Way to a ‘wheatless’ diet

Press, 2 May 1985, Page 16

Way to a ‘wheatless’ diet

JACQUELINE STEINCAMP

talks

to Lynette Coffey about the family experience that led her to write “Wheatless Cooking.”

She’s an unlikely nutritional pioneer. Twentyseven year old Melbourne signwriter, Lynette Coffey, mother of three, is the creator of the first collection of wheatless, baked goods recipes. Her pioneering efforts to create wheatless recipes for cakes, biscuits, desserts, pastries, and bread arose from the desperate, chronic illnesses of her son. ■

The total improvement in his health after wheat was removed from his diet, now causes Mrs Coffey and her husband Roland Coffey to despair of Western medi-, cine, and to question Western diet. Lynette and Roland Coffey are in New Zealand to promote the second edition of “Wheatless Cooking,” published by Greenhouse Publications. The book features recipes which would normally be made with wheat flour. The new edition includes gluten-free and sugar-free recipes. These Mrs Coffey says, will meet nutritional requirements for diabetic and hypoglycemic people, and those with coeliac disease. The seed for “Wheatless Cooking” was sown when a naturopath suggested wheat allergies as a possible cause for the chronic asthma, diarrhoea, bronchial congestion, and “glue ear” of her

three-year-old son, Lee. After finding there were no wheatless cookery books in shops or libraries, Mrs Coffey began to develop her own recipes. She recalls trials, errors, and disasters. Slowly, with the help of a home economist friend, a range of recipes evolved. “I discovered that wheat is a very convenient grain. No single one of the alternative flours — rye, oats, barley, rice, millet, maize or buckwheat — could do the job that wheat could do. I had to find out which went best with which, and the right balance of quantities,” she said in Christchurch this week. The whole family prefer many of the wheatless recipes to standard wheat flour verisons. “The Jubilee Cake, the Potato Pastry, the Aussie Quiche, and the Sour Cream/Raisin Bread are particularly successful.” “By combining rice and soy flours, I came up with a cake that is just as white and fluffy as a white, wheat

flour cake. Even if Lee grew out of his allergies, there’s no way I’d ever go back to using white wheat flour for cakes.” Lynette Coffey feels there may be many factors contributing to the increase in wheat allergies. These include a widespread impairment of individual immune systems arising from stress, environmental pollution, and other allergies. Other factors may be spraying of crops and grains, mould inhibitors and preservatives in bread, and a Western, over-dependence on wheat. “I believe there are many more of us who are allergic to what we call ‘the staff of life’ than anyone realises. Symptoms ranges from extreme illness, to just never feeling ‘quite right’.” “Nutritionists have told me that wheat is absolutely necessary to health, yet Asian people seem to stay much healthier than we do, and for so much longer. They have little, or no, wheat or dairy products in their diet,” she

Mrs Coffey considers that her son’s allergies came about because of her own allergy to milk during that particular pregnancy. "Australian allergy clinics now believe that allergies can be passed on from the mother to the foetus.” "Lee had a particularly unfortunate start, because the hospital supplemented breast feeding with cow’s milk on account of his incessant crying. Then they took him off all milk and put him on cereals at five weeks.” Had wheat not been removed from Lee’s diet. Mrs Coffey is convinced that by now he would be a chronic asthmatic, with persistent bronchial problems and diarrhoea; that he would have been operated on for his ‘glue ear,’ and would be receiving regular antibiotics. “My doctor told me it is normal for children to need antibiotics between four and six times a year, yet now we have three children at home who have never had antibiotics. “We attribute this to the fact that we are all eating the same, wheat-free diet.” Lynette Coffey believes that the wide-ranging effects of allergies are often due to disruption of mucous membranes, and production of excess mucus.

The possibility of a link between “glue ear" and wheat allergv is a subject dear to Mrs Coffey. ‘“Glue ear' is a major problem in Australia, and the medical profession is dealing with it with antibiotics, by taking out tonsils and adenoids, and by putting drainage tubes in ears. “My son’s glue ear cleared up immediately he went off wheat, and contacts in allergy clinics in Melbourne tell me the same thing. “If parents would take such children off wheat, many might be saved from going through these operations,” she said. Lynette Coffey hears from many people who claim their chronic health problems have largely faded away following the removal of wheat, and in some cases, dairy products, from their diet. She claims that people with severe asthma say they are breathing normally, and can live without constant use of asthma puffers. She maintains that depression and some types of schizophrenia may also be linked with wheat allergies. If Mrs Coffey’s claims are correct, it means great news for many sick people. Doctors may be hearing some interesting stories in the near future