Gluten Free Paleo Vegetarian Coconut Flour Bread, and a touch on Phytic Acid

Good Afternoon!

I've decided to go gluten free. I am no longer a vegan (after over a year) because some information I've read makes veganism seem potentially very unhealthy! So now I'm back to being a vegetarian (almost 9 years strong). Of course in the beginning i was having a pizza overload, but now I'm learning from my mistakes. I'm buying only the grass fed natural butters, cheeses and (raw) milks.
 
So today is officially the first day of being gluten free and I decided to splurge and buy coconut flour to try out a coconut bread loaf. I'm leery of other flours (almond, rice, ect) because of the content of phytic acid.

So what is phytic acid? 

"Phytic acid, discovered in 1903, a saturated cyclic acid, is the principal storage form of phosphorus in many plant tissues, especially bran and seeds. Phytate is not digestible to humans or nonruminant animals."source 

Phytic acid is especially high in grains, beans and nuts such as: wheat, rice, whole wheat, corn, rye, oats, brown rice, soy, pinto, kidney, navy beans, and peanuts. Beans with a lesser amount of phytic acid are: peas, lentils, chickpeas, white beans, walnuts and mung beans. source 

I want to throw in that it is also found in seeds, EXCLUDING hemp seeds!

You may be wondering why I'm avoiding foods with phytic acid and where coconut comes in to play.

Phytic acid is considered an Anti-Nutrient. "Phytic acid has the ability to bind to essential minerals such as iron, zinc, calcium, and magnesium in the digestive tract and inhibit their absorption by the body." source 

Phytic acid also causes tooth decay, so if you're trying to re-mineralize your teeth or stop tooth decay, it is advised to stop consuming phytic acid.

Although it has a few benefits, one being that it has shown some anti-cancer properties, a lot of other super-foods do too, without the negative effects of tooth decay so I personally feel the need to avoid it all together.

What's up with coconut flour? 

"The mineral-binding effect of the phytates in coconut is essentially nonexistent. It is as if coconut has no phytic acid at all." source 

I view coconut products as safe when it comes to avoiding phytic acid! Do your own research of course and keep in mind I'm not a nutritionist, just a girl trying to be as healthy as I can!

So the ONLY recipe I could find anywhere on the internet that ONLY contains coconut flour, and no other flours was this:

Recipe
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, ghee or coconut oil (i used natural grassfed cultured butter)

2 tablespoons of raw honey (i did not include this)

6 eggs (i used the natural/organic kind)

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

3/4 cup coconut flour

(i also included 1/2 teaspoon of aluminum free baking powder)
 

Preheat the oven to 350 F

Grease a small loaf pan

Melt butter/oil, add eggs and honey, whisk until smooth. Separately mix dry ingredients - coconut flour (sifted since it tends to clump) salt and baking powder if you're including that, and then slowly add the dry to the wet. You'll have mix for a while since coconut flour likes to clump together. The flour absorbs everything and the mix turns into a cookie/cake batter kind of thick consistency. Smooth it into your pan and bake for 40 minutes.

This was my result

Very short, flat dense, and extremely dry little loaf of very expensive bread! Alone it is terrible! I tried it with avocado, also terrible. The only thing that made it (very) tasty was olive oil, cheese and tomatoes! Mmm. But since that's not what I want bread for all the time I think this recipe was a flop! I might play around with it again in the future though. Adding more oil (or possibly milk) and not baking as long might make it less dry. It was sooo good with cheese, but it's definitely not a "holy grail" kind of bread! Try playing around with the recipe and let me know your results!