In Memory of Bread Read online

  in the Jordan Valley about a millennium later: A History of Cooks and Cooking, 226; Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, A History of Food, trans. Anthea Bell (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1992), 224.

  In a famous and telling 1960 experiment: Tannahill, Food in History, 32.

  responds well to dry (no irrigation) farming: N. W. Simmonds, Evolution of Crop Plants (London: Longman, 1976), 124.

  3,000 to 4,000 years in the future: See, for example, William Alexander, 52 Loaves: A Half-Baked Adventure (Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin, 2011), 20.

  edible part of the wheat grains: The description of ancient harvesting, threshing, winnowing, and grinding processes comes from Tannahill, Food in History.

  While the Chinese had been making: McGovern, Uncorking the Past, 73. For a longer description of ancient cooking practices, see Bee Wilson’s Consider the Fork: A History of How We Eat and Cook and Tannahill’s Food in History.

  flatbread or beer: Tom Standage, A History of the World in Six Glasses (London: Walker and Company, 2006), 3, 22–24. See also Carrie Lock, “Original Microbrews,” Science News 166 (14), October 2, 2004: 216–18.

  India by 6,500 BC, and to Egypt by 6,000 BC: Mark Kurlansky, Salt: A World History (New York: Penguin, 2002), 11.

  no later than 4,000 BC: H. E. Jacob, Six Thousand Years of Bread: Its Holy and Unholy History (New York: Lyons Press, 1944), 13–15.

  an executioner: Bernard Dupaigne, The History of Bread (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999), 78.

  By the late Middle Ages: Alfio Cortonesi, “Self-Sufficiency and the Market: Rural and Urban Diet in the Middle Ages,” Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, ed. Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari, trans. Clarissa Botsford et al. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 268.

  1.3 to 2.0 kilograms of wheat bread per day: Dupaigne, History of Bread, 43.

  two to four pounds of wheat bread: John Marchant et al., Bread: A Slice of History (Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2008), 47.

  By 1870, this figure had dropped: Figures on bread consumption are from Marchant et al., Bread: A Slice of History, 47, 73–74, 213.

  114 pounds of wheat: Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (New York: Penguin, 2007), 22.

  sales of $10.5 billion: Stephanie Strom, “A Big Bet on Gluten-Free,” The New York Times, February 17, 2014, http://www.​nytimes.​com/2014/​02/18/​business/​food-industry-​wagers-big-​on-gluten-​free.​html?_r=0.

  252 percent higher: L. Stevens and M. Rashid, “Gluten-Free and Regular Foods: A Cost Comparison,” Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research 69 (3), Fall 2008: 147–50. Although the data are not current, the same figures for price differences between GF and conventional foods continue to circulate in other media.

  the FDA does not require: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, “Gluten and Food Labeling,” http://www.​fda.gov/​Food/​Guidance​Regulation/​Guidance​Documents​Regulatory​Information/​Allergens/​ucm367654.​htm.

  The IRS allows: National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, “Tax Deduction Guide for Gluten-Free Products,” http://www.​celiaccen​tral.​org/​shopping/​tax-deduction-​guide-for-​gluten-free-​products/.

  second poorest in New York State: New York State Community Action Association, “New York State Poverty Report March 2015, 54, http://nyscommu​nityaction.​org/​wp-content/​uploads/​2014/​03/​2015-​Poverty-​Report-w-​50th-logos-​for-online.​pdf.

  6. In Memory of Beer

  Beer Purity Laws: For more on the Beer Purity Laws, see Ian S. Hornsey, A History of Beer and Brewing (Cambridge, UK: Royal Society of Chemistry Press, 2003).

  “dark purgative”: Joan P. Alcock, Food in the Ancient World (London: Greenwood Press, 2006), 90.

  unfiltered, uncarbonated, and unhopped: Hornsey, History of Beer and Brewing, 8.

  served as potable drinking water: Peter Kaiser et al., “Healthy or Detrimental? Physiological, Psychiatric, and Evolutionary Aspects of Drinking Beer,” in Liquid Bread, eds. Wulf Schiefenhovel and Helen MacBeth (New York: Berghahn Books, 2011), 21.

  Some views hold that writing: Tom Standage, A History of the World in Six Glasses (London: Walker and Co., 2005), 35–39.

  reached Europe around 5,000 BC: F. Xavier Medina, “Europe North and South, Beer and Wine: Some Reflections About Beer and Mediterranean Food,” in Liquid Bread, 71.

  north to the Hebrides: Hornsey, History of Beer and Brewing, 194.

  strong and weak ale per day: Ibid., 290.

  3.2 million of today’s twelve-ounce bottles: Ibid., 346.

