Gluten Free? Maybe not!

This may be a bit off topic, but it may be of long-term importance.  After years of digestive issues and extreme discomfort, bloated belly and major frustration, I stopped eating gluten even though I didn’t test allergic to it, and felt SO much better. Recently, I have confirmed to myself that I am not allergic to gluten but rather to US wheat. It has been stated that the modified wheat germ of the US in no way resembles what it did just 50 years ago.  I think my body can’t recognize parts of those modified molecules and so reacts to this “unknown” through an inflammatory response. After eliminating gluten, I have also eliminated brain fog along with the perpetual gas, loose bowels and the like. When traveling in European countries I have been able to eat their bread and baked goods with no adverse effects. 

I also recently discovered Einkorn Flour, an ancient grain, that I also tolerate just fine. It is naturally lower in gluten but not gluten free. Next came a local pasta maker that imports her wheat direct from Italy. She had sold some of her noodle using Einkorn flour and I first tried that with no adverse effects. But when that flour became cost prohibitive and she stopped making pasta from it, I ventured to try her Italian wheat pastas. To my great delight, I found I could eat that just fine as well! (Her pasta is amazing and the subject of another blog post in the works.)

I hadn’t tried the made in Italy dried pasta at the grocery store until this week. I gave it a test run., and… fine! How wonderful! Despite the much improved options for gluten free items, I now know that if something is not available or a gluten free option is a very poor substitute, I can look for other options that are from European wheat. Not likely a lot out there yet, but things change quickly these days and I am confident I am not the only “gluten free” eater that has discovered this. It is always nice to have more options to some extent (too many and we can’t choose) but the real aha is the fact that as the industry continue to modify our food to be more resistant to pests, to hold up better getting to market, to be brighter in color, not have seeds, or what have you, it could be inadvertently contributing to the rise is health issues for some of us. I know strawberries, even organic, big and beautiful, are almost tasteless any more unless you buy them from a local farmer. Combined with the fact that most fresh strawberries come in non-recyclable clamshell plastic containers, I so rarely buy them. Only from local farmers in season or else frozen (in a ziplock bag I can reuse many times over) although even those are lower in taste than what I remember from when I was young. 
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So at what cost are we supposedly “improving” some of our basic food building blocks such as wheat? To quote Dr. Malcom from the movie Jurassic Park “Your scientist were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should”. ​