The Staff of Life – Or Is It?

If you read or listen to any news regarding food you can’t help but be aware of the controversy surrounding bread or more specifically wheat.

Everywhere you look these days you come across “gluten free” products.  While they used to be hard to come by, only being sold on line or in specialty stores, now you can buy “gluten free” products at your local grocery store.

I must admit when this first became a popular source of conversation I silently thought to myself,  “OK…here we go with the next trendy allergy or condition.”  I mean how is it that people who have eaten bread all their lives suddenly are having a problem with this mainstay of our diet, otherwise known for centuries as the “staff of life”?

Every culture has a unique take on bread or a bread product that defines that culture.  Mexicans have tortillas, Indians have naan, the Swedes, Russians and Germans have various rye breads, the Jews have challah, the Italians have the ciabatta, the French have the baguette and croissant ( they get 2 kinds because who can argue with the French when it comes to bread?), and Americans have the white sandwich loaf, just to name a few.

So with bread being so important in every country and culture, I had to ask myself how it is that now people, at least here in the States, are often having such a difficult time with this dietary staple?  Could it just be a fad I wondered?  But my own daughter began not being able to digest bread and wheat products several years ago before everyone was talking about it.  Still, I couldn’t undersatnd how so many people were reacting….until suddenly I was one of them!!!!

I say suddenly because it did actually come on all at once and without warning.  I have always had a stomach of steel.  I could eat anything without any trouble.  Other than when I was pregnant, I had NEVER once had indigestion.  I could eat and enjoy everything, and I did ….until I couldn’t.

I started noticing several months ago that I felt like I had a lead weight in my stomach after I ate breads or pasta or cereals, and on top of that my joints hurt, particularly my hip.  I ignored the reaction because bread is my favorite food group.   I love to make it and I surely love to eat it…with everything (especially butter) and at every meal.  I would always judge a restaurant first and foremost by how good the bread was.  You get the picture….bread was my “staff of life”.  But finally I just couldn’t ignore how uncomfortable I was feeling after every meal.

I spoke with a good friend Marc Le Bel, who happens to be a Doctor of  Oriental Medicine, to get his take on not only my situation but the whole bread/wheat controvery that was developing.  One question that kept nagging at me was why, when my daughter, Carrie, who had very bad reactions to wheat and dairy products here at home, went to France for a semester in college to study, she had no adverse effects from eating any wheat or dairy products.  What I learned was at once enlightening and frightening.

It seems that our domestic wheat by and large has been hybridized.  Now a certain amount of hybridization occurs naturally in farmers’ fields over a period of years.  But this change was developed and introduced purposely to change the wheat so as to increase yields, resist fungus and attacks from pests, and make it easier to harvest.  Wheat that at one time grew on long, slender stalks was now modified or hybridized to grow on shorter hardier stalks that required a shorter growing season and were less likely to bend or break before harvest.  This meant the farmer had a better yield of his crops.  Better, more plentiful crops meant more money for the farmer, and in the end better prices for the consumer as the wheat was more plentiful.  It looked like a win/win right?

Except that it seems no one took into account that this change that meant wheat was more plentiful might not make it as digestible as it once had been.  These are changes that were made here in North America but not necessarily in most of Europe.  Thus the answer to the question as to why my daughter (and scores of others as well) could eat the bread in France and pasta in Italy and not have any problem.

There is a lot written about these changes and how and why they effect us the way they do, but I am not a scientist nor a farmer nor an agricultural expert, so I won’t try and wax eloquent on what these changes in wheat really are, or are not.  What I am an expert on is how I feel after I eat said wheat.  The answer is NOT GOOD!

My options were to give up bread/wheat all together (a horrible concept for me) OR to try and get my hands on some European wheat and see how I fared.  At least that way, I reasoned, I would know whether I had a problem with wheat in general or just the wheat that had been artificially modified.  I got on line and found that I could buy an all purpose flour from France in an approximately 22 lb bag.  The cost of the flour was roughly $30….not too bad I thought until I got to checkout and found that the shipping was just over $25.  Before I invested over $50 in flour I had another idea.  I would go to the Italian market a few blocks away and buy some Italian semolina flour.  Now this is not what you would typically use for making bread but I figured if it was Italian it would probably not be hybridized or modified and no matter what I made with it I would be able to tell if it gave me indigestion and made my joints ache like the regular American flour was doing.

To my total delight Roma Deli (the Italian market) now has started carrying regular Italian all purpose flour!  An 11 lb. bag was 14.99…a bargain….if it worked.
                                                

And guess what…I made bread and cake and cookies and scones and pancakes and muffins and cinnamon rolls and have had absolutely no indigeation or joint pain from it at all 🙂

So in celebration let me share with you my favorite basic all American White Sandwich Bread.  Long live the amber waves of grain and hooray for the “staff of life”.  I am certainy feeling love, great joy and enjoying very, very abundant living!

All American White Sandwich Bread

1 pkg yeast
2 tablespoons honey or sugar
1/2 cup warm water
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons butter
scant tablespoon sea salt
4-4 1/2 cups flour

Add yeast and honey or sugar to warm water and allow the mixture to sit 5 minutes or until frothy.  Warm milk and add butter stirring until the butter melts.  Stir in salt.  Place 4 cups flour into bowl of electric mixer with dough hook.  Pour in yeast mixture and milk and blend on lowest speed for about 7-8 minutes.  The dough should be soft and a little spongy but not sticky.  If it is too sticky add up to another 1/2 cup of flour, 1 tablespoon at a time until dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl.  Oil your hands and a bowl big enough to allow dough to rise.  Form a ball with dough and place in the oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth.  Place the bowl in a draft free place like the oven shelf for 1 hour or until the dough is roughly doubled in size.

Punch down the dough and spread it into a square using the length of your bread pan to determine the size of your square.  Starting at the side closest to the pan roll up the dough.  Place the rolled up loaf, seam side down, in an oiled pan.  Allow to rise for approximately 30 – 45 minutes. Dough should rise to just above the edge of the pan.  Lightly brush with a beaten egg.  Add a pan of boiling water on shelf directly below loaf pan.  Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Turn out on to a rack and cool completely before slicing…this is the hardest part of bread baking…waiting for it to cool so you can eat some:)  Serve with lots of fresh butter and homemade raspberry jam if you have some.  Life is sweet!