For a while, I bought into the growing movement of flour phobia and gluten intolerance. Like many others, I experienced uncomfortable bloating and general discomfort after eating bread—whether from the grocery store or even some bakeries. Friends and family around me echoed the same complaints, and before long, I had cut out all bread products from my diet, assuming gluten was the culprit. That changed when I visited Europe. There, I couldn’t resist indulging in fresh pão com chouriço or a simple steak sandwich. To my surprise, I didn’t feel bloated or sick afterwards. I felt fine—better than fine, actually. Confused, I brushed it off as a one-off, but once I returned home and resumed eating the bread available locally, all the symptoms came back. The real turning point came when I visited a friend for dinner. She served a beautiful, handmade sourdough loaf—crafted with Red Fife wheat—as an accompaniment to soup. Out of politeness and curiosity, I had a slice. Again, no symptoms. No bloating. No discomfort. I felt just like I had in Europe. When I told her about my experience, she nodded in understanding. She had gone through the same issues before she started baking her own bread. That’s when she opened my eyes to what’s really in most commercial flour. We often don’t stop to question why a bag of flour comes with an ingredients list. Shouldn’t flour just be… wheat? Instead, we’re consuming flour laced with additives, bleaching agents like benzoyl peroxide, dough conditioners, preservatives, and in some cases, even residues like glyphosate. These hidden ingredients may be the true source of our discomfort—not the gluten itself.