Table of Contents
Adapting to a Celiac’s Life
I’ve learned to adapt to the lifestyle of a celiac: changing my diet, learning to cook, discovering the continuously growing and never-ending cycle of disappointments that the food industry has created. And it has been enlightening to be sure. Isabelle, for all of her allergies, has taught me that when you find something that works, stick to it or else risk the consequences of getting sick. We’ve done a number of things to decrease any reactions that Isabelle might have as a Celiac with a multitude of different allergies both common and not. This ranges from decreasing our eating out, adapting every recipe to fit our needs, and even going so far as to making our own bread and ice cream from scratch. And for a while this was going well – until we came across the incredible realization that I have a sorghum allergy.
Using Gluten-Free Flour Blends
Let’s take a couple steps back. As I mentioned, we’ve started making our own bread. It’s been some of the best bread that I’ve ever had and we found a cost-effective flour blend that works for our needs. We ordered a 25-lb bag of that flour to decrease cost and to keep us ready to make bread, cake, cookies, and whatever else we would need flour for at any time. If you haven’t already, check out our posts on making the bread here and here.
Our gluten-free pound cake, pre-sorghum allergy.
Our gluten-free pound cake, pre-sorghum allergy.
It wasn’t until we started making some heavier breads like pound cake or banana bread that we uncovered that I was having some sort of digestive misery. For a while, I passed it off as a coming of age story… Learning that getting older meant that your stomach would be more sensitive. I even contemplated joining a club where I’d meet an older friend that could teach me the ropes of this newfound thing we call life. However, we started to do some testing and found that one of the top ingredients of the best blend we ever had that Isabelle could eat was sorghum which wasn’t always present in some of the other, less enticing blends we used. You know what blends I’m talking about, the ones that mix two different rice flours together, some xanthum gum, and then throw on a pricing sticker of about 10000% above market value.
What is Sorghum?
We started to try other flour blends and ingredients to see if sorghum was the problem. Turns out it is. I could have the same heavy breads if they didn’t have sorghum in them. I have a sorghum allergy. Sorghum is an ancient grain that originated in Africa, grows tall like corn, and is now grown in many parts of the world, especially drier areas. Most likely, you’re not going to have many run-ins with sorghum, if at all, unless of course you have a gluten allergy and need to start looking for something to replace wheat, rye, etc. It was because of my dietary changes shifting to a gluten-free diet that I became exposed to sorghum and learned that I have a sorghum allergy.
I have a Sorghum Allergy
For my entire life, I thought I had no allergies. I’d never had any problems before. It’s not until you take a step back from it all and see that maybe I’ve had allergies my whole life and never known it. Sometimes, eating a cookie here or there with sorghum won’t bother me. Turn those cookies into cake and that’s where the real problems begin. It starts with some subtle discomfort and then turns into heavy pains that make it feel like your whole stomach is being weighed down. I’ve tolerated it up until now chalking it up to getting older, but it seems that there’s more to it than that.
A sorghum allergy can affect people in many different ways. Mine tend to be as specified above but depending on the severity of the reaction and amount eaten, these could change. Knowing this, I’ve had to make a few changes to the day-to-day that I hope amount to something substantial.
The Day-to-Day with a Sorghum Allergy
Cutting sorghum out of the diet has been difficult, but I’ve found myself to be happier and in less discomfort on the day-to-day. My true pain comes from having to ruin a perfectly good flour blend we both agreed upon being great that we can no longer buy. It can be difficult to find quality products for Isabelle due to her allergies, so the sorghum allergy was a big hit for us, but I forced Isabelle to use the rest of the sorghum flour blend for her and we have since been doing research on our own flour blend. Hopefully, it’ll be a good one.
In a celiac household where the celiac is also allergic to corn and soy, it can be difficult to adjust to a sorghum allergy as well. Making our own bread, pizza crusts, and more have now been impacted by my inability to maintain a sorghum diet. Sure, I have my meals that include gluten and she has meals that she gets to enjoy without me, but it’s always been a team effort and adjusting to things this differently can be a struggle.
