"Life Without Bread"

In my experience, it has been very hard to stop bread, pasta and the likes. It has been nearly 2 years now but I used to dream of bread for a long time. Today, if I only eat a few slices of pizza, or a slice of pie, I get rashes on my legs very quickly and feel itching for hours. So, in my mind, I was somewhat "allergic" yet I was so used to eating that way that my body had adapted to the constant discomfort.
 
I don't think that oats and oat meal are the best recommendation since it contains another form of gluten as far as I can remember.

It's called avenin.

From Mark Sisson:

The main problems with oats are the phytic acid and the avenin, a protein in the prolamine family (along with gluten from wheat, rye, and barley, and zein, from corn). As far as phytic acid (or phytate) goes, oats contain less than corn and brown rice but about the same amount as wheat. As you know from previous posts, phytate has the tendency to bind minerals and prevent their absorption. So, even if a grain is rich in minerals, the presence of phytate prevents their full absorption. Ingestion is not absorption, remember. As I understand it, you can, however, reduce or eliminate phytate by lactic fermentation. I’m not sure the degree to which phytate can be deactivated, but one study does show that consuming oats that underwent lactic fermentation resulted in increased iron absorption rather than reduced. Another source claims that simple soaking isn’t enough, since oats contain no phytase, which breaks down phytate. Instead, you’d have to incorporate a phytase-containing flour to do the work; a couple tablespoons of buckwheat appear to be an effective choice for that. Combining both lactic acid bacteria (whey, kefir, or yogurt), companion flour (buckwheat), water, and a warm room should take care of most of the phytate… but that’s a lot of work!

Avenin appears to have some of the same problems as gluten in certain sensitive individuals, although it doesn’t appear as if the problem is widespread or as serious. Kids with celiac disease produced oat avenin antibodies at a higher rate than kids without celiac, but neither group was on a gluten-free diet. When you put celiacs on a gluten-free diet, they don’t appear to show higher levels of avenin antibodies. It looks like once you remove gluten, other, potentially damaging proteins become far less dangerous. One study did find that some celiacs “failed” an oats challenge. Celiac patients ate certified gluten-free oats (quick note: oats are often cross-contaminated with gluten, so if you’re going to experiment with oats, make sure they’re certified gluten-free), and several showed signs of intestinal permeability, with one patient suffering all-out villous atrophy, or breakdown of the intestinal villi. A few out of nineteen patients doesn’t sound too bad, but it shows that there’s a potential for cross-reactivity.

Mark's Daily Apple: Are Oats Healthy?
 
In our family we take this process gradually. We are introducing more fats into the diet. The sensitive issue is "living without bread" here is where there is greater resistance but requires awareness and above all WILL.

I have already bought buckwheat and I am finding out about ways to consume it. We feel that it bothers us to consume carbohydrates. When we walk down the street and run into bakeries and confectioneries we feel a sense of rejection and there is no longer that "temptation" to enter and consume. (Even my 19 year old daughter comments: "drug" ;-D) She is costing a little bit of sugar. But we are working together for this change.

Dairy products no longer exist in our diet. Just butter. Fruits and vegetables are also being gradually reduced.

The good thing about this change of diet is that, as soon as one becomes aware and begins to apply in the process there is a kind of acceleration and each step that one takes, changing habits, it becomes difficult to turn back. The mechanism is always growing.

In practice we are seeing the benefits! We still have a long way to go!

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator



En nuestra familia llevamos este proceso paulatinamente. Estamos introduciendo más grasas en la alimentación. El tema sensible es "vivir sin pan" aquí es donde hay mayor resistencia pero requiere de toma de conciencia y sobretodo VOLUNTAD.

Ya compré trigo sarraceno y me estoy informando sobre formas de consumirlo. Sentimos que nos molesta consumir carbohidratos. Cuando caminamos por la calle y nos topamos con panaderías y confiterías sentimos una sensación de rechazo y ya no existe aquella "tentación" de entrar y consumir. ( incluso mi hija de 19 años comenta: "droga";-D ) A ella le está costando un poco el azúcar. Pero estamos trabajando en conjunto para este cambio.

Los lácteos ya no existen en nuestra dieta. Solo manteca. En cuanto a frutas y verduras también se están reduciendo paulatinamente.

