A severe reaction to wheat would squash the bread-making career of most bakers.

But not Judith Wadson.

For years one of her specialities was homemade bread.

"I've always said the best bread you can get is touched by human hands not by machines," said the Bermudian chef.

But she had to rethink her whole bread-making way of life when she was diagnosed with celiac disease (CD) last winter.

CD is an autoimmune disease that mainly affects the gastrointestinal tract. People who have CD are intolerant of gluten, a group of proteins found in wheat, rye, barley and possibly oats.

It is a genetic disorder found in one percent of the population. Symptoms include chronic diarrhoea and/or constipation, weight loss, vomiting and abdominal pain.

The diagnosis came about after a bread-making session for the Farmer's Market sent her to the Emergency Room at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

"I hadn't been eating the bread, but I had been touching it and breathing in the wheat spores," she said. "My hands looked like they were going to explode.

"I had an autoimmune reaction. I couldn't bend my wrists without crippling pain. My knee swelled. Now I have to carry an EpiPen."

EpiPens are typically prescribed by doctors to patients who suffer from extreme allergic reactions. Injections enable immediate treatment until the person suffering can seek professional help.

Miss Wadson's particular CD is called dermatitis herpetiformis.

It primarily affects the skin and results in an itchy rash. The gastrointestinal tract is also affected. She'd thought she had the disease for some time before she was diagnosed.

"I underwent genetic testing for CD, and came out as a carrier for the gene," she said. "But I was told that it didn't necessarily mean I had CD."

But she decided she would remove the wheat and gluten from her diet anyway.

"That was in April of last year," she said.

Until then she'd run a restaurant for several years in Hamilton called Aggie's Kitchen.

"I closed down the restaurant and stopped cooking with wheat. I didn't eat any."

But then for the Farmer's Market last November she decided to go back to making bread.

After the resulting trip to the hospital in the middle of baking, she still had to clean up her kitchen.

"I decided to cut up some huge pans of granola I'd intended to sell at the market the day before," she said. "I undid the plastic with a knife. I didn't touch it, but all the wheat spores went up my nose."

On this second trip to the Emergency Room, she was warned not to touch wheat again.

Even with gloves on, the spores could touch her skin above the gloves. "At first, I felt very lost," she said.To start with she was building her career around gluten bread.

"From a restaurant perspective I was aware of people with food issues," she said. "I called them 'fussy people'."

But now she'd become one of those "fussy people".

"I found out they really weren't fussy at all, they had to cover themselves because every time they went out to eat they got sick because of all the cross-contamination and chefs who didn't understand."

The diagnosis meant a serious shift in her career.

"Bread making was going really well until that Saturday morning," she said. "I had been planning to do some gluten-free stuff, and then I was forced into it."

To run a gluten-free kitchen all wheat, rye and even oats had to be removed.

"Oats are often milled in the same place as the wheat, so they are cross-contaminated," she said. At first she tried other people's gluten-free recipes, but they didn't often taste very good. She went back to the drawing board and started developing her own creations.

"I had some pretty terrible tries at first," she said. "But I got better. The secret of making good gluten-free bread is make sure you really measure. It is a real science."

If you find a recipe that works, stick with it to the letter, Miss Wadson advised.

"Even if you mound up the flour you should always get a knife and go across the top of your measuring cup so you get exactly a cup, or weigh it to make sure you have exactly a cup.

"If you don't have exactly the right proportion of things things can go horribly wrong."

Now she is back at the Farmer's Market and selling gluten-free and organic bread, cakes, pizza crusts and cookies and building a following.

Some of her old clients have come back. Many of her clients have special dietary needs and she often works directly with them to make food that's suitable.

Her products are also patronised by many vegans.

"For example, I have discovered that a lot of people are also allergic to dairy products," she said. "And I can make a birthday cake without flour."

One day, she would like to expand her gluten-free and organic business.

"Bermuda is a very tiny place," she said. "I am test-driving these recipes right now. But maybe one day I might like to transfer to a manufacturer in the United States.

"I am 55 years old and I don't want to be doing it when I am 70. I want someone else to be doing it but with my recipes."

Miss Wadson became a professional chef in 1996. She left a career as a writer to go to culinary school.

After that she worked at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, a well-known gourmet eatery.

"That was where I got all my training," she said. "It was career enhancement, because I am still writing."

For more information about Miss Wadson's products visit the Farmer's Market on Saturdays or send an e-mail: judith.wadson@gmail.com