Approximately 29 per cent of people reckon that they can’t eat the modern loaf of bread and claim that they suffer from symptoms such as an upset stomach and aching joints.
It is confusing to try to determine whether it is the gluten, the wheat or the yeast that is affecting people. The older generation tell us that bread doesn’t taste the way it used to when they were young, and they are probably right, as bread making changed in the 1960s in order to speed up production and make the standard loaf cheaper.
This was certainly the case in the UK and probably in many other countries where bread is a staple food.
The sandwich industry has hastened this change. The following information is from the British Sandwich Association:
• The British ‘take away’ sandwich market is currently worth £2.8 billion;
• In the last year 1.69 billion sandwiches were sold ‘on the go’, at an average price of £1.66;
• Over 62 per cent of the population buy a sandwich at least once a year;
• The most expensive place to buy a sandwich is London – £1.83 versus a national average of £1.66;
• Wraps account for four per cent of total sandwich sales, baguettes for 10 per cent;
• One third of the market in value is accounted for by 25- to 34- year-olds;
• Over 30 per cent of all sandwiches sold have chicken as a filling;
• 70 per cent of all sandwiches are eaten at home, totalling 6.2 billion occasions;
While this may not reflect the sandwich industry in Malta, fully, there is no doubt that bread is a huge part of our lives.
However, something started to happen to our guts in response to the amount of bread we were consuming, the reasons being multi factorial. Coeliac disease, an auto-immune response to wheat, has escalated and a new breed of problems, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, all began to emerge in the 1970s.
Many medical practitioners insist it is impossible to test for gluten intolerance and also for wheat intolerance. Incidentally, these two intolerances are totally different. However, as gluten is in a lot of wheat-based foods, they can become intertwined.
Despite the absence of obvious biological signs, around 29 per cent of people just can’t eat the modern loaf due to the resulting symptoms. As a result, we have restaurants and retail outlets that advertise ‘gluten-free’ products.
It is confusing to try to determine whether it is the gluten, the wheat or the yeast that is affecting people
Apparently, the gluten-free rage has even infected the cartoon series South Park, which in a recent episode featured the town as being the first gluten-free one in the nation.
There are myriad books relating to this condition and a host of celebrities who have declared themselves gluten-free. William Davis, a cardiologist, blames gluten for everything, from arthritis and asthma to multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia. He has written a book, Wheat Belly (Rochdale, 2011).
David Perlmutter, a neurologist, says in his book Grain Brain (Little, Brown & Co., 2013) that gluten sensitivity “represents one of the greatest and most under-recognised health threats to humanity”.
There is a growing body of research that suggests they could all be correct in their assumptions. People are reacting to the modern loaf. However, as I said earlier, it may not be the gluten but the enzymes added during the baking process, especially alpha-amylase, which breaks down the starch in bread to sugars, which are more easily taken up in the body.
Other suggestions are that it is the complex carbohydrates (a collective description of a number of ingredients) that are to blame.
The collective name is FODMAPs carbohydrates and they pull water into the intestinal tract, which can cause abdominal pain, bloating and diarrhoea.
They are found in wheat and rye. Those suffering from IBS have been put on a FODMAPs-free diet and have seen their symptoms improve. However, the same improvements have been seen by those affected by gluten.
Wheat-free and gluten-free are terms used interchangeably. There is a difference between the two. Gluten is one of the four proteins found in wheat. Many people who are allergic to wheat are reacting to one of the other proteins, most likely albumin and globulin.
Gluten is also found in rye, barley and oats, although in smaller quantities than in wheat. A gluten- free product will always be wheat-free, whereas a wheat-free product is not always gluten-free. I discovered my intolerance by an elimination process, using a food diary. It isn’t a scientific way, but can clarify exactly what the body reacts to after eating.
The gluten-free market is big business. It has become a ‘trendy’ food, mainly due to the publicity from celebrities. It is estimated that a third of the population in the US will be eating some gluten-free products this year.
The gluten-free market is generating around $9 billion in sales per year in the US. That is projected to rise to $14.2 billion a year by 2017. In Finland, 15 gluten-free snack bars were launched in 2012. This has risen to 74 by 2014. Similar patterns have been seen across the UK, Germany and France.
Next week we will look in more depth at the symptoms and current research.
kathryn@maltanet.net