Gluten and wheat intolerance

More and more people these days suffer with an intolerance or allergy to gluten and wheat. Gluten is present in so many of the foods we eat and is often hard to avoid in processed food and baked goods, unless you cook them yourself from scratch. I have tried throughout this book to give alternatives to wheat and gluten, in the form of brown rice flour, buckwheat flour and chickpea flour. I find these three flours work well in a whole host of recipes where wheat flour is usually present. If you have never suffered from a gluten or wheat intolerance, it is unlikely you will while pregnant and there is no reason to avoid them. Excessive gluten in the diet has been linked with constipation, however, which can be more of a problem during pregnancy. If you are suffering with this, try reducing your gluten intake and upping your fibre in the form of fresh fruit and vegetables, brown rice, bulgur wheat, quinoa and buckwheat.