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Gluten: What You Need to Know

June 22, 2020Leave a comment

Hippocrates: “All disease begins in the gut.”

Gluten is a controversial topic these days. To cut to the chase, gluten can affect nearly every tissue in the body, including the brain, skin, endocrine system, stomach, liver, blood vessels, smooth muscles, and even the nuclei of cells. What is it? It’s one of several proteins that is found in wheat. Gliadins and glutenins are the two main components of the gluten fraction of the wheat seed. Basically, these components are what allow breads to rise during baking and to preserve foods in many cases. Within the gliadin class of wheat, there are four different types of proteins, which are alpha-, beta-, gamma-, and omega-gliadin. Wheat also contains agglutinins, which are proteins that bind to sugar, and prodynorphins, which are proteins involved with cellular communication. Once wheat is consumed, up to 6 different enzymes in the digestive tract called tissue transglutaminases (tTG) break down the wheat compound and forms additional proteins. Are you still reading? I promise it’s useful information…

Most people assume that if you don’t have Celiac’s Disease, then you don’t need to worry about including gluten in your diet or going gluten-free. Celiac’s Disease is an autoimmune disease characterized by an inflammatory immune response to wheat gluten, rye, barley, and related proteins. It results in the disruption of the normal gut tissue structure, including atrophy of the villi and an enlargement of intestinal crypts where new epithelial cells form from stem cells. However, it’s not so black and white. The problem with testing for Celiac’s Disease is that the test only tests for the alpha-gliaden and transglutaminase 2 (tTG2). Remember, there are 4 different types of proteins found in wheat and 6 different enzymes, which means there is a lot of room for error or misdiagnosis. Basically, you’ll test negative for Celiac’s Disease and gluten intolerance no matter how severely you’re reacting to wheat. There is a spectrum that can range from being completely gluten-tolerant to suffering from full-blown Celiac’s Disease. On this spectrum, there is a term that broadly covers a whole range of conditions/symptoms related to gluten and wheat.

This term is called Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity, or NCGS. NCGS is a response to wheat or gluten ingestion, but in the form of gut discomfort, systemic pain, fatigue, neurological issues, and worsening of autoimmune conditions. Research demonstrates that nearly 1 out of every 10 individuals can have Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity. Here’s a list of conditions linked to NCGS:

Irritable bowel syndrome
Fibromyalgia
Dermatitis and other skin conditions
Multiple sclerosis
Peripheral neuropathy, myopathy, and other neurological disorders
Schizophrenia
Depression
ADHD
Ataxia
Type 1 diabetes
Autism spectrum disorders
Ménière disease
Endometriosis
Insulin resistance and inflammation

This is reason enough to avoid gluten and wheat all together, in my opinion. However, here is the best way determine if you have gluten intolerance or wheat intolerance:

Remove all gluten-containing foods and products from your diet for 60 days
At the end of the 60 day period, cook up a bowl of barley (gluten-containing), eat it, and see what happens.

3. A few days later, eat a piece of wheat bread. See what happens.

If you react to barley, that suggests you’re intolerant of gluten or other gluten-like compounds. If you don’t react to barley, but you do react to the wheat bread, that suggests you are intolerant to something in wheat specifically.

To be clear, not all disease is caused by gluten. There are certainly other health conditions that could cause gluten intolerance or Celiac’s Disease. However, there are many links between gluten and other health conditions. If you suffer from chronic pain, autoimmune conditions, digestive issues, and arthritis, then replacing gluten and wheat with more vegetables and good quality fats and proteins could help ease your symptoms.

To give an you example of how you can still “have your cake and eat it, too”, here’s a banana bread muffin that is gluten free. This particular muffin is made with buckwheat. Don’t let the name fool you, though. Buckwheat is gluten free and has a generous amount of antioxidants and nutrients. Other options you could use to replace wheat are almond flour, gluten free oats, or rice/potato flour.

In Health,

Adam and Feier

References

Sugar and Inflammation

May 21, 2020Leave a comment

Sugar…a word that alarms many people. “We need it to survive…No, we don’t need it…go keto…go vegan…blah, blah, blah.”

I want to clear up some confusion in this blog about sugar and why we choose to limit the amount of sugar we use in our baking. To be clear, our bodies will make their own sugar to survive. We don’t necessarily need sugar in our diets to survive. It’s just how the body works. There are also many different types of sugar such as glucose, fructose, sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, fruit sugar, nectar, honey…the list goes on.

So, why do we choose to avoid the use of sugar in Barefoot Baking goods? I’ll just provide some reasons in list form. Sugar…

Stimulates a physiological stressor-reaction cascade that provokes adrenaline and cortisol release …and thickens the blood.
Effectively disables your immune system by impairing white blood cells’ functioning.
Decreases your body’s production of leptin, a hormone critical for appetite regulation…That’s why you always want more!
Induces significant oxidative stress in the body, which increases aging.
Appears to fuel cancer cells.
Promotes fat storage, weight gain, and obesity.
Disrupts the effective transfer of amino acids to muscle tissue.
Intake over time spurs insulin resistance, subsequent Type II Diabetes, and an entire host of related health issues such as nerve damage, cardiovascular disease, gut problems, and more inflammatory conditions.
Is addictive.