Lo bueno de este cambio de alimentación es que, en cuanto uno toma conciencia y empieza a aplicarse en el proceso se produce una especie de aceleración y cada paso que uno da, cambiando hábitos, se hace difícil volver atrás. Es siempre creciente el mecanismo.

En la práctica estamos comprobando los beneficios!Todavía nos queda camino por recorrer!
 
Since I found out about this forum and have been following the recommended diet, I have already managed to reintroduce meat (and I enjoy it very much :bacon:), eliminate sugar, cut out a lot of "pre-made" foods and make a lot of things myself (e.g. grained vegetable stock from dried soup vegetables) and have now been working on eliminating gluten from my diet for a few weeks. And I have to say it has had wonderful effects. I feel very good.

Now my husband and I have had a DNA test, which also tested health values. It came out that I do seem to have a form of coeliac disease, which would explain why I feel so much better without gluten.
Gluten.JPG
However, since I grew up eating bread all my life, it is not so easy for me to give it up. That's why I dared to try a buckwheat recipe I think it tastes quite good.

I think it tastes really good too, but maybe I went a bit wrong with it because it looks very compressed. In Germany, you would say it's bungy (german word is: spundig). :lol: Maybe one of you knows this expression in connection with baked dough.

I think it has to do with the baking powder or the baking time? Is there anyone who either has another recipe or can give me a hint why it turned out like this?

IMG_4442.JPEGIMG_4450.JPEG
 
Using baking powder instead of yeast with bread flour might be a problem, mixing yeast with the salt, sugar and water and then folding in the flour or using the wrong type of yeast for the rest of the ingredients or even using unbalanced proportions of ingredients.
 
Using baking powder instead of yeast with bread flour might be a problem, mixing yeast with the salt, sugar and water and then folding in the flour or using the wrong type of yeast for the rest of the ingredients or even using unbalanced proportions of ingredients.
I wanted to avoid yeast. That's why I tried the recipe with baking powder. However, I have read about yeast in relation to gluten that it depends on what it has been bred for. Baking with yeast is obviously more convenient, but would it also be healthy?
 
Where I am in the USA, there are several brands of gluten free sliced bread available. Is that something you could buy?
 
Where I am in the USA, there are several brands of gluten free sliced bread available. Is that something you could buy?
Hello hlat, yes, the gluten-free bread can also be bought here. However, it is immensely expensive. About 4 euros per 5 slices. But I make as much as I can myself so I can make sure what is in it. This was easier with old tried and true bread, but I'll keep experimenting and I'm sure it will work out. In general, I already eat much less bread than before anyway.
 
Hello hlat, yes, the gluten-free bread can also be bought here. However, it is immensely expensive. About 4 euros per 5 slices. But I make as much as I can myself so I can make sure what is in it. This was easier with old tried and true bread, but I'll keep experimenting and I'm sure it will work out. In general, I already eat much less bread than before anyway.
Hi Mililea, I just wanted to add that this is a good recipe for a Buckwheat soda bread, if you still wanted to try something - it has a similar dense texture but maybe not as bungy (or claggy ?) as the version that you tried. Gluten Free Buckwheat Soda Bread | Bread | Recipes | Freee

However, I would also just like to add my own experience, if it helps.
Up until around 7 or 8 years ago when myself and my partner decided to make a change - I would describe myself as a bread addict. It makes me shudder to think now how often, as I prepared sandwiches late in the evening for the following days lunch, I would just eat a slice of bread...literally be unable to resist, just folding it up and getting it in mouth as soon as possible!!

