Already Tired Of This!

[Matilda]

..

[debmidge]

1) Count me as an "unbeliever" prior to learning about what Celiac was. I thought gluten free was just another wack-a-do diet craze. I kept asking myself "Why would you not want to eat gluten?" (See I knew what gluten was at least - a grain protein - knew that from Home Economics classes in school - we were taught that gluten was the 'stretch' in the bread as you kneaded it.) Anyway, before internet where you could "google" something, I heard about gluten-free diets and was skeptical that a gluten-free diet had a purpose. I mean where would you go to find something out if you didn't know it existed? Anyway....

2) My husband never went thru denial - he knew after 30 days gluten-free that this was the way of life for him as he felt so much better and after 3 mos gluten-free his skin coloring even looked better. No more grey complexion.

3) My husband is bitter over the years he went misdiagnosed and so am I .... we feel betrayed by the system. His body is compromised in so many ways. The drain on his system has turned him into an old man before his time.

3) It's great to know what foods to avoid, but it's not an easy road when you have other food intolerances and piling on more celiac-related health problems. My heart goes out to those who are gluten-free 100% but stll have gastro problems.

4) yes, God has a lot of 'splaining to do .... I guess if I were an evolutionist I'd explain it away by saying this is nature's way of thinning down the herd....as in older days no one knew the "cure" was in a gluten free diet.

5) Mike's glad that there is a diet for celiac disease but feels it came at too high of a price. We feel like one morining we woke up in "bizzaro-world" where nothing makes sense (like Wonderland) where black is white, and up is down. And wheat is bad for you.....we woke up in an "alternate universe" or migrated from another planet where the inhabitants who can get gluten are unaccomodating and unempathetic to those who have to stay gluten-free. Gee, see #1 above...

6) We make sure to inform others of what celiac and gluten-free diet is....why a gluten-free diet is implemented. I don't want anyone else to walk around uninformed like I was.

D

[gfp]

This is just my guess, but I think that wheat and barley in bible times were made into bread through a sourdough/fermentation process - they certainly didn't just go buy yeast at the store. There is evidence that the fermentation process does something to the gluten that makes it easier to digest or just plain breaks it down. So, people who consumed all their grains in a sourdough type bread wouldn't be getting as much gluten as the average 20th/21st century person and thus less gluten problems.

There is ample evidence that baking bread was little different in blblical times to today (At least for an organic bakery). Indeed it is a pretty standard archaelogical metric. For instance much of Herculaneum is still buried but its population is known from censi and hence it is known that at least two more bakeries must exist.

There is also diagnosis of celiac disease in biblical times. Or at least from Aretaeus of Cappadocia in around 150AD.

The records also show that the consumption of bread was even higher than today... a legionaire was alloted 2 lbs bread per day. These figures are well documented ....

Quality and price of bread varied greatly... The province of Syria (including the 'biblical area') had very low prices compared to Italy. Rome about 32 denari/moduli vs 10-12 for Palestine. (about 1AD)

1 moduli = 18-20 1lb loaves.

[lonewolf]

There is ample evidence that baking bread was little different in blblical times to today

Hmmm, I'm not trying to argue, just to clarify what you're saying and make my point.

You're saying that the recipe or technique of baking bread was the same thousands of years ago? This sounds strange to me, because I know from my own grandparents (born in the very late 1800's) that they didn't have commercial yeast available to them and my grandmother kept sourdough starter (as her mother on the farm did before her) and made bread from it.

It would make sense that any ancient culture would use some type of fermentation process to make breads. Even ancient bakeries didn't have yeast, as we know it, available to them. According to the book "Nourishing Traditions" by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig PhD (2001), "Our ancestors, and virtually all preindustrialized peoples, soaked or fermented their grains before making them into porridge, breads, cakes and casseroles. A quick review of grain recipes from around the world will prove our point..." and "Europeans made slow-rise breads from fermented starters..." P 452.

From p. 453, "Scientists have learned that the proteins in grains, especially gluten, are very difficult to digest. A diet high in unfermented whole grains, particularly high-gluten grains like wheat, puts an enormous strain on the whole digestive mechanism. When this mechanism breaks down with age or overuse, the results take the form of allergies, celiac disease, mental illness, chronic indigestion and candida albicans overgrowth. Recent research links gluten intolerance with multipe sclerosis. During the process of soaking and fermenting, gluten and other difficult-to-digest proteins are partially broken down into simpler components that are more readily availaable for absorption."

The point I was trying to make is that we, in our modern culture, do not soak or ferment gluten-containing grains as people in biblical or other ancient times did. So my guess is that we are more succeptible to gluten problems because we consume more gluten than ancient cultures (there are more sources of gluten than bread) and don't process it properly.