Sugar was a reward for us “back in the day”…meaning our ancestors found it very valuable. We looked at sugar as a high caloric density food because we never knew when our next meal would come. However, we only had access to sugar during different seasons. There were no grocery stores available to us on every corner. The consumption of such foods promoted the storage of body fat, which in turn enabled us to survive periods of famine. However, in the modern world, very few of us experience hunger. Instead, most of us have constant access to sugary, processed foods. When consumed in excess, the health conditions mentioned above may manifest. This biological wiring (sugar as a reward) is what results in the addictive, opiate-like property of sugar (2, 3).

Excess sugar intake can lead to Type II Diabetes, which is characterized by insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is when our cells don’t respond as strongly to insulin, and you need more to produce the desired effect. Our pancreas releases insulin in response to sugar (and other things like cortisol) to lower your blood glucose levels after eating. In fact, postprandial blood glucose, meaning post-meal blood glucose, is the most common way to diagnose Type II Diabetes. If it’s too high, that’s considered hyperglycemia. Type II Diabetes is your body’s way of saying your pancreas is tired. Hyperinsulinemia means our insulin levels are always elevated. This inhibits you from releasing fatty acids from your body fat to be burned for energy.

The bacteria that inhabits our gut thrive on carbohydrates, which is good and bad. Complex carbohydrates, such as soluble fiber found in starchy plants like squash or sweet potatoes, feed beneficial gut bacteria, boost anti-inflammatory gut microbiota, and discourage the growth of opportunistic and pathogenic bacteria. This is good. The consumption of processed carbohydrates and refined sugar found in less nutritious foods, however, triggers the growth of harmful gut bacteria and promotes an inflammatory gut microbiota. This is bad…and sad (1). Because the health of our gut determines the health of our immune system, excess sugar intake can lead to an impaired immune response. This can increase risk of some autoimmune conditions, pain, skin rashes or acne, and other inflammatory conditions (4). Diets high in sugar can also lead to an increase risk of cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, and coronary heart disease (5).

Perhaps, the most important reason we choose to bake without excess sugar is due to sugar’s likelihood of promoting cancer growth (6). Why exactly does sugar promote cancer growth? It turns out that cancerous cells can rewire their metabolism so that they become very efficient at taking up glucose from the bloodstream to use as fuel. This is known as the Warburg Effect. Diets high in refined sugar and other processed carbohydrates supply the body with large amounts of glucose, creating an environment conducive to cancer growth. We like to use raw honey if we want a “bit of sweet”, but honey is a real, natural food. Honey is delicious, and it has also been proven to have numerous health benefits. Raw honey has antibacterial effects against gut pathogens such as Salmonella, E. coli, and Shigella, as well as, the periodontal pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis. It is also a good source of prebiotics that promote the growth of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria. Honey offers some cardiovascular benefits, as well, because it has antioxidant effects and improves the function of the endothelium of the heart (8, 9)! However, don’t go drinkin’ a bottle of honey…that wouldn’t be good. There’s still sugar in honey, so use it in moderation.

Most of the time, we like to stay as low-carb, low sugar, or keto as possible. The reason being is that the ketogenic diet has been proven useful as an adjunct treatment for cancer in a handful of studies (7). The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, moderate protein, very-low-carbohydrate diet that significantly reduces blood sugar and causes the body to rely on ketones, rather than glucose, for energy. Remember the Warburg Effect above? This is essentially the opposite of that!

I hope this helps in understanding sugar and why we like to avoid it. Please see the references below for more info!

In Health,

Adam

First GF Focaccia

May 14, 2020Leave a comment

Gluten free baking is tough, especially with bread. Gluten holds the bread together and it also helps the dough rise and stay all fluffy by trapping the bubbles from the fermentation with the added yeast.

Yesterday evening after a particularly hard day with work, I got to take some time to just step back and do a little baking. We were already making a roast chicken with sweet potatoes and I just wanted something savory with the same herbs. On a whim, I looked up a few recipes and with some modifications and… pulled out a delicious gluten free focaccia out of the oven! I got a little nervous after I checked up on how the dough was rising (in an empty closet with a space heater since the oven was preoccupied with the chicken at too high a temperature) since many bread attempts went very poorly. Very relieved that it came out beautifully golden and very tasty. Reminds me of Italian bread dipped in some herbed olive oil… yum!

