Feeding Yourself Gluten-free

There are copious amount of disease that are caused by food sensitivity for different people. One of them is celiac disease which is a chronic small intestinal immune-mediated disease by exposure to dietary gluten in genetically predisposed individuals. (LUDVIGSON et al., 2014). That means people who has gluten sensitivity genetically should avoid nutrition that is contain gluten. There are also people who has intolerance to gluten. That means; after gluten-free diet, they show improvement of their digestion system even if they do not have celiac disease (LUDVIGSON et al., 2014).

According to Celiac.org; gluten is a general name for the proteins found in wheat (wheatberries, durum, emmer, semolina, spelt, farina, farro, graham, wheat and einkorn), rye, barley and triticale – a cross between wheat and rye. In general, the big 3 for gluten are wheat, barley and rye. Gluten-free diet strictly forbid consumption of gluten such as bread, malt, beer, pasta, oats.

Celiac disease is not the only reason for diet without gluten. There are other reasons such as gluten sensitivity, gluten intolerance, and also there are many people who have chosen this diet to control their health problems, such as headaches and depression.

There are many difficulties for people who choose gluten-free diet in their daily life. First of all, gluten is widely common in food industry and it is really hard to avoid at all. Substitute gluten–free flours are usually more expensive because their demand is lower in the market compared to other flours.(FARAGE, 2014). An other difficulty will be peoples' lack of knowledge even though GFD getting usual there are many people who has no idea about GFD and it is going to be challenge.

As I mentioned before, there are many disease caused by food. An other example is food allergy. Body system can react in many ways to allergic foods. And there is no limit for nutrients that can be allergic to people. However, there are most common allergic foods that are determined by Government of Canada. Eggs, Milk, Mustard, Peanuts, Crustaceans and molluscs, Fish, Sesame seeds, Soy, Sulphites, Tree Nuts. These are top 10 allergens in Canada. It is vitally important to consider these allergens while cooking and labeling in the industry. As a cook I always be aware of allergens and intolerance into my dishes. In that way I would not face any possible life treating accident.

Now, I will share a recipe which has not top 10 allergens. At the same time, it is gluten-free. It is a famous dish in Turkish cuisine. However, I adjusted and made my own recipe. The most significant change is replacing rice to quinoa. And it is not an easy recipe to finish. There are lots of work to do. But as a result, you will have a delicious dish.

Ingredients:

1 ea Yellow onion

300 g Quinoa

1 ea Tomato

30 g Tomato paste

2 g Cumin

8 g Dried mint

4 g Paprika

1 jar Grape Leaf

40 ml Lemon juice

50 ml Olive oil

Instruction to make the quinoa mixture:

• Cook medium diced onion with olive oil until it turns soft.

• Add quinoas and toast together.

• Add medium diced tomatoes and tomato paste.

• Add all seasoning and lemon juice

• Cook for 5 mins.

Instruction for wrapping the leaves:

1. Work on a flat surface to get a better result.

2. Lay one leaf onto cutting board.

3. Put two tsp of the quinoa mixture.

4. Bring each sides of the leaf into middle and wrap it tightly starting from down to up.

5. Apply this process to each leaf until finish the mixture and the leaves.

6. Gather them into a pan.

7. Add 200 ml hot water and cook at low flame for 60 mins.

References:

-Ludvigsson, J. F., Leffler, D. A., Bai, J. C., Biagi, F., Fasano, A., Green, P. H. R., … Ciacci, C. (2013, January). The Oslo definitions for coeliac disease and related terms. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3440559/

- What is Gluten? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://celiac.org/gluten-free-living/what-is-gluten/

-Farage, P., & Zandonadi, R. (n.d.). The Gluten-Free Diet: Difficulties Celiac Disease Patients have to Face Daily. Retrieved from https://austinpublishinggroup.com/nutrition-food-sciences/fulltext/ajnfs-v2-id1027.php

- Canada, H. (2019, May 6). Government of Canada. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/food-allergies-intolerances/avoiding-allergens-food/allergen-labelling.html