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Thanks, but it worked for me. What happened when you clicked it?

Amy,

Any idea where one could get flour from "old school" wheat - in the event one decided to bake something as a treat? Have you heard anything on that (or even know what the wheat is called)?

Thanks!

There are actually lots of decent GF options out there now for dessert baking. I do not know if GF automatically means wheat-free, though. Anyone?

I am going to look for almond flour. Does it have protein in it? I'm guessing so...

"Gluten free" is always wheat free. For a great resource on baking with almond flour (and gluten-free food & products) go to http://www.elanaspantry.com/

My other favorite is http://glutenfreegirl (.com).

The best website for science info on celiac is http://www.cureceliacdisease (.org).

Going gluten free is more complicate than simply avoiding "wheat," as rye and barley are in the wheat family (yet buckwheat is not), and wheat flour is often an invisible ingredient - used in most soy sauces, used to dust conveyor belts for non-wheat foods, survives the fermentation process and is in most beer, etc.

Also, many processed & prepared foods that are marketed as gluten free simply use sugar to hold together other flours mad ewith other grains, such as rice - so those gluten free foods are still loaded with simple carbs.

Thanks all!

I don't bake often, but if I'm going to indulge... well then I'm actually going to indulge. For instance, I plan on making something gooey and/or sweet for my 10 year anniversary next year... like a big ol' chocolate cake topped with home made ice cream (or maybe real whipped cream).

:)

Picked up my low carb diet again. Down another 4 pounds. Have to have my blood lipids tested again soon. Hope to drop 5 more first. Thankfully, said anniversary isn't until spring of next year :)

So basically, if you don't cut out 100% you may as well eat as much as you want because cutting back doesn't cut it?

We are having pizza with an almond flour crust for dinner tonight. It's a different taste than wheat or whole wheat crust, but we have grown to love it.

During the winter (it feels like winter today), we have this pizza 3 or 4 times a month without the guilt of going off the low carb WOE.

It does have protein in it -- it's ground nuts. But, it's problematic in certain ways to eat a good bit of it frequently. I can't remember why.

Omega-6 fats

"So basically, if you don't cut out 100% you may as well eat as much as you want because cutting back doesn't cut it?"

Or, do as well as you can in the circumstances in which you find yourself, and over time you'll find that you can do better, including having quick fixes to less than ideal circumstances (long road trips, dinner parties, etc.).

I found it hard - frustrating - at first, but stuck with it long enough to have my health improve. Once you feel better, it gets so much easier to turn down wheat-based foods, because the negative impact is almost instant - feeling groggy and foggy headed after eating a bagel, or feeling your mind race after eating a regular cookie very quickly creates a negative association with those foods, and you'll start to avoid them the way you avoid slamming your hand in a car door.

It's easier to avoid wheat these days, as more and more places offer "gluten free" options. Last night I had a gluten free pizza delivered at work, and tonight I had tacos with corn tortillas. The carbs are manageable for me when paired with protein and fat (cheese!). Au bon pain, Pret A Manger, and other fast food chains offer plenty of gluten free, and therefore wheat-free options.

Also, I forgot to mention the good news that gluten does not survive the distillation process, so while most beers are out, liquor is still in.

I have a wheat free mini-pizza recipe:

Take a heaping tablespoon or two of parmesan or similar hard cheese and make a little mound on a wax-paper-lined cookie sheet.

Put a little bit of softer cheese such as provolone or mozzarella on top.

Bake until melted. This is your crust.

Remove from oven, and put some tomato sauce, toppings, and mozzarella or pizza-mix cheese on top.

Bake until cheese is melted.

The trick is the parmesan makes the crust crusty, but having a little bit of softer cheese keeps it from being too brittle.

Otzi, the 5000 year old mummy found in the Alps, had hardening of the arteries. The only wheat available then was einkorn.
I think a lot of people could benefit from a gluten free diet, but I doubt if it is the miracle cure for heart disease that people hope that it is. And I don't think reliable scientific evidence indicates that modern wheat is poison either. Most sedentary people could benefit from a low carb diet, but a pro athlete would probably starve on it.

As usual you are ignoring my point. Marathoners dont run marathons to get in shape, bicycle riders dont ride the tour de France to get in shape either. They pick their diet to provide quick fuel to keep them going for hours. They arent eating steak on the route for a reason. They need 6000 calories or more in an easy form that quikly converts to glucose to fuel their muscles. ALL FOOD CONVERTS TO GLUCOSE, carbs just do it at a faster rate, and in a more direct form.

I can point you to thosands of people who eat a diet high in modern wheat who have absolutely no signs of heart disease. An indirect tenuous correlation between fat people whose diet is usually very high in carbs, which are mostly empty calories, and heart disease is not causation.

One of the things that makes the Otzi case so interesting was evidence of heart disease totally unrelated to obesity and the modern lifestyle, indicating that there is most probably a huge genetic factor.

It is extremely easy to tell someone "they don't know what they are talking about" when you are unwilling to debate specifics.
What part of "your body converts food to glucose" do you not believe?
What part of thousands (actually millions) of people eat lots of wheat with no bad effects) are you refuting?
What part of "Ozti had heart disease" (in an era before modern wheat existed) do you not believe?
I have watched the diet profession go through cycles of demonizing one food after another, over the last 60 years. Your sources are slightly ahead of the USDA who still thinks that fat is the problem, but that doesn't make them right either. The human body is a very complex system, and I would run very far away from anyone who recklessly claimed the have "the" answer.