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Author: Charlotte Gracias 

Is bread so bad? 

I write this not as a scientist or any kind of expert on foods, but as someone who has many allergies and intolerances. I once used to think people who claimed they had intolerances were attention seekers or slightly annoying, especially in restaurants or at dinner parties. Then in 2018, I realised I had histamine intolerance, and I became one of those people who had to check ingredients, state all my forbidden foods to my dinner party hosts much to their annoyance and ordering food at restaurants suddenly became a little awkward. But I also then understood the impact allergies and intolerances have on day-to-day life. For some, its life changing and debilitating. 

My intolerance was self-diagnosed after 3 years of suffering acute bouts of vertigo, vomiting and other symptoms but more frequently throughout most of 2017. In early 2018 I visited my GP who not only refused to acknowledge that histamine intolerance existed but offered me medication for life. I politely but firmly declined and started a food diary and slowly identify and eliminated foods that were the likely culprits. I had been advised about histamine intolerance, so I knew which foods were most likely to cause a reaction. What disappointed me most in those early months, were the plethora of online and ‘armchair experts’ advising me to give up dairy, meat, salt, and bread. I did not understand why as those foods had not caused me any issues.  

Since then, I feel as if I must point out that just demonising certain foods without research is misinformed and does not address the broader issues around how we grow and produce food. 

A brief history of bread. 

Our ancestors have been eating bread for at least 14,000 years. The established archaeological evidence pointed to humans first began baking bread about 10,000 years ago. That was supposedly a pivotal time in our evolution. Humans gave up their nomadic way of life and began farming and growing cereals. Once they had various grains, they began milling them into flour and making bread. Until recently, we thought that our ancestors were farmers first and bakers second. But a discovery at an excavation site in Jordan revealed breadcrumbs predate the advent of agriculture by at least 4,000 years. Potentially, that may demonstrate that our ancestors were bakers first and learned to farm afterwards. 

Why has eating gluten-based bread become such an issue? What are people always demonising gluten?  

Gluten intolerance has increased in the last few decades with an estimated 10% of people avoiding gluten. There aren’t any exact confirmed numbers of people with gluten intolerance or gluten sensitivity but various surveys and data show that around 10-15% of people in the UK avoid gluten and that a confirmed 1% have been diagnosed with coeliac disease, a very real autoimmune disorder where eating gluten, the umbrella terms for various gluey proteins found in wheat, barley, and rye causes damage to their small intestine. It is estimated at between 6% and 8% of the population, who self-select a gluten-free diet and who are now classed as having non-coeliac gluten sensitivity. Even though they are not coeliacs, they report similar unpleasant symptoms – diarrhoea, wind, constipation, stomach pain, cramping, bloating, fatigue – and find that these are alleviated when they cut out gluten. 

What is gluten and is it bad for us? 

Gluten is not a poison, it is a natural protein that is present, in variable amount, in wheat, including spelt, barley, rye, and oats. This protein makes these cereals more nutritious than the others, but also gives them a unique texture. When kneaded with water, it creates a mass that holds in air and other gasses. If you add a raising agent such as yeast or sourdough, this feeds off the sugars in the flour creating a gas as a by-product that remains trapped into the dough, making it lighter and fluffier and also tastier). 

A basic superior quality bread loaf is made with only four ingredients: wheat flour, water, yeast or sourdough, and a pinch of salt. That is, it: basic, natural, simple ingredients.  

Gluten free bread cannot be made with wheat flour, it must be made with flours with no gluten. These flours are usually made from rice, pulses, potatoes, or other odd ingredients. You cannot add yeast or sourdough to them because they do not contain gluten, so you must use artificial leavening agents, which do not help the flavour of the bread, they just add some volume. Because there is no gluten (so no proteins), the gas created by the raising agent would easily escape the dough, resulting in a pasty, heavy bread, so you must add a binding agent, such as xanthan gum or egg whites. That results in a bread that is light and fluffy, but tastes nothing like bread because it contains no wheat, the dough hasn’t matured thanks to the yeast and the addition of a binder. To make the bread taste better you also have to add other ingredients such a salt, sugar, and fats. The resulting ingredient list looks something like this: 

Tapioca, Potato Starch, Brown Rice, Teff Flour, Modified Tapioca Starch, Water, Non-GMO Vegetable Oil (Canola or Sunflower or Safflower) Egg Whites, Evaporated Cane Juice, Tapioca Maltodextrin, Tapioca Syrup, Yeast, Flax Seed, Xanthan Gum, Salt, Baking Powder (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Bicarbonate, Corn Starch, Monocalcium Phosphate), Cultured Corn Syrup Solids (Natural Mould Inhibitor), Dry Molasses, Enzymes 

Instead of natural, organic bread made with just four natural and very common ingredients, gluten free bread has many more ingredients, not all of them very healthy, most much more costly than the ingredients you can find in a good, natural, artisanal bread. To produce gluten-free bread there is a much more complicated procedure, the area must be scrupulously clean and checked frequently to prevent contamination. 

