For over a month now Paul and I have overhauled our diet and have been ‘food combining’. We were listening to a podcast together when it was mentioned and for both of us it was an ‘aha!’ moment. So we didn’t waste any time in embracing this new way of eating.
Food combining is based on the principles that when food is digested different enzymes are used for protein and carbohydrate which results in less than optimal digestion. So all you have to do is not mix the two in any one meal. Vegetables, apart from the starchy ones, are versatile and can be eaten with anything and fruit is best eaten on its own on an empty stomach.
It’s been a bit tricky working out what to do when you’re so used to eating a cheese sandwich or chicken curry with rice. We’ve adopted an almost exclusive vegetarian diet now so we can still enjoy rice, pasta and bread. When we put it on the scales we’d much rather go with the carbs 
After about 3 weeks of following our new regime, I noticed I was getting a bad reaction every time I ate bread. My face went red, itchy and a rash would appear on my neck and chin. You can’t believe how disturbing that was because I LOVE BREAD.
When I was a little girl my parents didn’t have much money so we had pre-cut bread that comes in a plastic bag. But each Saturday my grandparents would visit and bring a loaf from the bakers – this was my highlight of the week. The smell would drive me wild and then I’d be somewhere close to heaven when I bit through the crust into the bread. Oh, divine!
And now my beloved bread is no longer my friend. I haven’t eaten any for a while and I haven’t had any reactions either so bread has now been banished.
The good news is my jeans are falling off me and I need to go shopping to get the next size down (Paul did this after 2 weeks!!) and I feel healthier for making the changes to my eating habits.
I’ve substituted bread with Ryvita crackers but am open to any suggestions for a bread substitute. Any ideas?
Firstly, I’m sorry to hear about your allergy. I’m finding that a lot of people seem to have wheat/gluten allergies and it seems to be popping up a lot lately in people I know or know of.
Secondly, I just heard about the digestive enzyme diet for the first time last night. Since I read about it here, too, I think I’m going to take it to heart and give it a try (normally I wait for three times, but I can’t ignore this synchronicity).
Anyway, to answer your question, do you have access to Bob’s Red Mill (http://www.bobsredmill.com/ or something similar in the UK? Bob’s makes a wheat- and gluten-free flour for bread making, etc. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of other suggestions other than using potato, rice or oatmeal flours. I haven’t done a lot of research since wheat/gluten isn’t one of my allergens. I know there are gluten substitutes (I believe arrowroot is one of them) you can add to those flours to get the right chemical consistency for bread making. I’ve used them when making gnocchi and they were fine for that recipe (potato, potato flour and I can’t remember what I used for the gluten–I don’t think it was arrowroot, but something else).
If I come up with anything else, I’ll let you know. I’m starting to think I need to take a closer look at this subject, too.
Good luck!
Michelle