Baking Therapy
Take flour, eggs, butter and sugar and you have all the ingredients you need for some free therapy. Here, four avid bakers tell Jill Foster how baking has helped them through tough times…
‘Baking takes my mind to another world’
JAMES WYTHE, 32, is a health coach and food blogger who founded healthylivingjames.co.uk. His cookbook Healthy Living James: Over 80 Delicious Gluten-free and Dairy-free Recipes Ready in Minutes (Headline, £20) is out now.
James lives in Bournemouth with his wife, Luise and their dog Peanut – follow him on Instagram @healthylivingjames
One day in early December 2010, I woke up feeling really unwell. I thought I had food poisoning. But it continued and by the following month, I was completely wiped out. It got to the point where my dad had to physically carry me into the doctor’s surgery because I couldn’t talk or walk.
I was rushed to hospital where doctors thought I might have a brain tumour. It was terrifying but after several scans and tests, they could find nothing wrong. They thought it might be some kind of viral infection and I was sent home to recover.
For the next six months, I lay in bed in a darkened room, barely able to move. I couldn’t tolerate light or hold a conversation –I couldn’t even text friends. I’d been so fit and active before. A huge sports fan, I’d been working towards being a professional golfer, but now I could barely lift my head.
Eventually I was diagnosed with ME, but the doctors said there was little they could do to treat it. A nutritionist recommended supplements and cutting out gluten and dairy, but it was another 18 months before I was able to get out of bed. I distinctly remember the first time I stepped out of the front door – everything seemed so big.
But that’s when I started cooking and baking. I knew that I had to help myself, so while Luise was out working, I would use what little energy I had to cook healthy, delicious meals and bakes. I’d have a chair in the kitchen so I could sit down while chopping or stirring. Food became a passion, an outlet for me to relax. I started teaching myself new recipes and that’s when friends and family suggested that I share them online. I was shy at first, but decided to go for it, and it’s grown from there.
I bake regularly. As I have an egg allergy, my bakes tend to be vegan as well as gluten-free. There’s no margin for error with baking and you have to really concentrate on the recipe but that’s great because it means I have to focus. It feels as if my brain goes into another world and I can’t think about anything else. It’s so therapeutic.
TRY IT YOURSELF
James’ recipe for glutenand dairy-free garlic flatbread is on page 44
I COULDN’T BAKE WITHOUT…
◆ Chia seeds – mixed with water, they are a great egg replacer in cakes.
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