Have you noticed the increase in the amount of gluten free in supermarkets, cafes, and restaurants?  

The global gluten-free products market size was valued at USD 5.9 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 9.8% from 2022 to 2030.  

This is a very profitable sector. 

“Gluten-Free Food Market in the UK to Record 6.93% Year on Year Growth Rate in 2022” in a recent market report. In addition, the report predicts the market to progress at a CAGR of 7.59%. The gluten-free food market share growth in the UK in bakery and confectionery products will be significant for revenue generation.  

This is worth noting. Has the problem been created to sell the solution? 

“Increasing incidence of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and celiac diseases is expected to drive the demand for gluten-free products across developed as well as developing countries…As more people try new diets like the paleo or keto diets, individuals needing a gluten-free diet due to their existing medical conditions, as well as those who wish to live a gluten-free lifestyle simply because it makes them feel better, are becoming the key drivers of market demand.” The market is expanding and profits are growing as a result of both increases in disease and lifestyle choice.  

So, why the sudden increase in gluten intolerance in the past 50 years?  

“Many people fear that modern wheat varieties contain more immunoreactive proteins than in the past and that this is the cause of the increased incidence of wheat-related disorders,” said Darina Pronin from the Leibniz-Institute for Food Systems Biology 

There are a few theories explained here by The Three Bakers 

• Wheat grain has been altered to provide crops that are more resistant to drought and bake more easily. Our stomachs, however, have not adapted as quickly to these changes. We are eating more wheat products now than ever before. 

• Damaged gut flora or dysbiosis is also on the rise due to the high usage of antibiotics or consuming food that they cannot digest. The immune system may see the undigested gluten particles are a microbial invader and attack them. 

• Our environment has become much cleaner over the past 50 years. This means, to some scientists, that our clean and sterile environment has made our antibodies not able to fend off so many bugs and infections. As a consequence of this clean environment, our bodies overreact to any items that should be harmless. Wheat and peanuts are the common culprits in these studies. 

• Our constant use of diets has led to vitamin deficient people. They interfere with the body’s ability to suppress immune cells. These diets suppress the body’s immune system from attacking gluten particles. 

• Genetics may also part apart, somewhat smaller than others. Diseases are a combination of genetics and environmental factors. So, people react differently in their reactions to these changes. 

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In addition, the wheat we are eating has been bred, largely at the behest of industrial bakeries and food manufacturers, to have higher levels of stronger gluten. In the UK, the oldest modern bread wheat cultivar dates back to 1864. The modern cultivars were developed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries for higher yield and higher gluten.  

It is also now common practice among non-organic farmers to spray their wheat on days before harvest with the controversial pesticide glyphosate, a suspected carcinogen, to dry off the crop for processing. How can this be safe and what effect is that having on the population? 

Large bakery companies whose factories are heavily automated have stripped out most of the time, human effort, and artisanship from the bread-making process. The most crucial step in traditional bread making, which is long, slow fermentation has been stripped out of the industrial manufacturing process, making it possible to create finished loaves in two hours, as opposed to the traditional 16 hours or more. Without traditional fermentation, the process by which parts of the grain begin to be broken down in the presence of lactic acid bacteria, means many people may not be able to digest grains properly to absorb the desirable micronutrients they contain. Traditional methods of artisan baking have been replaced with many additives and undisclosed processing aids, notably enzymes synthesised in the laboratory. There are 27 potential allergens that scientists have identified in modern wheat production. 

The additives used to make modern bread and processed food products are generally recognised as safe, but researchers have associated several food additives with some of the gut alterations seen in both coeliac and non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, as well as in inflammatory bowel disease. For instance, one study found that emulsifiers, a common food additive found in industrial breads and baked goods, may promote intestinal inflammation by disrupting the barrier between the immune system and the microbiome – the collection of microbes that inhabit our bodies. The cumulative effect of modern combinations of additives we eat should cause some concern. Each additive only tested in isolation, so any possible effect of those additives combined has not been studied in detail. 

In the last few decades, industrial bakeries have also been adding extra gluten to their products, known as “vital gluten,” but often labelled innocuously as “wheat protein.” Consumers are eating more gluten now than ever before Many have also bumped up the amount of yeast (another known food allergen) in their formulations. 

So, while gluten need not be a digestive disruptor, it could perhaps become so when encountered in its inadequately fermented forms, particularly when it is mixed with pesticide residues, food additives and processing aids that could be irritants to the gut in their own right.  