This change has launched us into the rabbit hole once again, researching and coveting every detail we can find on all the gluten-free flours and how they function. What’s good for baking? What is a good substitute for sorghum when you have a sorghum allergy? What helps to expand properly when baking? And these are only a few of the questions we’ve needed to ask.
Conclusion for a Sorghum Allergy
If like me you’ve shifted to a gluten-free diet and started having some food allergies, I suggest looking into a sorghum allergy. It’s in a lion’s share of gluten-free items and isn’t always as noticed as some of the other items. There’s certainly nothing wrong with it if you’re not having reactions, but for those of us that do, I suggest looking elsewhere.
A sorghum allergy should never be a devastating experience, especially for those without gluten problems as well. But to our circumstances, this is a lasting effect that has caused us to further hone our craft in both cooking and baking. Once again, we are back to the drawing board, except instead of deciding whether or not to bake our own bread, we’re now discussing how to make the blend that could make the bread in the first place. It seems as we go, we keep moving closer and closer to the inception of how our food gets made. Maybe next, we’ll start growing our own crops on our very cushy 10 ft by 10 ft patio. Only time will tell.
Hi there.
I am GF, and also have allergy to sorghum. If you find a good GF flour blend, for baking, that has no sorghum, and can be purchased in bulk, I would be very interested.. I am currently using King Arthur, and Trader Joe’s.
Hello, from California. ☺
Goof Luck to you, and Thank You!
Hi, Kim!
Great question! From what we’ve seen, King Arthur flour does contain sorghum. However, Pillsbury gluten-free flour does not. The only issue with that one is that you can only buy it in 2 lb bags, rather than bulk.
One suggestion that we can make is making your own blend (which we’ll be posting about shortly), or at least mixing a rice flour or rice-based gluten-free flour (like the Pillsbury) with something more sorghum-like, such as millet flour. We’ve made some things from millet flour alone, but it does help to have either multiple flours or at least add guar gum or xanthan gum. We also like cassava alone, but mostly for breading things.
There’s nothing on the market from what we’ve seen that 100% meets your (or our) needs, but these are our best suggestions.
We hope this helps! 🙂
– Peter & Isabelle
There’s something called tigernut flour that might be worth trying in your flour blend. Tigernuts are not a nut, nit a root vegetable, and they are also a good prebiotic.
Thanks for the tip! We hadn’t heard of that one, but we will look into it 🙂
I’m a Celiac and I cannot tolerate sorghum. King Arthur only has a couple of mixes that don’t have sorghum in them. The GF Bluberry Muffins are safe for me. Their products are very good but I wish they would take the sorghum out.
I use Cup-For-Cup GF Flour Mix and I’m very happy with that.
Hi Peter & Isabella
Thanks all the from Australia
I was always wondering why I get sick even with a strict GF diet until today when I have seen your article.
I decided to try gf weetbix again after several years of not having it because I felt sick when I ate it.
Today was not a good day, I have allergies to fructose and anaphylaxis to high fructose corn syrup and it is definitely a allergy.
I will be keeping my eye out on all gf products.
Thanks again
Elizabeth
Sorghum isn’t common in the UK but I bought some GF outta breads yesterday and they turned out to be one quarter sorghum.
My lip began to swell a little last night with a zit on my top lip that was frankly unusual- I don’t have skin issues much anymore.
By this morning, my top lip looked Marge Simpson. The left side of my face is distorted and swollen. I look as if I’ve been punched.
My daughter ate two of them and has a spot and mouth blisters but no serious swelling.
Don’t think I’ll be touching sorghum again. Very worrying.
