I bumped into a co-worker at the office watering hole this afternoon, and we got into a discussion about gluten-free diet. She explained how she'd recovered from a lot of negative gastrointestinal symptoms after about a month and a half.
Last week I'd engaged in baking some homemade bread; it contained white AP flour, yeast, water, olive oil, and white sugar.
If I were to make a gluten-free version of this, I'd have to use AP gluten-free flour (Bulk Barn sells this) and Xanthan or Guar gum (also for-sale at Bulk Barn).
If I went the gluten-free flour-and-gum route, the only things I'd be replacing in my diet would be bread (do I really want to do a weekly bread-bake? do I really want to eat hefty sliced-bread sandwiches? do I really want to sink $100 in a bread slicer? questions for another time...), lunch cookies, and pies once or twice a year at Christmas and Thanksgiving (and, possibly, Easter).
Further to that thought, if I went down that healthy path a little further, I'd replace the sugars with either agave nectar or honey (honey being my preference, due to my "outsider" interest in apiculture and my ties with Doug the Beekeeper at the Cambridge Farmer's Market).
Food for thought.
No pun intended.
Really.