Could there be other causes for the rise those who think they might have a gluten intolerance such FODMAPs or Histamine Intolerance? 

Some believe that those who claim to have gluten intolerance or sensitivity, are actually reacting to an excess of poorly absorbed carbohydrates present in wheat and many other foods. Those carbohydrate called FODMAPs, for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols, can cause bloating when they ferment in the gut.  

Certain gluten proteins are known to trigger a mast cell receptor called the Toll-like receptor.  If you have Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, you do not want to trigger the mast cells, you want to strive to calm the mast cells. We also know that activated mast cells release mediators like histamine. Histamine causes inflammation, it can also be experienced as digestive issues. Inflamed bowels can result in abdominal pain, cramps, or diarrhoea, to name just a few possible symptoms.  

Diamine oxidase (DAO) stabilises mast cells, but more importantly, it is the predominant enzyme that breaks down histamine. A DAO deficiency is what we might understand as the gene defect which makes it difficult for your body to “unload” histamine from your body. This is what may cause histamine overload, triggering all those nasty symptoms previously mentioned. 

If FODMAPs and Histamine Intolerance are potential causes for digestive inflammatory conditions, thousands of people may be on gluten-free diets with the support of their doctors and dietitians but without good reason. 

Our food habits 

Our relationship with food has changed in the last 70 years in since the end of WW2 and post war industrialisation which brought us mass produced food. We consume more, exercise less, cook less frequently and eat foods that are not grown locally or in season. Health disorders, such as heart diseases, diabetes, obesity, chronic pulmonary disease, and metabolic syndrome have all increased within the same period. 

These are all crucial factors in understanding why millions of people globally are suffering mild to serious intolerances, allergies, and sensitivities to foods, and why these are more common in the last few decades. Many such as coeliacs and those with colitis and Crohn’s Disease are acutely unwell. We need to understand the real causes and have a nuanced debate. 

Each person will have a different diet based on medical condition, demographics, culture, country of origin, environmental and socio-economic factors, and the reasons for having an intolerance or allergy are as equally complex. My own experience revealed that the foods I am allergic or intolerant to are different from many others with histamine intolerance. My situation is unique. 

Whether it’s gluten, meat, carbs, dairy, what works for one person may not work for another yet there are thousands of so-called dietary gurus on social media platforms claiming expertise and attempting to enforce their particular diet or food philosophy on others without any understanding on the individuals they are influencing, their own personal circumstances and the harm that advice could have. 

Let’s look at all the factors that affect how we grow, harvest, produce, process, distribute and consume food in a holistic way. I will expand on overall issues affecting food production over the coming months but as a start I am hoping this piece will start to make people think. 

References: 

14,000-Year-Old Piece Of Bread Rewrites The History Of Baking And Farming : The Salt : NPR. (n.d.). Retrieved November 6, 2022, from https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/07/24/631583427/14-000-year-old-piece-of-bread-rewrites-the-history-of-baking-and-farming 

Not just a fad: the surprising, gut-wrenching truth about gluten | Food | The Guardian. (n.d.). Retrieved November 6, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/aug/07/not-just-a-fad-the-surprising-gut-wrenching-truth-about-gluten 

5 Reasons Gluten Intolerance is on the Rise - Three Bakers. (n.d.). Retrieved November 6, 2022, from https://threebakers.com/5-reasons-gluten-intolerance-is-on-the-rise/ 

Study reveals why wheat and gluten intolerance is becoming more common. (n.d.). Retrieved November 6, 2022, from https://www.newfoodmagazine.com/news/115778/study-reveals-why-wheat-and-gluten-intolerance-is-becoming-more-common/ 

What’s really behind ‘gluten sensitivity’? | Science | AAAS. (n.d.). Retrieved November 6, 2022, from https://www.science.org/content/article/what-s-really-behind-gluten-sensitivity 

5 Theories Why Gluten Intolerance Is Skyrocketing | livestrong. (n.d.). Retrieved November 6, 2022, from https://www.livestrong.com/article/1012333-5-theories-gluten-intolerance-skyrocketing/ 

Gluten-Free Products Market Size Report, 2022-2030. (n.d.). Retrieved November 6, 2022, from https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/gluten-free-products-market 

Gluten-Free Food Market In the UK to Record 6.93% Y-O-Y Growth Rate in 2022, Bakery & Confectionery Products Segment to be Significant for Revenue Generation - Technavio. (n.d.). Retrieved November 6, 2022, from https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gluten-free-food-market-in-the-uk-to-record-6-93-y-o-y-growth-rate-in-2022--bakery--confectionery-products-segment-to-be-significant-for-revenue-generation---technavio-301600077.html 

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