Wheat Gluten

[PennyP]

I strongly try to follow a more traditional foods diet (or at least as much as my pocketbook will allow me) but I'm not all the way there yet. I do agree with the whole nourishing traditions approach, but not the paleo/primal style.

That said, is there anything specifically "wrong" with wheat gluten from a WAPF/NT standpoint? I know that seitan was a traditional food for centuries in certain asian areas, and its not chock full of chemicals and all. For people who aren't specifically gluten intolerant, whats the deal with gluten/seitan/wheat meat?

[FairyRae]

Wheat and other gluten filled grains are generally A-OK from a TF/WAPF standpoint. There are multiple wheat/spelt and rye based recipes that are traditional and included in NT.

I think a lot of folks come to TF because of some underlying health or allergy issues, which is why you see so many of us being gluten or dairy free, etc. But WAPF, in general, is pretty pro properly prepared wheat/spelt and rye, etc.

I sometimes feel bad when folks gather that paleo/primal/grainfree is a huge part of TF, just b/c the paleo/primal threads here are pretty active. (I'm big into being paleo/primal/grain free, so am part of these lively discussions a lot of the time. ) But tf, esp from a WAPF perspective, has a pretty big emphasis on soaked/sprouted whole grains (and legumes).

I think the key is figuring out which foods work best w/ your body and going from there, continuing to utilize tf food prep methods w/ those you do eat...

HTH!

ETA: I really know nothing a/b seitan/wheat meat though, or how traditional it is.

[PennyP]

My question really is- can wheat gluten/seitan really be properly prepared? Does gluten itself contain phytic acid? Does wheat gluten (pure gluten) need to be soaked, and can it even be? Will it even work if it is soaked? (I tried putting some lemon juice on some raw seitan and it fell apart.)

[FairyRae]

Sorry--I clearly missed your original question!!

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.co...at-grains.html

Something that may be helpful from the comments section:

The difference between soaking and fermentation is that in soaking, you're activating the seeds themselves to break down their own toxins. It's part of the natural sprouting process. Soaking also passively leaches out certain chemicals like tannins.

With fermentation, you're cultivating microorganisms that secrete enzymes that break those same chemicals down. They probably secrete them to break down the anti-nutrients so they can use the nutrients themselves. But we eat them before they can get that far! Your example of using yogurt is fermentation, because the yogurt contains microorganisms that partially digest the oats.

I think treating oats like that is a good idea, because oats are toasted when you buy them so simply soaking them in water doesn't do anything. That's because the toasting process destroys the enzymes that would otherwise break down phytic acid etc when they're soaked.

I wonder if the same would be true for wheat gluten in preparation? That fermenting as part of the process would help to breakdown phytic acid/antinutrients, even if the enzymes are not there? Not sure if it would work if soaked, at all, as you mentioned...

Hopefully someone else will know more...Good luck figuring it out!