Published: Wednesday, 10th February, 2010 9:00am
The plight of the gluten-free
by Sally Stevens
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IMAGINE a life without crumpets, tea cakes, chocolate fudge cake or raiding the biscuit tin.
It's not just comfort food that you miss when you cut out wheat and gluten - it's all the yummy accompaniments.
Where's the pleasure in a heap of clotted cream and raspberry jam without a scone? Buttercream and strawberry filling without the Victoria sponge? Chunky cheddar and Branston without the wedge of farmhouse loaf?
It's a barren choice for snacks on the go when sandwiches, wraps and pastry are off the menu.
Vegetarians who suffer from coeliac disease or an intolerance to wheat and gluten face an even tougher search for meat-free food that is not padded out with bread or flour products.
Gluten is found in wheat, barley and rye and in some people triggers an immune reaction - the lining of the small intestine, where nutrients are absorbed, becomes damaged which can cause anaemia and osteoporosis.
Symptoms can also point to irritable bowel syndrome as well as including bloating, stomach pains, nausea, diarrhoea, heartburn, indigestion, tiredness, headaches, mouth ulcers, depression, infertility, joint and/or bone pain among others - not worth breaking the strict diet for.
It is not an unusual complaint - support and research-funding group Coeliac UK has more than 50,000 members.
An increasing range of free-from foods are available, but generally they use extra fat and sugar to compensate for the lack of gluten, which is a protein that gives food elasticity.
Sainsbury's and Tesco's new range of vegetarian burgers and sausages in the chiller cabinet do not list any wheat or gluten ingredients and enterprising Gluten Freedom have just set up in business supplying frozen gluten-free pasties and pastries to Sheeplands farm shop in Hare Hatch.
Give Me Cake, two Reading women running a thriving business from their kitchen, offers a wide range of hand-made wheat and gluten-free cakes, which are much spongier than anything you can buy in the supermarket, stay fresh for longer and can be frozen.
Gluten Freedom
Call Hare Hatch Sheeplands on 0118 940 1600 or visit the shop in London Road, Ruscombe, RG10 9HW.
Give Me Cake
Call 0118 987 1768 or visit them at Reading Farmer's Market on the first Saturday of the month.
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