So if I was able to go back in time and tell the me of my late 20's that one day I would have no bread at all in my diet, I would never have accepted it. There is a reason why it is completely worth it, and here are the highlights that I can look back on:

- Weight loss - although at the time I wasn't overweight, I was on the upper end of the weight limit for my height and age. Relatively quickly, the weight just seemed to melt away (to be honest, in some ways a little too fast) and I lost inches from my thighs, waist, arms, stomach, bust and have never put it back on. I am the healthiest weight I have ever been with relatively little maintenance.
- Brain fog improvement - improved cognitive function cannot be understated, you can almost not understand what brain fog is until you have come out the other side of it - like a whole new lease of life
- Energy levels - nearly every single night I would be unable to stay awake about an hour after my evening meal, even if I really tried to, it was like I was drugged. I would get extremely sleepy in the afternoons, yawning and puffy eyed. Cutting down bread, and later moving to a low carb/high fat diet - I hardly ever get sleepy in the day, and I notice it a lot more in the people I work with.
- GI tract improvement - it may not be strictly the gluten, but I think that plays a part, all my life I had been living with a bloated stomach, sharp stomach pains, sore joints (like a feeling of trapped wind in my shoulders), painful bowel movements, stomach cramps, nausea, flatulence - all after eating. The sad part was, I didn't know any of this was unusual, as this is what I had always experienced! It makes me feel a bit foolish saying it, but I know I won't be the only one - when you don't know any different, and you just eat what your parents give you - how can you know.
- Skin improvement - all my life I had small raised red rashes on my upper arms, thighs and buttocks - sometimes then progressing to spots or clogged pores. It has taken a few years, but these are now completely gone and I have the best skin of my life. I can also tolerate the sun a lot better - having always been very fair skinned, I tended to burn after around 20 minutes in direct sunlight, so would have to cover up well (luckily my part of the UK doesn't get that much sun...) but, as a complete surprise to me, the last few years I can tolerate the sun loads better, only burning in extreme conditions and for the first time tending to brown rather than redden.
- Hunger - I know this has a lot to do with the low carbs and fat as an energy source, but when I first started giving up bread, all I could think was what would I snack on when I got hungry! The best answer is, you stick with it, you just don't need to snack - due to the more gradual energy release, I found you don't get that intense hunger that I used to experience - and eventually it has led me to include regular 'fasting' periods.

So apologies for the long post, but I just really wanted to say that giving up bread changed my mental and physical health so completely, that I want to encourage anyone to at least try it and reap the rewards. Everyone is different, and it takes a period of adjustment to get the right balance - there was definitely a few weeks at the start where my body was not very happy with me for taking away it's favourite food...but it got over it! Now, I don't even crave it - and on the few occasions when I have slipped up, or just eaten out of politeness, I tend to feel so ill, that it is really not worth it.

Just stay strong - and eat fats!
 
I think it tastes really good too, but maybe I went a bit wrong with it because it looks very compressed. In Germany, you would say it's bungy (german word is: spundig). :lol: Maybe one of you knows this expression in connection with baked dough.
I have bougth buckweat bread once or twice. They were very compressed. Sellers says it is due to the absence of gluten...
Why not replace bread wih buckwheat pancake ?
 
I have bougth buckweat bread once or twice. They were very compressed. Sellers says it is due to the absence of gluten...
Why not replace bread wih buckwheat pancake ?
Je fais des pancakes pour remplacer le pain mais avec une recette différente.
Très peu ingrédients et rapide à faire.
J’en mets au congélateur et j’en prends au besoin que je passe au grille-pain (ils sont meilleur)

300 gr de farine sans gluten (je mélange souvent deux farines différentes)
1 cuillère à café rase de bicarbonate
1 cuillère à café de sel de votre choix
3 œufs
Et de l’eau
Vous faites une pâte épaisse

Je fais avec 300gr de farine, mais vous pouvez faire avec plus ou moins, c’est vous qui voyez !
Je coupe mes pancakes dans l'épaisseur pour en faire un sandwich ou autre...

I make pancakes to replace bread but with a different recipe.
Very few ingredients and quick to make.
I put some in the freezer and I take some when needed and put them in the toaster (they are better)

300 gr of gluten free flour (I often mix two different flours)
1 level teaspoon of bicarbonate
1 teaspoon of salt of your choice
3 eggs
And water
You make a thick dough

I make with 300gr of flour, but you can make with more or less, it's up to you!

I cut my pancakes in the thickness to make a sandwich or other
 
In the end of february this year, I thought that how about one day without bread, bakery, dairy products, sweets.
I'd rather like to think it as an experiment out of curiosity.

So far, results have been positive. I no longer have back pains, or even occasional stinging pain in my hips(due to long time job, where I walked a lot during the day).

