A question we often get with our Nutrition Response Testing clients is how to continue baking their family favorite goodies on a gluten-free diet. After 11 years of eating gluten-free, here’s what I’ll share about why I prefer grain-free baking over gluten-free baking:
IT’S EASIER!
AND MORE NUTRIENT-DENSE!
When Sunny was a wee one and we took on our first rotation diet with her, she was allowed to eat wheat every 4 days. Enter in Wednesdays and Whaterdays (Wheat on Saturdays), which is a rhythm we kept on our calendar for several years until Annie came along and we had to eliminate it completely.
I recall baking gluten-free for the first time. I had to find the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies and blueberry muffins. At the time all I knew about was brown rice flour, which turned out a flat, crispy cookie and lifeless muffins. In my book, if a cookie isn’t soft and chewy, it isn’t worth the baking. Eventually I was able to bake a really good gluten-free cookie, but after minding the evolution of my health and the need to venture into a more grain-free diet, I had to get more creative. Thankfully there were already cookbooks and bloggers out there sharing their experiences, so I could just plug into those.
One thing nobody prepared me for, though, was the increased cost . As you’ll see below in the lists of what ingredients, you only need a fraction of items on hand for baking grain-free when compared to the average pantry of someone who bakes gluten-free.
Items you may need on hand for gluten-free baking:
- baking soda
- baking powder
- cornstarch
- arrowroot starch
- brown rice flour
- sorgum flour
- white rice flour
- millet flour
- quinoa flour
- tapioca flour
- potato starch
- xantham gum
- guar gum
- sweeteners (maple syrup, honey, coconut sugar, sucanat, etc.)
- eggs
- fat (grass-fed butter, coconut oil, etc.)
I’m sure I’ve missed something in the above list, but as you can see it’s nothing compared to how small the list is for grain free baking.
Items you may need on hand for grain-free baking:
- coconut flour
- almond flour
- baking soda
- eggs
- sweetener
- fat (grass-fed butter, coconut oil, etc.)
I’m telling you guys, it’s sooo much easier this way! Thanks to amazing chefs such as Danielle Walker, author of Against All Grain, the road to tasty grain-free baking has already been paved. Of course, in 2021, we are seeing a plethora of new flour options coming on the market that are grain-free. Cassava flour is one I’ve been experimenting with. Others you might see include garbanzo bean flour, tiger nut flour, green banana flour (it sounds like I’m making these up, doesn’t it??), and sunflower seed flour. But I urge you not to overcomplicate things! If you can make your favorite recipes quite successfully using just a couple of nutrient-dense grain-free flours, you’ll be well on your way to more optimal health … without missing out on Saturday morning waffles!
Why Baking Grain-Free Is Better for Your Health Than Gluten-Free
Here’s the bottom line — grains convert to sugar. The Standard American Diet is so grains and sugar heavy (and so backwards) that it’s got our blood sugar out of control. Eliminating that stressor is one of the easiest ways to manage your health. You’ll find a decrease (or alleviation) of issues such as lightheadedness, crankiness, cold sweats, and the shakes — all of which we feel when too many hours have passed since we last ate, or if we ate a grains-heavy meal and our body is screaming for more nutrients.
Not only will your pocketbook thank you, but your waistline and blood sugar will be disco dancing with delight.
