Deeks Health Food—baking bread ahead of its time
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It’s a great time to avoid gluten.
Where once coeliac sufferers were alone in their quest to avoid bread and baked products which played havoc with their immune systems, now a gluten-free option is usually available almost anywhere you choose to eat.
Health-conscious eaters are also increasingly choosing the GF way of life because they want to feel and look better.
For Olympian and World Marathon Champion Robert de Castella, a gluten-free life has been his way of life for over 30 years And such is his commitment to gluten and grain-free eating that he has created a business out of it.
Twenty years ago, he and his friend and immunobiologist Bill Giles decided to make available to the public the sort of nutrient-rich and gluten and grain-free products that they used to sustain their own health journeys.
Rob was, of course, an elite athlete, while Bill has been a clinical biologist with nearly 30 year’s of experience treating people with chronic immune-related diseases and illnesses such as cancer and autoimmune diseases at his clinic, Health Ecology Solutions,
They set up Deeks Health Foods stocking gluten-free breads and baked goods out of a tiny bakery in Pearce.
“We just said, ‘Okay, well let’s take a punt and see whether it’s possible to make a commercial bread without gluten or grains’. So we sort set that up and put in the oven and started baking,” recalls Rob.
And people came from all over.
Soon they set up a café in Dickson to push the envelope of gluten and grain-free food which was not only a lifeline to those who had medical intolerances, but also provided wholesome café food to those who didn’t.
“We had families that would drive down from Sydney on the weekends to eat with us. And I still really clearly remember a family with a young 12 or 13 year old who walked in and said ‘Mum what can I eat in here?’ and the mum said ‘You can eat anything. You can eat the chocolate eclair or the lamington or the meat pie or the sausage roll.”
Now, Deeks runs a super-bakery out of Fyshwick to stock more than 100 supermarkets and specialty stores across the ACT, NSW, Tasmania, Queensland and South Australia.
They do a steady trade in direct orders to their website, where chocolate brownies, pasta, Christmas puddings, pies and sausage rolls and a dizzying array of breads are dispatched regularly. Deeks has also become an important health food resource to paleo and vegan eaters too.
It’s fair to say that research and development in the field has led to huge advances in quality and taste across the gluten-free spectrum.
“When we first started, the gluten-free products were absolutely horrible. They were like polystyrene—dry and crumbly and unappealing,” said Rob.
Now even Goodman Fielder puts out a GF product.
But Deeks products maintain a point of difference in that they are small batch, artisan products, are clean having none of the added preservative and chemicals used by major manufactures, and importantly are not only gluten-free but grain free.
For those who pay only passing attention to the idea of gluten-free eating, Bill breaks down the science into the basics.
Within the general community there is a growing awareness that grains and grain-derived flours can trigger immune responses in people who are not diagnosed with coeliac disease and who have no underlying conditions. Inflammation, discomfort, and irritable digestive systems can all be related to consuming the starchy seeds of corn, maize, rice, oats, barley, malt, millet, rye, triticale, sorghum, and all types of wheat, including duram, common wheat, spelt, kumat, einkorn and emmer.
In a nutshell, these seeds contain types of plant proteins such as prolamins (plant storage chemicals), lectins (defence toxins) and a variety of toxic communication-chemicals. Lectins such as wheat germ agglutinin can be baked out, but prolamins such as gluten cause leaky gut in all people to varying degrees. In the long-term these chemicals damage the intestinal linings and drain immune resources accelerating immune acclimatisation as well as hastening the ageing of the immune system (immune senescence). Most people who continually eat grains will find they age quicker, suffer bloating, immune depletion, chronic aches/pains and are more prone to autoimmune diseases and cancers.
Deeks breads have been scientifically formulated to contain superfoods such as quinoa and buckwheat rather than traditional bread-making ingredients. These are nutrient-dense, high fibre, protein-rich plant compounds which have anti-inflammatory properties.
Rob said Deeks offered a premium product and sometimes the price of a loaf of bread could put people off.
“It may feel like a bit more money to spend, but our products contain superior ingredients, and are baked in small batches. They are dense and filling and nutritious.”
Deeks has recently developed a new bread, its Crusty Artisan White Loaf, which most closely resembles sourdough and which was not only getting rave reviews, but was competitively priced at $10.90.
You can check out the enormous range of products on the Deeks website at Deeks.com.au, or head to any one of 42 local stockists across Canberra.
