“Millet is gluten-free. It is not Grain Free!”

Just to not confuse new people to the disease and diet.”

Millet, common name for several species of the grass family (see Grasses), and for their small-seeded grain.

Millet is highly nutritious, non-glutinous and like buckwheat and quinoa, is not an acid forming food so is soothing and easy to digest. In fact, it is considered to be one of the least allergenic and most digestible grains available and … usually contains less protein than wheat or rye and more protein than rice.

Fundamental Flour Facts has a lot of info on this topic.

Still, much confusion seems to swirl around the word flour… The Concise Oxford Dictionary offers “any fine powder” as one of the definitions of the word “flour”.

Wheat is a cultivated grass, just like corn and rice.  … it became imperative to divide flours into categories: gluten containing grass flours, gluten free grass flours and flours from other plants. I have been able to further sub divide the flours from other plants into ground nut flours, seed flours, legume flours and root or vegetable flours.

This is some of the information I have amassed through extensive reading and careful research. If it contains any inaccuracies, omissions, or errors please bring it to my attention, so I can correct the information. I am not a specialist of any kind, just one woman searching for a way to better understand the foods I eat, so that I can recover my health.

The Grass Family of Plants:…

Gluten Free Grasses or grains:

• Corn / Maize Flour or Meal
• Millet Flour
• Rice Flour – all varieties, white & brown
• Glutinous Rice Flour ( also know as sticky rice or Mochi )
• Wild Rice Flour ( the seeds can be cooked whole or ground into a dark flour )
• Sorghum Flour
• Teff Flour – dark and ivory
• Sugar Cane
• Bamboo
• Job’s Tears / Hato Mugi / Coixseed / Adlay / Adlai ( barley like in appearance, grain that is gluten free and can be ground into flour)

Please check out her site for MUCH MUCH more information!

Summary?  Use with care!  Determine if it is GRAINS you are allergic to, modified grains ( the genetically altered ones we use so commonly today) OR if it’s the glutens themselves (aka Celiac).  If it makes you ill… DO NOT EAT IT.

So, food allergies… restrictions.. what ever you want to call it.

It’s been almost two months since we started this gong show and .. well.. It is noticeable.  In the kids if nothing else.  Gabe especially.  The poor little guy’s entire digestive system seems to be starting to recover and he is actually beginning to enjoy foods again.

THe down side of all this is there are no indisputable proof that this is linked to the foods.  Just a whole lot of ” coincidental” possibilities.

…. well… ok.. maybe the day we fed Roarke Kinder Egg Milk Chocolate for breakfast at the movie theatre and he later upchucked all over the house steps for his father.

Or… the night I threw a temper tantrum and shared a hamburger ( bun and cheese and all!) and a mud pie with extra hot fudge… then spent the rest of the day and night paying for it!!!!!

So.. now I start the slow progress of returning key foods back to the diet and see if they are ok.   What first?   EGGS!!!!    In Controled amounts!

“Welcome to a whole new world of baking, where beans can be used as flour, ingredients are often added in reverse order, and wheat in any form is as welcome as rat poison.”    

Bette Hagman, Author of “The Gluten-Free Gourmet”