  “fermenting sugar-rich extracts”: Wulf Schiefenhovel and Helen MacBeth, “Introduction: Assembling Perspectives on Beer,” in Liquid Bread, 3.

  where palm sugar and dates were fermented: Hornsey, History of Beer and Brewing, 8.

  The Chinese may have brewed: Patrick McGovern, Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), 51.

  called chichi: Schiefenhovel and MacBeth, “Introduction,” Liquid Bread, 3.

  Sorghum is the essential: McGovern, Uncorking the Past, 253, 257.

  usually through a long straw: Ibid.

  “a wholesome drink”: Quoted in Hornsey, History of Beer and Brewing, 387–89.

  7. What’s Wrong with the Wheat?

  can be reactive and harmful: For the differences between celiac disease, wheat allergy, and gluten sensitivity (sometimes also called non-celiac gluten sensitivity), see Anna Sapone et al., “Spectrum of Gluten-Related Disorders: Consensus on New Nomenclature and Classification,” BMC Medicine 10 (13), 2012.

  Some basic immunology is required: My thanks to Dr. Karin Heckman in the Biology Department at St. Lawrence University for help with the description in this paragraph.

  Since the early 2000s, this peptide: Umberto Volta et al., “Non-Celiac Gluten-Sensitivity: Questions Still to Be Answered Despite Increasing Awareness,” Cellular & Molecular Immunology 10, 2013: 383–92; B. Belderok, “Developments in Bread-Making Processes,” Plants, Food, and Human Nutrition 55 (1), 2000: 86; O. Molberg et al., “Mapping of T-Cell Epitopes in Bread Wheat Ancestors: Implications for Celiac Disease,” Gastroenterology 128 (2), February 2005: 393–401.

  Numerous studies overlap: Hugh Freeman, “Celiac Disease: A Disorder Emerging from Antiquity, Its Evolving Classification and Risk, and Potential New Treatment Paradigms,” Gut and Liver 9, January 1, 2015: 28–37; Volta et al., “Non-Celiac Gluten-Sensitivity”; Hetty C. van den Broeck, “Presence of Celiac Disease Epitopes in Modern and Old Hexaploid Wheat Varieties: Wheat Breading May Have Contributed to Increasing Prevalence of Celiac Disease,” Theoretical Applied Genetics 121, 2010: 1527–39; Francesco Tovoli et al., “Clinical and Diagnostic Aspects of Gluten-Related Disorders,” World Journal of Clinical Cases 3 (3), March 16, 2015: 275–84.

  even as celiac-causing peptides are expressed: Freeman, “Celiac Disease.”

  Possible factors include: Volta et al., “Non-Celiac Gluten-Sensitivity.”

  presumed safe: M. de Lorgeril and P. Salen, “Gluten and Wheat Intolerance Today: Are Modern Wheat Strains Involved?” International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition 65 (5), August 2014: 577–81.

  the time frame in which the changes: Sapone et al., “Spectrum of Gluten-Related Disorders.”

  25,000 cultivars: Ibid. However, other studies assert only 10,000 cultivars (Frits Koning, “Gluten: A Two-Edged Sword,” Springer Seminars in Immunopathology 27, 2005: 217–32).

  provides up to 50 percent of the calories: Tovoli et al., “Clinical and Diagnostic Aspects.”

  industrialized bread-making has fallen: Volta et al., “Non-Celiac Gluten-Sensitivity.”

  Fermentation times in modern: M. Gobetti et al., “Sourdough Lactobacilli and Celiac Disease,” Food Microbiology 2, April 24, 2007: 187–96.

  those with less severe: Ibid. Also see R. Di Cagno, “Gluten-Free Sourdough Wheat Baked Goods Appear Safe
for Young Celiac Patients: A Pilot Study,” Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition 51 (6), December 2010: 777–83.

  driven by the availability: Volta et al., “Non-Celiac Gluten-Sensitivity.”

  beyond the glutenin and gliadin: Yvonne Junker et al., “Wheat Amylase Trypsin Inhibitors Drive Intestinal Inflammation via Activation of Toll-like Receptor 4,” The Journal of Experimental Medicine 209 (13), 2012: 2395–408.

  modern eaters consume: Volta et al., “Non-Celiac Gluten-Sensitivity”; Freeman, “Celiac Disease.”

  about 4.8 grams of gluten: Scott Adams, Celiac.​com, July 26, 1996, http://www.​celiac.​com/articles/​38/1/How-much-​gluten-is-​in-a-normal-​diet-and-​how-much-​does-it-​take-to-​cause-damage-​in-a-​celiac/Page1.​html. (All data in this paragraph are from Celiac.​com.)

