[legitster]

I use a lot of italian imports from my cooking, but it's less to do with the organic nature and more to do with a combination of terroir + refined techniques + heritage breeds of crops.

I tend to suspect that the "gluten-intolerant but can eat noodles in Europe" is a bit bunk. These days the top source of Durum wheat used in luxury European products is ... North Dakota and Canada.

I suspect the root of the issue is that the European lifestyle in general is so much healthier (less processed food, smaller portions, more walking) combined with the excitement of travel gives people a overall boost in their constitution.

[tpm]

> I tend to suspect that the "gluten-intolerant but can eat noodles in Europe" is a bit bunk.

I think it's possible and also it might be something different happening with the noodles/flour than gluten intolerance which is not well defined anyway (we are not talking about coeliac disease here to be clear). For example my wife can't eat wheat (+durum), spelt and rye products from our country without issues, but can eat rye and spelt products from Austria, anything from Greece and most but not everything from Italy, and that is true both when on vacation there and also when buying their products here (or in case of Austria, buying in Austria).

One thing I want to mention is that gluten-free noodles from big brands (like Barilla) have evolved so much that I now prefer them to their gluten-full equivalents.