Gluten again – Rita and the Bread

I recently had a conversation with a very old, dear friend about gluten. She told me her own story.

Many years ago, when nobody knew what gluten was, she noticed that she got stomach aches and bloating after eating bread.

She had been planning to go to the doctor for an examination anyway, as the aches were so frequent and unpleasant. But before she could go to the doctor, an idea came to her: she didn't feel sick when she ate pasta. Both pasta and bread contained wheat, so the wheat couldn't be causing the symptoms. Consequently, something in the bread must be the culprit. So she began to experiment and from then on, she stopped buying bread.

She found a sourdough rye bread in an artisan bakery and ate it. And lo and behold, her symptoms disappeared.

More than 30 years have passed since then, and the symptoms have not recurred. She has since bought her own mill, bakes her own whole-grain sourdough bread from organic grain, and, is doing well.

When she learned to bake bread, she largely avoided white flour and sugar and lost 10 kg within a year without much effort. And that was exactly what she had wanted.

I really liked Rita's story, and it was similar to many stories from participants in bread-baking courses. That is, the sourdough or even yeast breads baked in the courses didn't cause them any problems, while they couldn't tolerate store-bought bread. So it wasn't the gluten that caused their symptoms, but the additives in the bread.

I want to emphasize that this story isn't about saying gluten doesn't cause symptoms. It can cause very serious symptoms. Rather, it's about not ignoring the additives in bread as a potential health risk factor.