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Wheat-Free Flour

05 August 2006

Does baking without wheat rise to the challenge?

For most of the world, bread, pasta and couscous are dietary staples believed to be vital for survival. Yet, for some people, wheat is toxic - and research shows that many of us don ’t even know it.

The best-known wheat-related problem is coeliac disease, although the most common one is wheat intolerance, and there ’s also wheat allergy. Working out the difference may be a medical minefield (see box, page 2), but millions of people round the world suffer from these symptoms.

Coeliac disease is largely inherited and due to an adverse reaction to, specifically, gluten, one of the major proteins of wheat. But it ’s also found in barley, rye and oats. It affects the small intestine, causing severe inflammation, thereby preventing the proper absorption of nutrients, especially iron, calcium and vitamin D. As a result, the initial symptoms tend to be deficiency-related - for example, anaemia, tiredne...

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