Einkorn and celiac disease

Has anybody had any experience wirth einkorn flour and gluten intolerance?

I have pleasantly dealt with my sons gluten intolerance through raw milk fermenting of all grains, seeds and flours (Nourishing Traditions' way) so I have no idea about einkorn flour, have you tried a Google search?

Jamie
  There have been some studies that show einkorn is more digestable for those with celiac disease. Some indication that the hybridization increased gluten and an old wheat assention like einkorn might not have as much as newer grains. I was just wondering if there was any first hand experience. I have aquired some seeds and am going to see what kind of bread it makes.

Thanks for the info Robert, that's interesting isn't it.

Be sure to post back and let us all know your experience with it.

Gosh, Robert, I've never heard of einkorn. As "an old wheat assention" is it fairly similar to wheat, or spelt or is it more like one of the other ancient grains like kamut or quinoa?

I'm not celiac per se, but I'm so sensitive to gluten that if I have a stir-fry with a tablespoon or two of regular soy sauce, the little bits of wheat in that will give me a headache for two days afterward. I would be afraid there would be plenty of gluten in something made out of einkorn to get to me.

Still learning as I go. I guess most modern wheats come from emmer wheat.
My other half and her relatives are gluten intolerant and though I can make a good loaf of gluten free bread it's just not the same as wheat.

http://www.bio-oz.com.au/ancientgrain_pages/einkorn.html

http://www.einkorn.com/

Jocelyn Campbell wrote:
Gosh, Robert, I've never heard of einkorn. As "an old wheat assention" is it fairly similar to wheat, or spelt or is it more like one of the other ancient grains like kamut or quinoa?

All are a kind of wheat except quinoa which is not a grain at all. Kamut, acording to the wiki page is a brand of wheat of the type khorasan.  The unique thing about einkorn (I read at some of the sites quoted) is that the gluten is different... It is the same with casein, the stuff in cows milk is not the same as the stuff in goats milk. If it was just amount... I would think rye flour would be better than any of them.

I'm not celiac per se, but I'm so sensitive to gluten that if I have a stir-fry with a tablespoon or two of regular soy sauce, the little bits of wheat in that will give me a headache for two days afterward. I would be afraid there would be plenty of gluten in something made out of einkorn to get to me.

Sounds almost like leaky gut... do you have any problem with milk products? Anyway, sounds like you are dealing with it fine. You can get soy sauce with no wheat in it BTW.

Robert Ray wrote:
Still learning as I go. <snip> My other half and her relatives are gluten intolerant and though I can make a good loaf of gluten free bread it's just not the same as wheat.

Mostly, I just avoid grains as much as I can these days, but for GF baking, check out:

http://glutenfreegirl.com/
http://glutenfreegirl.com/gluten-free-holiday-baking-2010/.

That second page link talks about weighing GF flours instead of measuring. Her understanding of GF flours and textures is pretty amazing. Plus, she's moving toward more whole foods cooking, so I'm excited to see her recipes evolve.  If I do bake with grains, my fave flours to use are sorghum and tapioca starch.

And yes, Len, it might be leaky gut, as I have been attempting to mitigate/treat yeast issues off and on for over 20 years. (I have been reactive to dairy since birth, actually.)

Been GF for almost 16 years, so I'm quite familiar with wheat free tamari.  Went off gluten for my son who reacted to it in my breast milk and voila! my sinus headaches disappeared!

I plan to keep improving my "inputs," and trying new things, but I don't know that I'll resolve the gluten issue in this lifetime.  I don't miss bread because I feel so much better without it.

Good luck with the baking Robert!

Jocelyn Campbell wrote:

That second page link talks about weighing GF flours instead of measuring. Her understanding of GF flours and textures is pretty amazing. Plus, she's moving toward more whole foods cooking, so I'm excited to see her recipes evolve.  If I do bake with grains, my fave flours to use are sorghum and tapioca starch.

Garbanzo bean flour seems to work well too.

And yes, Len, it might be leaky gut, as I have been attempting to mitigate/treat yeast issues off and on for over 20 years. (I have been reactive to dairy since birth, actually.)

My son is high functioning autistic. he has been leaky gut. We found the casein affected him more than the gluten. There is a bread recipe in a book called "breaking the vicious cycle" that uses no gluten and in fact no starch either. It uses almond flour and the crumb is about as close to wheat bread as I have ever seen (or tasted)... we have had to change it though as Mark can't have the dry curd cottage cheese. We have been able to use a "mock farmers cheese" (non-dairy) with not bad results though it doesn't "rise" as much. I make wild yeast bread for the rest of the family as well.

Mark is also sensitive to anti-biotics that have been fed to beef or the chickens who lay the eggs he eats. He eats a lot of meat and eggs as well as veggies and fruit, but no starch or processed sugars. It seems to help.

Jocelyn Campbell wrote:Been GF for almost 16 years, so I'm quite familiar with wheat free tamari.  Went off gluten for my son who reacted to it in my breast milk and voila! my sinus headaches disappeared!

It sounds more like wheat allergy rather than gluten intolerance but in either case avoiding wheat is the answer of course so all is well that ends well.

Hi Robert, I LOVE LOVE LOVE einkorn flour. I am in the process of completely switching my household to it from organic spelt and organic white wheat that we've been using for years.