  despite a strict elimination diet: Z. Mermon et al., “An Orthodontic Retainer Preventing Remission in Celiac Disease,” Clinical Pediatrics 52 (11), November 2013: 1034–37.

  is not the cause of gluten-related disorders: Emily Eaton, Growing Resistance: Canadian Farmers and the Politics of Genetically-Modified Wheat (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2013), 69–73. The entire summary of the Canadian response to GM wheat is informed by Chapter 4, “Make Their Case Against GM Wheat: Articulating the Politics of Production Through Discourses of Consumption,” in Growing Resistance, 90–116.

  may not be as benign as initially believed: Anthony Samsel and Stephanie Seneff, “Glyphosate, Pathways to Modern Diseases II: Celiac Sprue and Gluten Intolerance,” Interdisciplinary Toxicology, 2013. Responses to “Samsel and Seneff,” as the article has come to be known, can be found online: http://www.​huffingt​onpost.​com/tamar-​haspel/​condemning-​monsanto-​with-_b_3​162694.​html; and http://www.​science20.​com/​agricultural_​realism/​a_fishy_​attempt_to_​link_​glyphosate_​and_​celiac_​disease-132928.

  genetically modify wheat: Freeman, “Celiac Disease.”

  statements about strategic breeding: Donald Kasarda, “Can an Increase in Celiac Disease Be Attributed to an Increase in the Gluten Content of Wheat as a Consequence of Wheat Breeding?” Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 61, 2013: 1155–59; Alison Aubrey, “Doctors Say Changes in Wheat Do Not Explain Rise of Celiac Disease,” The Salt, December 26, 2013, http://www.​npr.​org/​sections/​thesalt/​2013/09/​26/226510988/​doctors-​say-changes-​in-wheat-​do-not-​explain-rise-​of-celiac-​disease; “Dr. FAQ: Stefano Guandalini on the Rise of Celiac Disease,” ScienceLife, February 5, 2014, http://sciencelife.​uchospitals.​edu/​2014/​02/​05/​dr-faq-​stefano-​guandalini-​on-the-​rise-of-​celiac-​disease/.

  does not always support: Moises Velasquez-Manoff, “Who Has the Guts for Gluten?” The New York Times, February 23, 2013, http://www.​nytimes.​com/2013/​02/24/​opinion/​sunday/​what-really-​causes-​celiac-disease.​html.

  explorations of the human microbiome: Martin J. Blaser, Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues (New York: Henry Holt, 2014), 5–11. See also Maria Sellitto et al., “Proof of Concept of Microbiome-Metabolome Analysis and Delayed Gluten Exposure on Celiac Disease Autoimmunity in Genetically At-Risk Infants,” PLOS One 7 (3), 2012, http://www.​ncbi.​nlm.​nih.​gov/pmc/​articles/​PMC3303818/.

  precedes a celiac-disease diagnosis: C. Cicerone et al., “Th17, Intestinal Microbiota and the Abnormal Immune Response in the Pathogenesis of Celiac Disease,” Gastroenterology Hepatology (Bed and Bench) 8 (2), 2015: 117–22.

  In 2013, the New York Times reported: Velasquez-Manoff, “Who Has the Guts for Gluten?”

  “celiac iceberg”: Freeman, “Celiac Disease.”

  there’s been a fourfold increase: University of Nottingham, “Fourfold Increase in Rate of Diagnosed Cases of Celiac Disease in the UK,” ScienceDaily, May 11, 2014, www.​sciencedaily.​com/​releases/​2014/​05/​140511214807.​htm (accessed June 5, 2015).

  For every one person: Tovoli et al., “Clinical and Diagnostic Aspects.”

  Africa, Asia, and South America: N. Gujral et al., “Celiac Disease: Prevalence, Diagnosis, Pathogenesis and Treatment,” World Journal of Gastroenterology 18 (42), November 14, 2012.

  In Asia in particular: Sapone et al., “Spectrum of Gluten-Related Disorders.”

  recover more quickly: Andrew Pollack, “As Celiac and Gluten Sensitivities Gain Prominence, Drug Companies Race to Find Treatments,” The New York Times, April 28, 2015, http://www.​nytimes.​com/2015/​04/29/business/​celiac-​diseases-​prominence-​has-drug-​companies-racing-​to-find-​treatments.​html?​smprod=​nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-​iphone-​share&_r=0.

  8. Strange Grains

  dermatitis herpetiformis: Also known as DH, dermatitis herpetiformis is often an early sign of celiac disease, and is frequently mentioned as a symptom in online information about celiac disease. Eugenia Lauret and Luis Rodrigo, “Celiac Disease and Autoimmune-Associated Conditions,” BioMed Research International: Article ID 127589. Published online July 24, 2013.

