we are more likely (as a group of bakers / dieters) to know about other alternatives like Agave Nectar for sweetener, and whey-protein for binders, and so on.

So, whenever I encounter the theme of "living without" (with regards to living without gluten), I can not help thinking that perhaps it is the rest of the population that is living without -- without the variety of grains, flours, and ingredients that one may otherwise never encounter or experience unless essentially "forced" (by Celiac Disease, gluten-intolerance, autism, what have you...) to try all these great alternatives to "normal" flour.

Happy variety-filled baking everyone! (and, Happy Fourth-of-July too!)

]]> http://glutenfreehealthyfood.com/gluten-free-equals-variety-of-flours/225/feed 0