Hi,
I’ve been GF since 98’ after at least 6yrs of belching and feeling crappy then finally dizzy spells from the unknown gluten allergy. 10 yrs ago at a GF Thanksgiving I had GI symptoms that made me think I’d somehow found some gluten. The hostess & I went over all the dinner ingredients and I don’t bake so I’d not run into sorghum flour before. She’d made dinner rolls and stuffing with the gf sorghum mix. I ate another of the very delicious rolls and sure enough sorghum was the culprit. Early in my GF learning curve I’d discovered that I couldn’t eat cream of Millet cereal. I didn’t pay much attention at the time. Just crossed it off and kept going. Millet & sorghum (aka milo the large round fillerseeds in cheap wild bird seed) are closely related. Otherwise I’m lucky other non gluten grains are no problem
Wow i didn’t know other people had so many issues, i am allergic to most nuts, glutens, soy, veggies. I didnt even know what celiac household was. Thanks for sharing! I just ate sorghum and didnt know what is was now im scared haha. I hopei dont have any severe reactions. And thanks for all the amazing information!!
I have an immune deficiency that leads to me developing new allergies frequently. This past year, it’s been sorghum, celery, and sesame seeds. Living in the U.S., there’s only 7 or 8 declared potential allergens on labels. Thank the gods for the European list which lead me to the research that helped me realize why I developed some of them.
While I do not have celiac disease, my sister and I have a higher genetic risk of it, so we both eat a GF diet.
Ok I don’t want to sound like a dick but if you eat something and you have some tummy trouble thats more like a sensitivity/intolerance that can be fixed with an elimination diet. Chances are if eat corn regularly you’ve already been sort of exposed stopped eating it and reintroduce it after addressing the leaky gut.
A truly allergy requires more than pepto, its Benadryl, asthma, hydrocortisone and at worse an epipen. A true allergy always ends with swelling, shortness of breath, accompanied by violent gi issues usually.
Sorry had to speak on that because I carry and Epipen and mini medic bag for a true shellfish allergy. Someone needed to explain the difference sounds like alot of people just have sensitivities especially those that have issues with corn.
You do sound like a dick.
1. You have no idea the medical diagnose – and saying “true allergy” does not mean what you think it means. There aren’t fake allergies even though back in the 2000s it was fashionable to think people were making up symptoms and it was just intolerance.
2. There are IgE mediated allergies (true allergies) AND non-IgE mediated allergies. Both list abdominal pain as a symptom. Both are considered allergies AND you can also experience a mixture of IgE and non-IgE reactions.
3. There is no indication whether any of these people have Ige or non-Ige reactions, or a mixture of both, therefore you CANNOT diagnose someone online with intolerance without actually seeing them and doing tests so why you would get angry at people online for a diagnosis you made up in your head is unbelievable (but sadly not uncommon).
4. I have a son who also carries an epipen – he ended up in hospital in late 2000s because doctors misdiagnosed a stomach ache as not an allergy symptom when later they admited abdominal pain was a big sign that he was allergic to certain foods. Allergies are a lot more complicated than hives and asthma.
Thank God for this website. After an appendectomy in 2004 and G.I. troubles I decided to try a gluten free diet in Sept. 2020. I was feeling great. Then, feeling deprived of any baked goods, I began to try the gluten free breads and other baked goods. Big mistake. Sorghum has me back to a severe G.I. flare up. Thank you all who pointed out the culprit.
Sorghum is worse for me than gluten. Horrible stuff and they are adding it to all kinds of gkuten-free flours, etc….not to mention it tastes horrible, like eating sand/ground rocks. The WORST!!!!
I am allergic to all grasses, so sorghum in my GF food caused chest pain and gas to the point where I was rushed to ER for heart attack, which it was not the case, thank goodness. My daughter is so allergic to grains, she only feels good on paleo diet.
Can’t eat sorghum either!
Omgosh, I have been suffering terribly with stomach pains that have radiated to my back for the past three months. It’s been debilitating at times. I am only recently linking sorghum to this pain. This article has been so refreshing to know this could be it and I’m not alone. Not that I wish this upon anybody, but it sure is nice to relate to others who go through the same challenges. For the past couple of days I finally am feeling better and virtually have no pain and I believe sorghum to be the culprit. I was additives to these cheesie type snack made with sorghum. Never again!! I have also recently discovered Teff flour and it is delicious and so easy to work with! Thank you for your article!!