I love bread, don't you? Especially ultra-fresh home made bread. For the last month though not a crumb has passed my lips, and I miss it.
I'd been feeling a bit "off" sometimes after meals for some time and it was gradually getting worse - uncomfortable stomach, bloating and, more recently, acid reflux - not nice. After a lot of thinking about what I was eating when it happened I realised it was only after meals where we'd had bread. Not knowing what it was that was affecting me (wheat, yeast or the additives commercial bakers use) I decided I had to cut it out of my diet for a while. Result : symptoms disappeared and I had more energy, I'd been feeling quite sluggish too.
A month later, I'm really missing bread. So, I decided that to get to the bottom of this I have to do a few experiments. Firstly, I need to see if it was additives in commercial bread (apparently they use flour extenders and stuff that makes it rise and cook faster), so the obvious test was to make my own bread. Yesterday was baking day as well as dyeing - flour, a little salt, fresh yeast mixed with a spoon of honey, and water, it doesn't come more basic than that.
Today, for lunch, I'm having one of these - fingers crossed it doesn't affect me. If it does, I'll have to make some unleavened bread, without yeast, and see how I get on with that. Actually, a few weeks ago, a friend who's a wheat expert suggested I try making pancakes to see if that affects me because if not, I could probably blame the yeast. We did try some that same lunchtime and although my stomach felt OK, I did get acid reflux afterwards. So, a bit inconclusive. The final test will be to make bread with something other than wheat.
I know this is not an allergy, it's an intolerance to something. The fact that it crept up on me tells me that. I'm really, really hoping it's additives, I've no problem with baking my own bread for the rest of my life!
Fingers crossed X
I'd been feeling a bit "off" sometimes after meals for some time and it was gradually getting worse - uncomfortable stomach, bloating and, more recently, acid reflux - not nice. After a lot of thinking about what I was eating when it happened I realised it was only after meals where we'd had bread. Not knowing what it was that was affecting me (wheat, yeast or the additives commercial bakers use) I decided I had to cut it out of my diet for a while. Result : symptoms disappeared and I had more energy, I'd been feeling quite sluggish too.
A month later, I'm really missing bread. So, I decided that to get to the bottom of this I have to do a few experiments. Firstly, I need to see if it was additives in commercial bread (apparently they use flour extenders and stuff that makes it rise and cook faster), so the obvious test was to make my own bread. Yesterday was baking day as well as dyeing - flour, a little salt, fresh yeast mixed with a spoon of honey, and water, it doesn't come more basic than that.
Today, for lunch, I'm having one of these - fingers crossed it doesn't affect me. If it does, I'll have to make some unleavened bread, without yeast, and see how I get on with that. Actually, a few weeks ago, a friend who's a wheat expert suggested I try making pancakes to see if that affects me because if not, I could probably blame the yeast. We did try some that same lunchtime and although my stomach felt OK, I did get acid reflux afterwards. So, a bit inconclusive. The final test will be to make bread with something other than wheat.
I know this is not an allergy, it's an intolerance to something. The fact that it crept up on me tells me that. I'm really, really hoping it's additives, I've no problem with baking my own bread for the rest of my life!
Fingers crossed X
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