If you go to my blog on the subject there are numerous testimonials of folks with even severe gluten intolerance that have no trouble with einkorn:

http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/the-4-reasons-why-im-switching-to-einkorn-wheat/

I plan on growing some einkorn wheat this year myself. I bought two packets earlier this year as soon as they came back in stock from Adaptive Seeds. I should have enough seed to plant two beds full of wheat this fall. I have not been able to find any consistent yield rate for einkorn wheat. I have found figures as low as 1536 lbs per acre and as high as 4200 lbs per acre. Based on these figures, I could get anywhere from one to three lbs of hulled grain from my beds.

I think I might have some kind of non-celiac gluten sensitivity. I've had digestive issues throughout my childhood that never significantly improved untill I removed gluten from my diet halfway through high school. I'm hoping I don't react to the gluten in einkorn wheat like I do with industrial dwarf bread wheat.

Before I even make sourdough bread out of this ancient grain, I will need to learn how to work with grains that have a low gluten content. The dough should be far stickier and less stretchy than modern refined bread flour, so it might require hydration levels greater than 100%. Based on my research, the easiest way to create a sour starter might be by fermenting raisins in a bowl of lukewarm water with sugar and molasses for one week and then straining the liquid from the bowl to be used as a levain.

Additionally, I have to figure out how to mill the grain to make flour. I currently have no grain mill yet and I broke my food processor last time I tried to use it to grind dent corn into meal.

I have grown Einkorn wheat in the past, but I don't grow it any more, because it was too difficult to de-hull.

Robert Ray wrote: Has anybody had any experience with einkorn flour and gluten intolerance?

I know this is really old, but I'm curious what the result was Robert? What I discovered is that I'm not gluten intolerant; I just can't tolerate modern wheat. I didn't learn until I'd already experimented with it that I should have just gotten tested for celiac.  But any of the old grains are fine.

Ryan M Miller wrote:I plan on growing some einkorn wheat this year myself. I bought two packets earlier this year as soon as they came back in stock from Adaptive Seeds. I should have enough seed to plant two beds full of wheat this fall. I have not been able to find any consistent yield rate for einkorn wheat. I have found figures as low as 1536 lbs per acre and as high as 4200 lbs per acre. Based on these figures, I could get anywhere from one to three lbs of hulled grain from my beds.

I think I might have some kind of non-celiac gluten sensitivity. I've had digestive issues throughout my childhood that never significantly improved untill I removed gluten from my diet halfway through high school. I'm hoping I don't react to the gluten in einkorn wheat like I do with industrial dwarf bread wheat.

Before I even make sourdough bread out of this ancient grain, I will need to learn how to work with grains that have a low gluten content. The dough should be far stickier and less stretchy than modern refined bread flour, so it might require hydration levels greater than 100%. Based on my research, the easiest way to create a sour starter might be by fermenting raisins in a bowl of lukewarm water with sugar and molasses for one week and then straining the liquid from the bowl to be used as a levain.

Additionally, I have to figure out how to mill the grain to make flour. I currently have no grain mill yet and I broke my food processor last time I tried to use it to grind dent corn into meal.

I have planted a trial bed of einkorn wheat this fall along with some Winter rye. If the plants grow well this year, I'm hoping I can bake some sourdough bread from the grain or at least cook the einkorn grains as farro. So far, the rye and wheat seem to have survived Winter even with severe waterlogging of my growing soil. I cannot say the same thing about my barley or oats.

I am curious what people do to de-hull the einkorn wheat on a small scale. My family has a gluten intolerance, but einkorn wheat is just fine for them. So, if possible I would like to grow about a 1/4 acre of it this year. But, need a little advice on how to de-hull.

I don't have a large plot to really play with the Einkorn seriously. What I did to dehull the berries of my small crop was to fab up a hopper above a pasta roller and with the rollers tight enough to separate hull from berry. If I were ever to grow a quantity of Einkorn I'd have to come up with a better way. Einkorn has proven to be digestible for my GF family members. Locally it is just not as prevalent as other GF flours. I find that grinding my own GF flours from what is in the pantry works well for us and the ground GF flour is fresh. I am not gluten intolerant and there is more of a crusty regular boule for me or a focaccia with coarse salt, basil and olive oil, when i bake regular bread. Still perfecting my gluten free baking skills.

Good idea, do you have metal or rubber rollers on that pasta machine?  I have the metal rollers and I wonder if there would be enough grip to pass them through. I will plant and find out.

I’m of the opinion that a lot of people who think they have gluten intolerance are just reacting to the indigestible cellulose in modern hybridized wheat, or to the herbicides, pesticides and high nitrate fertilizers used to grow it.  I have a problem with wheat if conventionally grown, but can eat organic with impunity.  

Einkhorn is the wheat that came with the earth. Some gluten intolerant people do not react to this type of wheat. This has been proven through blood tests counting the number of gluten antibodies present after consuming Einkhorn, as compared to the flood of antibodies present when consuming modern wheat. Kamut and Spelt are similar in nature to Einkhorn. Modern wheat saved alot of lives from starvation and dramatically increased wheat production per acre. So its not all bad but in the long run it caused many future health problems. Modern wheat also has a very high glycemic index and causes huge spikes in blood glucose, even more-so than processed sugar.

Another downside to modern wheat production was that it replaced vast areas of native grasses, leading to massive soil erosion, ultimately causing the horrible dust bowl catastrophe of the 1930s...

The ancient wheats were both naturally hybridized in the wild like many wild plants and there was also some intentional hybridization by ancient peoples as early as 8000 years ago...