  “beany”: The How Can It Be Gluten Free Cookbook (America’s Test Kitchen, 2014), 11, 18.

  “tree bread”: H. E. Jacob, Six Thousand Years of Bread: Its Holy and Unholy History (New York: Lyons Press, 1944), 38.

  castagne e legumi: Ibid.

  In especially ghastly times: Ibid.

  the Scandinavians used: Ibid.

  And when the Puritans reached: Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (New York: Penguin, 2007), 25.

  9. The Fearful Gourmand

  dine out 90-percent less: Scott Adams, Celiac.​com, April 9, 2010, http://www.​celiac.​com/​articles/​22077/1/​Take-Charge-of-​Your-Meal-​When-​Eating-​Out/​Page1.​html.

  “roving gourmand”: See “One Foot in the Grave,” in Jim Harrison, The Raw and the Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand (Boston: Grove, 2002).

  10. The Less-Traveled GF Road

  I began to root around: My sources consisted of food and culinary encyclopedias: The Oxford Companion to Food, The Cambridge Companion to Food, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, Food Lover’s Companion.

  a case for calling flatbread: William Rubel, Bread: A Global History (London: Reaktion Books, 2011), 100.

  “bread” was most likely synonymous: Ibid.

  as America’s Test Kitchen suggests: The How Can It Be Gluten Free Cookbook (America’s Test Kitchen, 2014), 201.

  papadums or papads: Alan Davidson and Tom Jain, The Oxford Companion to Food (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 622.

  domesticated in China around 3,000 BC: The dates given for buckwheat domestication are various, with the most conservative at 1000 BC and the earliest at 6000 BC. Andrea Pieroni, “Gathering Food from the Wild,” in The Cultivation of Plants, eds. Sir Ghillean Prance and Mark Nesbitt (New York: Routledge, 2005), 58.

  11. Spring at the Market

  raw beet juice: The discussion about the benefits of nitrates in beetroot juice has since become more complex. Studies investigating the benefits of beetroot juice include F. J. Larsen et al., “Dietary Inorganic Nitrate Improves Mitochondrial Efficiency in Humans,” Cellular Metabolism 13 (2), February 2, 2011:149–59. More general-interest articles can be found on the Sweat Science blogs: http://sweats​cience.​com/​the-beet-​goes-on-​nitrates-improve-​cycling-time-​trial-performance/. Recent, more critical inquiries can be found at: http://www.​runnersworld.​com/​drinks-​hydration/​dose-​reality-​beet-​juice.

  “Gluten Contamination Elimination Diet”: Justin Hollon et al., “Trace Gluten Contamination May Play a Role in Mucosal and Clinical Recovery in a Subgroup of Diet-Adherent Non-Responsive Celiac Disease Patients,” BMC Gastroenterology 13 (40), 2013.

  nixtamalization: See, for example, Alan Davidson and Tom Jain, The Oxford Companion to Food (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 534.

  12. The God Enzyme

  But Omission th
rust questions: Critics of the Craft Brewing Alliance’s Omission beer include the Gluten Free Dietician: http://www.​gluten​freedie​titian.​com/​omission-beer-​the-controversy-​over-​gluten-free-​labeling-of-​malt-based-​beverages-​continues/.

  have approved Omission: CSA Recognition Seal and explanation: http://www.​csaceliacs.​org/​labeling_​beer_with_​gluten_​content_​statements.​jsp.

  R-5 ELISA: M. L. Colgrave et al., “Using Mass Spectrometry to Detect Hydrolysed Gluten in Beer That Is Responsible for False Negatives by ELISA,” Journal of Chromatography 1370, November 28, 2014: 105–14. See also P. Koehler et al., “AACI Approved Methods Technical Committee Report: Collaborative Study on the Immunochemical Determination of Partially Hydrolyzed Gluten Using an R5 Competitive ELISA,” Cereal Foods World 58 (3), 2013: 154–158. The abstract can be found at the NFCA website, http://www.​celiaccentral.​org/​research-​news/​Celiac-​Disease-​Research/​134/​vobid—10134/.

  “quite safe”: Gilbert Kruizinga, et al., “Threshold for Gluten-Induced Mucosal Damage,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, November 28, 2012.

  not designed to measure: B. Gessendorfer et al., “Preparation and Characterization of Enzymatically Hydrolyzed Prolamins from Wheat, Rye, and Barley as References for the Immunochemical Quantitation of Partially Hydrolyzed Gluten,” Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 395 (6), November 2009: 1721–28; Colgrave et al., “Using Mass Spectrometry”; National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, “Study Validates the R5 Competitive ELISA,” August 1, 2013, http://www.​celiac​central.​org/research-​news/​study-​validates-​r5-competitive-​elisa-​10134/​pg—1/.