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Those who suffer from celiac disease have to avoid all gluten in their diet, but diagnosis is not the only concern. There has been concern that some gluten-free products on the market made with rice, corn and potato flour and xanthan or guar gum to improve texture have lower levels of essential nutrients for our bodies.
According to their results, published in Food Chemistry, bread made from quinoa and buckwheat had significantly higher nutritional content in terms of antioxidants and polyphenol than wheat bread.
“Therefore, these pseudocereal seeds represent feasible ingredients in gluten-free baking for increasing the antioxidant properties and phenolic content of gluten-free breads, and improving their overall nutritional quality,” they stated.
Some Study Details
“…as the presently available gluten-free products in the market have been shown to be of poor nutritional quality,” wrote the researchers, led by Eimear Gallagher from the Ashtown Food Research Centre, Teagasc.
Gallagher and her co-workers examined the polyphenol and antioxidant content of extracts of amaranth, quinoa, and buckwheat, and compared them to wheat. They subsequently investigated how sprouting and baking affected the results.
According to their findings, buckwheat topped the rankings for phenol content, followed by quinoa, then wheat, and finally amaranth.
Science grows
Studies as theze do support findings from the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University in New York, which found that replacing the “standard” gluten-free flours with those from ‘alternative’ grains like oats and quinoa may actually improve protein, iron, calcium and fibre intake.
Tina Turbin
From our home to yours, Tina Turbin
If you have any questions or suggestions just email me at info (at) GlutenFreeHelp.info.
I love quinoa and have been searching for more recipes with it as a main ingredient! Please post some if you have some good ones. Thanks!!
Love knowing this. I’ve tried before to research the nutritional qualities of replacement flours to no real avail. Does anyone know how sorghum stacks up? I’ve found that I really enjoy its flavor, but I want to make sure it’s not nutritionally devoid. Come to think of it, I’d also love to know about brown rice flour, as well. It would be nice to see them all ranked out, so to speak.
Incidentally, does anyone else seem to have a reaction to teff? I’ve tried it a few times, having heard about its supposed nutritional prowess, and I wound up throwing both the whole grain and ground flour versions out of my kitchen after having intestinal trouble after eating products with it in them. I know it’s supposed to be “GF” (or at least “gluten tolerable”), but it certainly didn’t seem that way to me. Am I an odd duck?
I am so glad to see this! I am always trying to explain to my kids, who constantly put gluten-free goodies in the shopping cart. that “organic” and “gluten-free” do not assure that this stuff is not junk! So many commercially-produced gluten-free baked goods are made with white rice flour, tapioca starch and sugar. I try to bake as many gluten-free breads, cookies, muffins, etc with whole grain flours, coconut flour or almond flour.