And granted, a few of these people actually are. Severely so. But the honest truth is that most of us aren't, and numerous studies have shown this. We've made gluten the enemy when in fact our increasingly rubbish bread may well be the culprit.Is it a surprise that most of us are just intolerant to cr*p? If you scoff a big fat burger roll from almost any supermarket or take-out and then feel like death, it's hardly surprising: the bread (if we can even call it that) has been bleached, and is made using huge amounts of yeast, plus improver (and even extra gluten!) in order to bypass the traditionally slow process of natural proving, which destroys toxins in flour. So head for a proper sourdough loaf before you scrap wheat altogether.And if you really can't do gluten? Sadly, the rash of gluten fear has produced more monsters than delights on the eating front, and the gluten-free aisles are filled with items which make one want to cry. But why go ascetic at the health shop? The most fantastic and indulgent starchy things I know are certain items off the classic Cantonese Yum Cha menu: Cheong Fan (spelled a thousand different ways) and Har Gau. They are made from, respectively, rice flour and wheat starch pastry with all the gluten removed. The slippery, translucent dumplings are sublime. There are many varieties of these wheat starch pastries, with assorted fillings; they all have the same pearly-translucent look, and you can't confuse them with the gluten-filled wheat dumplings.The lesson is, work with the tried and tested. Another good example is the Italian Torta Caprese, a chocolate cake from Capri which is gluten-free because it was born that way, rather than being mutated for medical reasons. It's by far the best flourless chocolate cake I know. Serves 8-10. You need: 200g dark chocolate, chopped, 4 eggs, separated, 175g caster sugar, 250g ground almonds, 200g butter. HOW: Line a 24cm cake tin with baking paper and grease sides. Heat oven to 180C. Heat butter until bubbling and hot. Take off the heat, throw in chocolate and cover (it's more traditional to grate or chop the chocolate really finely rather than melt it, but it's way more mission without the result being better). Beat egg yolks, ground almonds and sugar together. Whisk whites until soft peak stage. Mix melted choc and butter together, mix well into the yolk-sugar mix, then fold the whites into all of this. Spoon into tin and bake for around 45 minutes. The centre will still be gooey. Cool before eating, and dust with icing sugar if so inclined...