Free-from food scam

I remember when free-from foods first came out and I was absolutely delighted.  I was so sick of the very limited dietary choices I had.  I became veggie at a very young age and then when I was in my early twenties (more than 2 decades ago) I found out I had over 50 food intolerances.  I remember going into the supermarket after that test and bursting into tears as there was next to nothing I could eat.

So, when free-from foods started to appear not just in ‘health food’ shops but also in supermarkets I went crazy.  I got the cakes, crackers, breads, breadcrumbs, chocolates, ice-creams, pizza’s, pies, pastries, sauces, dips and various other ‘foods’ on a regular basis.  I thought they were healthy, as they did not have ‘nasty’ things in like wheat, gluten, dairy and such.  I was over the moon to be able to eat ‘normal’ foods again.

However, as my awareness of health and nutrition improved, I started to notice the insanely long lists of ingredients in most of these items and the fact they included seeds oils, e numbers, colourings, processed sugars, or sugar alternatives (most are even worse than sugar) and tons of lab made nasty ingredients.  I realised my free-from foods were not free at all, BUT they came with a heavy ‘price tag’ of screwing my health up even more.

So, I set about starting to make my own healthy versions of everything (and I have shared many of these recipes over the years on my website, Instagram & in my books).  I started to go more down the road towards being raw vegan.  Realising that things needed to change, and this felt like the healthiest direction.

I ordered in the almond/buckwheat/oat flours/butters/milks etc.  I made truly some of the most amazing looking and tasting cakes, pies, pizzas and pastries ever.  No processed sugars, wheat/gluten, dairy, e numbers, colourings, nothing nasty at all.  All nutrient dense beautiful pieces of art to eat.  I loved it, I loved how much I was considering my body.  Yes, I was shipping things in from all over the World, it was costing a fortune, and the carbon footprint of these foods was through the roof, but I believed my health was worth it!

But being fully raw vegan did not suit me, my digestive system was a mess, even with all the expensive pills, potions and powders and no matter how long I tried it for I never ‘adjusted’ to it like they say you will (and now I know why, but that’s a different story).

So, I decided to be part raw and part cooked vegan instead.  I could still make delicious free-from foods but some cooked.  I used almond, coconut, buck wheat flours etc, the nuts or oat milks, nut/seed butters and cacao etc and I used to create amazing breads, brownies, chocolates, crackers, pizza’s, pies, etc, all from natural wholefoods, no processed sugars, junk or lab created chemicals.

But they still made me bloat, I still did not feel my best and I did not understand why.

What I have come to realise is the WHOLE free-from foods concept is nonsense!  We are not ‘designed’ to eat these sorts of foods all year round, most days and in many different ways.  Bread, pasties, pizza’s, cakes, crackers, etc are not meant to be part of our daily or even weekly diets, no matter if they are gluten & wheat free chemically laden or organic whole food versions.  These foods if we wish to consume them should only be seasonal, local or at the least only for special occasions.  A few local, seasonal almonds won’t do much harm, however to make almond milk, butter or bread/cakes/pastries etc we are using HUGE amounts of almonds and then we are eating them is various different ways several times a week.  Then we add in the tahini, oat milk/crackers/crumbles etc on the other days.  And before we know it, our health wholefood diet, almost all come from other parts of the World and is all out od season and is being eaten in huge quantities most days.

We have completely lost our grip on how to eat naturally and healthily because we have completely forgotten that we are ‘designed’ to eat locally and seasonally.  And as such eating certain foods at certain (short) times of the year and then leaving them behind for the next available food is our optimum way to eat.

It is not possible for us to thrive eating non-local and non-seasonal foods as we do not have the microbiome for it, it causes inflammation in us, and the things they are meant to help our health with, they are almost certainly doing the exact opposite of as they are not meant for us in our part of the World or at least in that season.

I believe free-from is a scam, not just because all shop-bought free-from foods are toxic, but because almost all homemade free-from foods are potentially toxic to us too.