Wheatless bread hit with allegy sufferers

Press, 26 June 1989, Page 16

Wheatless bread hit with allegy sufferers

NZPA-AP Rome A United Nations scientist who discovered a cheap, practical method to bake bread without wheat was looking for a way to help the Third World feed itself with its own grains. But Mr Morton Satin’s mailbox now is full of recipe requests from Canadas and the United States, where huge fields of wheat are common. The wheatless bread is proving a hit with the tens of thousands of people with Celiac Disease, a severe allergy to protein in some grains. “It is difficult to imagine a life, particularly in the north, the developed world, without bread. Bread is our staple,” Mr Satin said. “We have a tendency to take it for granted, of course.” For unexplained reasons, Celaic Disease occurs mostly in the developed world. The Canadian Celiac Association says at least one in 2500 people in North America suffers from the ailment. Mr Satin said the incidence was as high as one in 300 in some parte of western Ireland.

People who suffer from it cannot drink beer or eat bread, pasta, cakes, cookies or any other products made from wheat, rye, oats or barley. The disease is characterised by an inability to tolerate gluten, a protein that

occurs naturally in those grains. It is a life-long disease that can be controlled, not cured, only with a glutenfree diet. So Mr Satin’s recipes offer celiac sufferers the kind of relief that diabetics get from artificial sweeteners. The Canadian biochemist demonstrated his method at a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation news conference in January which he said created “an avalanche” of interest. Mr Satin, the agency’s head of Food and Agricultural'Services, said that baking bread with rice, cassava, maize, millet or sorghum offered poor farmers new markets for their crops. It also provided an alternative for countries unable to grow wheat or too poor to import it. A day after the news conference, Mr Satin explained the process again in a radio interview with the Canadian Broadcast Company. The network called back the next day to say to him it had been flooded with calls from celiac sufferers asking for recipes. As word spread, F.A.O. began to get letters from celiacs and celiac associations, along with Governments and bakers in the developing world and research institutes. F.A.O. responds to each letter by sending recipes and detailed instructions on how to bake the breads.