Besan Flour, Bother Anyone?

[Eric-C]

We went for Indian tonight and were very hungry. We decided to order an appetizer and one of my favorites was Vegetable Pakora.

I've missed it since I assumed it was made with wheat flour...now tradition Indian Pakora is made with Besan flour but being a restaurant I wasn't sure.

The waiter, and the owner, assured me it was 100 percent chick pea flour.

I am not allergic to chick pea's, I eat hummus at least twice a week and I'm rock solid afterwards.

Now about 2 months ago we went to another Indian place and I told the guy again, I'm allergic to flour so no bread please. This was a different restaurant and like 5 minutes later he comes back and puts down Pakora, tells me compliments of the chef, no wheat flour.

I ate it...and didn't get stomach sick but did get the whole anxiety, muscle stiffness, and other problems related to gluten. Now I wasn't 100 percent sure it was that, it never fails to eat something questionable right around the time I eat something else questionable

I put it down as the waiter truly did not understand me or maybe the board they used had flour, something along those lines.

My problem is different than most. Wheat makes me bathroom sick, and then its over. Gluten makes me loopy sick, anxiety, memory problems, muscle tightness in the neck/head.

So tonight I was pretty excited since the owner told me without a doubt, 100 percent chick pea's.

I ate it and after about 15 minutes felt my muscles start to tighten. Its been a while and I feel it come and go.

I'm not a big CC person....as I've gone longer without having gluten/wheat my tolerance has dropped dramatically but its the non-stomach reaction that makes me wonder.

I feel AWAKE and if this truly did bother me I'll wake up in the middle of the night with my heart pounding, that'll happen for 2-4 nights, nightmares, and then it'll settle off.

Every time this stuff happens I try to pinpoint why and what. Last time I even questioned when I do have anxiety or its not a reaction to the physical muscle stress my head/neck are under. One can cause the other and vice versa.

We bought Besan flour just last week, its labeled gluten free...wondering if anyone else who has a similar reaction who also can have chick pea's.

If I have to give it up, no biggie, I've given up other things before but i like to know the connection. If I couldn't eat chick pea's or hummus then it might make sense but I have hummus as I said, twice a week at least, and we put chick pea's on our salads at home.

[irish daveyboy]

We went for Indian tonight and were very hungry. We decided to order an appetizer and one of my favorites was Vegetable Pakora.

I've missed it since I assumed it was made with wheat flour...now tradition Indian Pakora is made with Besan flour but being a restaurant I wasn't sure.

The waiter, and the owner, assured me it was 100 percent chick pea flour.

I am not allergic to chick pea's, I eat hummus at least twice a week and I'm rock solid afterwards.

Now about 2 months ago we went to another Indian place and I told the guy again, I'm allergic to flour so no bread please. This was a different restaurant and like 5 minutes later he comes back and puts down Pakora, tells me compliments of the chef, no wheat flour.

I ate it...and didn't get stomach sick but did get the whole anxiety, muscle stiffness, and other problems related to gluten. Now I wasn't 100 percent sure it was that, it never fails to eat something questionable right around the time I eat something else questionable

I put it down as the waiter truly did not understand me or maybe the board they used had flour, something along those lines.

My problem is different than most. Wheat makes me bathroom sick, and then its over. Gluten makes me loopy sick, anxiety, memory problems, muscle tightness in the neck/head.

So tonight I was pretty excited since the owner told me without a doubt, 100 percent chick pea's.

I ate it and after about 15 minutes felt my muscles start to tighten. Its been a while and I feel it come and go.

I'm not a big CC person....as I've gone longer without having gluten/wheat my tolerance has dropped dramatically but its the non-stomach reaction that makes me wonder.

I feel AWAKE and if this truly did bother me I'll wake up in the middle of the night with my heart pounding, that'll happen for 2-4 nights, nightmares, and then it'll settle off.

Every time this stuff happens I try to pinpoint why and what. Last time I even questioned when I do have anxiety or its not a reaction to the physical muscle stress my head/neck are under. One can cause the other and vice versa.

We bought Besan flour just last week, its labeled gluten free...wondering if anyone else who has a similar reaction who also can have chick pea's.

If I have to give it up, no biggie, I've given up other things before but i like to know the connection. If I couldn't eat chick pea's or hummus then it might make sense but I have hummus as I said, twice a week at least, and we put chick pea's on our salads at home.

Hi,

Pakoras, Onion Bajhi's etc in Indian Traditional Cooking use Gram aka Dhal aka Besan flour.

How were your Pakaoras cooked?? Oven Baked OR Deep Fried??

.

My guess if Deep Fried, it's CC from the Oil.

.

My 2 Cents worth.

.

Best Regards,

David

[aikiducky]

I'm with David, to me it sounds like some kind of cc issue in the baking of the bread, rather than the flour itself? Or cc in general at the restaurant, wouldn't be that surprising.

Pauliina

[Eric-C]

Well I feel fine this morning.

I'm usually not susceptible to CC at least not minor stuff...we eat out all the time and never have an issue. I've had 1 issue and what I thought was 1 possible issue last night and the food was the same which lead me to look into the besan flour.

Indian food does use flours however since naan is cooked in a tandor its usually separated from the regular cooking area, especially where we eat since the tandoor is on display and we watched the chef cook.

The owner of the place is great to work with so next time I'll see if they wouldn't mind frying these in a seperate area and see what happens.

We bought besan flour so I'll try making Pakora at home. However I won't have an answer for probably 2 months....anytime I run into something like this I wait 3-4 weeks to make sure if there was any damage that its healed completely. That way I can determine if its a mild reaction or a severe one. Eating something that causes a mild reaction 2-3 times in a short period of time could lead you down the wrong road.