Wheat Free Cake Alternatives
The vast majority of people have never even heard of wheat intolerance, but for those who suffer from it, life can be quite difficult, in that many of them don’t actually know what dietary changes can be made in order to restore normal body function.
Contrary to what you may believe, if you are intolerant to wheat, that’s not to say you need to avoid foods containing wheat completely. By making a few simple substitutes, you can still have your ‘wheat free cake’ and eat it too.
Unlike in the past, it is nowadays possible to use flour substitutes when baking a cake, and of course such substitutes don’t contain any wheat. Furthermore, many of the substitutes are known to be better than wheat as far as their nutritional content is concerned.
Millet, for example, is more than likely the most readily digested grain available, and it’s also the least allergenic. Sorghum, which is essentially a cereal grain, is very similar, and so is amaranth, both of which are used in baking.
These substitutes also contain large amounts of calcium, magnesium, and silica. Interestingly enough, amaranth grain has long been used in Mexico in order to combat malnutrition.
Even though there are many alternatives you can use when you bake a cake, certain flours should also be avoided because of their wheat content. These would include the likes of:
- Brown flour
- Bulgar
- Durum
- Granary
- Semolina
- Triticale
- Kamut
- Graham flour
- Self-rising flours
Now, for most people, substituting wheat based flour with non-wheat flour is by no means a big issue. The biggest obstacle is actually trying to the find a place that sells these substitutes. For the most part, you will probably have to visit health stores, Asian food stores or markets, or else you may need to order them online.
With that said, many of the larger grocery stores are beginning to stock wheat substitutes simply because they seem to be gaining in popularity. Nowadays, even people who are not intolerant to wheat are beginning to look for healthier and more wholesome alternatives.
It is essential for people to understand the difference between wheat intolerance and gluten intolerance.
For example, if you are intolerant to gluten, you won’t be able to eat anything which contains gluten. Essentially this means you won’t be able to eat wheat, barley, rye, or any other cereals which may contain gluten. On the other hand, if you suffer from wheat intolerance, you’ll still be able to eat foods such as barley and rye, in that they don’t contain any traces of wheat, and your intolerance is wheat rather than gluten.
Contrary to what anyone may have told you, you need to acknowledge the fact that foods such as bread will certainly taste different if it’s been made with a non-wheat flour substitute. The texture will also be different, bearing in mind that it’s the gluten which is present in wheat that is responsible for causing bread to rise when it’s baked.
One should also bear in mind that food intolerances tend to become more severe as you grow older, and such food intolerances can also aggravate existing health conditions such as lung problems, heart disease, kidney disease, and etc.
Studies have also shown that food allergies tend to run in the family, so the chances are, if one parent has a certain food allergy, one of their offspring is bound to have it as well. In fact, the same principle applies to all allergies rather than only to food allergies.
