Beat the wheat

COELIAC disease is triggered by eating gluten, the protein found in wheat, barley, oats and rye.

The only way to treat it is to totally embrace a gluten-free diet and embrace is scarcely the word — when the diagnosis is confirmed — one’s heart sinks at the prospect of life without the yummy foods that we look forward to.

Certainly one’s diet has to change but there is no reason to despair. Once the basic elements are understood it’s a question of investing in a new store cupboard of basic ingredients and some reliable recipes and then it should be perfectly possible to reproduce many favourite breads, cakes and puddings.