After changing to a gluten-free diet, you may be so focused on avoiding gluten that you overlook nutrition. Gluten-free flours offer relief to those who suffer from celiac disease or gluten sensitivity, but luckily switching to gluten-free grains doesn't mean sacrificing nutrition. A variety of gluten-free alternatives offer plentiful B vitamins, fat-soluble vitamins and a variety of minerals.
Types of Gluten-free Flours
Rice flour is the most popular wheat flour alternative. Rice flour is usually combined with other flours, such as potato starch flour and tapioca flour, to make a basic gluten-free flour mix. Garbanzo beans, fava beans and soy are gluten-free flour options that provide extra protein. Other gluten-free grains commonly used to make flour are quinoa, buckwheat, arrowroot, millet, teff and sorghum.
Vitamins and Minerals in Rice Flours
Brown rice flour contains a significant percentage of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recommended daily allowance for several vitamins. It provides 37 percent of the RDA for B-1, 6 percent for B-2, 40 percent for B-3, 57 percent for B-6, 8 percent for vitamin E. White rice flour contains the same vitamins as brown rice, but in smaller amounts because some nutrients are lost during the milling process. Eating rice flour also gives you the benefits of calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus and zinc in your diet.
Vitamins and Minerals in Bean Flours
Garbanzo bean flour, also called chickpea flour, contains 41 percent of the RDA for vitamin B-1, 8 percent for B-2, 11 percent for B-3, 38 percent for B-6, 5 percent for vitamin E, and 8 percent for vitamin K. As far as minerals, it contains calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, selenium and zinc. Fava bean flour contains calcium and iron. Soy flour has the same nutrients as garbanzo bean flour but slightly more B-2 and less of the fat-soluble vitamins E and K.
Nutrients in Other Gluten-free Flours
According to Reciperascal.com, if you choose amaranth flour for your recipe, you will benefit from added calcium plus an assortment of minerals. Teff flour also has calcium, plus thiamine and iron. Buckwheat flour will add B vitamins to your recipe. Sorghum flour contains a variety of vitamins and minerals. Millet flour boasts high iron levels, plus B-3 and magnesium. By including a variety of gluten-free flours in your diet, you will continue to benefit from a balanced assortment of vitamins and minerals.
References
- Gluten-free Grains and Flours for Baking and Bread
- Food.VegTalk.org; Nutrients in Rice Flour, Brown
- Food.VegTalk.org; Nutrients in Rice Flour, White
- Food.VegTalk.org; Nutrients in Chickpea Flour (Besan)
- Bob's Red Mill: Fava Bean Flour
- Food.VegTalk.org; Nutrients in Soy flour, low-fat, crude protein basis
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