Another thing is, that I've lost some weight, that accumulated after I had to leave my job back in 2007. I don't have a scale to measure, but one clear indicator is - trousers. I probably have to punch a new hole for the belt to get it tight enough.

Strange thing is, that I don't actually feel being thinner, but instead somehow lighter.

Even at this time last year, I couldn't have imagined to have interest about nutrition. No doubt, that most interesting things/ideas for me are the ones, that go against mainstream narratives. The reason I finally got 'lured' in, was reading others experiences in this thread.

This is just for the starters, as this subject(and many others also) are fairly new to me.

I've gathered, and also use most of the supplements that are recommended.

This may, or may not be off-topic, but there is this thing, like how do I learn to feel my own body, and the ways it works/reacts.
Another can of worms, but what can one do, other than going one day at a time.

Anyway, thanks for this thread and participants.
 
In the end of february this year, I thought that how about one day without bread, bakery, dairy products, sweets.
I'd rather like to think it as an experiment out of curiosity.
It's really worth it. I've also been working on my bread consumption since about February or March. I haven't eaten wheat bread / rolls at all since then, except on holiday and that's when I felt the difference.... I was really unwell for a week. Since then I've stuck to it even more strictly. When I eat bread, it's only gluten-free.

A colleague at work recommended a pan-fried bread to me, and I kept asking if the ingredients were OK, because it tastes really good and I don't even need butter with it (I was a real butter junkie before).
2 tablespoons oat flakes
1 tablespoon oat bran
1 teaspoon chia seeds
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground psyllium husks
A little salt
4 tablespoons yoghurt
... Mix quickly to a mixture and bake like pancakes in a pan with a little olive oil.
I'm just not sure if the ingredients are ok, but it tastes very good and I just eat smoked ham with it. Maybe someone has an opinion on this?
Another can of worms, but what can one do, other than going one day at a time.
And yes, the whole issue is really a can of worms.... :whistle:
 
Found a paper from 2015 about how a number of the negative effects of gluten are actually mediated by gluten's action on gut bacteria, and how even non-celiacs can suffer tremendously in a number of bodily systems with gluten consumption. This information isn't going to be new for a lot of veterans on here, but I think it's a good reminder now and then that this really isn't something people shouldn't be eating.

The non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) is a chronic functional gastrointestinal disorder which is very common world wide. The human gut harbors microbiota which has a wide variety of microbial organisms; they are mainly symbiotic and important for well being. However, "dysbiosis" - i.e. an alteration in normal commensal gut microbiome with an increase in pathogenic microbes, impacts homeostasis/health. Dysbiosis in NCGS causes gut inflammation, diarrhea, constipation, visceral hypersensitivity, abdominal pain, dysfunctional metabolic state, and peripheral immune and neuro-immune communication. Thus, immune-mediated gut and extra-gut dysfunctions, due to gluten sensitivity with comorbid diarrhea, may last for decades. A significant proportion of NCGS patients may chronically consume alcohol, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and fatty diet, as well as suffer from various comorbid disorders. The above pathophysiological substrate and dysbiosis are underpinned by dysfunctional bidirectional "Gut-Brain Axis" pathway. Pathogenic gut microbiota is known to upregulate gut- and systemic inflammation (due to lipopolysaccharide from pathogenic bacteria and synthesis of pro-inflammatory cytokines); they enhance energy harvest, cause obesity, insulin resistance, and dysfunctional vago-vagal gut-brain axis. Conceivably, the above cascade of pathology may promote various pathophysiological mechanisms, neuroinflammation, and cognitive dysfunction. Hence, dysbiosis, gut inflammation, and chronic dyshomeostasis are of great clinical relevance. It is argued here that we need to be aware of NCGS and its chronic pathophysiological impact. Therapeutic measures including probiotics, vagus nerve stimulation, antioxidants, alpha 7 nicotinic receptor agonists, and corticotropin-releasing factor receptor 1 antagonist may ameliorate neuroinflammation and oxidative stress in NCGS; they may therefore, prevent cognitive dysfunction and vulnerability to Alzheimer's disease.

I liked the nod at the end to alpha 7 nicotinic receptor agonists and how they may counteract the negative effects of gluten sensitivity. Score one for smokers. :cool2:
 
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