During the past few weeks there have been many baking fails with bread… and just dough in general. May get into that more some other time but for now these are some tidbits we’ve learned…

Measuring gluten free flour by volume (such as with a measuring cup) doesn’t work very well. The consistency of many gluten free flour blends is much more “fluffy” than all-purpose wheat flour. Even with a blend that says 1-to-1 measuring to flour you need to be careful. Packing the flour down lightly before leveling leads to PLENTY of inconsistent human error. Multiple doughs ended up just too mushy/wet and unable to hold any real three dimensional shape. Use a scale.
Just because the dough rises, it doesn’t mean it will stay. Gluten helped keep it all airy with that lovely texture. Without it, it often just falls flat and becomes dense. Make sure you have something that helps provide that sticky structure like xanthan gum. May want to experiment with the quantity. Psyllium husk powder can help make the dough more elastic yet stay together too.
Just accept that sometimes your dough isn’t going to hold itself up and consider baking it in a container in the shape you want your bread to be anyway…
Be patient with yourself. Have some fun.
Since we have the great option of a local compost drop off site there is at least the comfort that if there is an epic baking fail, it can get dropped off on the other side of town to return to the earth…

Happy Thursday! Time to figure out what’s for dinner …

-Feier

THE Cookie

May 9, 2020May 9, 2020Leave a comment

Macronutrients per THE Cookie:

220 calories
3g of protein
17g of net carbs
2g of sugar

THE Cookie was inspired by the desire from both of us to have a gluten and dairy free cookie without excess sugar, soy, crappy oils, and with a mouth-feel and taste of a real cookie. Often, the “healthy” cookie options break easily, dissolve in your mouth, feel like cardboard or taste similar to a piece of bark…

The process of making the cookies went very smoothly. Feier prepped the ingredients and rolled the cookie balls, and I helped with timing, transferring the cookies in and out of the oven, and calculated the macronutrients of the cookies. All in all, there were 24 cookies. It was a solid team effort, but Feier’s hands were sore later in the evening because the process of rolling this dough was tough! These cookies were dense…and they smelled amazing. The majority of the ingredients were one or all of the following: organic, non-gmo, free range, and all of the other “frees”… and low carb!

The birth of Barefoot Baking started with the “bread-making” (see About Us), but the idea of creating Barefoot Baking came while making these cookies. We thought of our logo, our name, and what we want to get out of this donation-based home bakery. We want to bake enough to create some goodies for us and share with others.

THE Cookie was and will continue to be a go-to staple!

-Adam

A little introduction to Barefoot Baking

May 9, 2020May 9, 2020Leave a comment

Barefoot Baking is a healthy baking duo, consisting of Feier Cheng and Adam Gloyeske. Feier loves to make things, is active, and enjoys healthy food. Adam is a licensed acupuncturist, hardcore runner that runs in those “toe-shoes”, and health enthusiast. Feier will enjoy a nice scoop of ice cream, a cookie, or piece of banana bread. Adam, on the other hand, is slightly picky about what he puts in his mouth. This rigidity is annoying to himself and at times, Feier. However, when 7:00PM rolls around each night, Adam is always complaining about how he’s still hungry. This seemingly constant hunger is due to his caloric expenditure from his running. He needs to eat about 3,000 calories of food a day just to break even on calories burned for the day, and that amount could get as high as 4,500 calories a day of expended calories. Adam’s complaints during these evenings usually sound something like like this…”I want pancakes”…”I want a cookie”…”Oh my god, gooey-gooey cinnamon rolls!” Feier’s typical responses were along the lines of “Then eat the cookie!”

Feier and Adam have a moderate amount of experience in the kitchen with simple dishes such as roasts, salads, sautéed vegetables, etc. However, baking is a whole different story. Feier is far more experienced than Adam from a baking perspective. With baking, the recipe matters, as well as the precise measurements. Adam had attempted baking in the past, but he didn’t take into account anything important regarding baking. His baking involved blended ingredients (in a blender) poured into a random pan, the oven set to 400 degrees and calling it good. It was NEVER good…

So, what did the duo do? During the COVID-19 stay-at-home order, they were forced to take matters into their own hands. If you’re wondering about the logo, it is inspired by the first attempt to make a gluten free bread. Feier prepped the ingredients for the recipe and Adam was doing the dirty work of trying to form a shape. It was time to mix the ingredients with the hand mixer. Adam, having never used a hand mixer before, thought he was getting ready to press the “ON” button, but, instead, hit the “EJECT” button. Of course, the beaters flew out of the hand mixer and into the wall. Epic fail. So, that’s how it all started and why the logo is of Adam running with a hand mixer.

Barefoot Baking’s goal is to improve as bakers, have fun, and make healthy baking options for people that are trying to have their cake and eat it, too. Simply put, to have a baked good without some of the common side effects that come with the consumption of excess sugar, gluten, dairy, soy, and industrial seed oils. The goods made will have catchy names inspired by personal stories, health goals, and other fun things. The nutrition of the goods will also be given for people to know, such as macronutrient levels and the potential health benefits of the goods. Anything the duo don’t eat (Adam is always hungry) will be shared with others!

We are excited to share our journey with you!

Adam Gloyeske & Feier Cheng