Spelt flour

Spelt flour is notable for gluten, FODMAPs, oligosaccharides and nickel. Clear on histamine, tyramine, salicylate, sucrose, lactose, sorbitol, fructose and oxalates.

Yes — spelt flour is high in gluten. Spelt is a wheat, and the belief that it is tolerated by people who cannot eat wheat is the most persistent myth on this axis. Long sourdough fermentation does lower the FODMAPs in a spelt bread, which is probably where the impression comes from - it does not lower the gluten, and it is not safe in coeliac disease.

Spelt flour contains only low levels of FODMAPs. Spelt flour is a wheat, and sourdough spelt is lower than yeasted spelt. A flour concentrates whatever the seed held into a form used by the cupful, which is why the same plant can be low as a portion and high as a baked good. Long fermentation is the one process that lowers it: the yeast eats the fructan given hours rather than minutes. This food is not among the 55 grain products behind this axis's per-portion figures, so its level is a placing and not a measurement. Across the bread aisle the brand decides more than the type, gluten-free loaves included.

Spelt flour contains only low levels of oligosaccharides. Spelt is a wheat and carries fructans like one - the measured difference from modern bread wheat is small. What lowers spelt bread is that it is traditionally made with a long sourdough fermentation, and the bacteria eat the fructans. The process, not the grain.

Spelt flour contains only low levels of nickel. Spelt is a wheat, and its flour behaves like wheat flour here: the milling takes out the bran and germ where the metal sits. Two national surveys put bread and cereals among the groups that deliver most of the dietary nickel — near the top because they are eaten in quantity rather than because they are concentrated, and neither publishes a figure for a single grain. Amounts vary by brand and recipe, so always check the label of the exact product.