Whether you choose to adopt a gluten-free diet because of celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, or for just general wellness reasons, gluten can be a rascally devil that isn’t always easy to spot on food labels. Gluten is apparent enough in anything containing wheat, rye, or barley, but it’s also in less obvious products, such as lunch meats or soy sauce.
According to Daniel Leffler, MD, director of research at Boston’s Celiac Centre at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, for the wellbeing of people with celiac disease or a gluten-sensitivity, it’s a ‘black and white’ solution: ‘They need to eliminate gluten from their diet totally in order to experience an improvement in their health.’
However, checking the ingredient label for wheat, barley, and rye is just the beginning, and gluten by any other name is just as dangerous. You’re also looking for atta, barley, breading and bread stuffing, brewer’s yeast, bulgur, dinkel, durum, einkorn, emmer, farina, faro, fu, graham flour, hydrolyzed wheat protein, kamut, malt (including extract, syrup, flavouring, vinegar and milk), matzoh, modified wheat starch, oatmeal, oat bran, oat flour, and whole oats (unless they are from pure, uncontaminated oats), rye bread and flour, seitan, semolina, spelt, triticale, and wheat bran, flour, germ and starch. It might be worth making a list and keeping it in your purse or wallet at all times to make food shopping easier.
The list is very long, and when it comes to the food products themselves, the list can be even longer. You should definitely double check beer, ale, lager, broth, soup, soup bases, cereals, chocolate, liquorice, flavoured coffees and teas, imitation bacon bits, imitation seafood, medications (check with your pharmacist), pasta, rice, salad dressings, sausages, hot dogs, deli meats, sauces, marinades, gravies, seasonings and soy sauce before popping it in your trolley. However, the good news is that gluten-free alternatives are appearing more and more and, believe it or not, it isn’t in all the foods you love.
Why don’t you see if working with a registered dietician can help you get started so you can learn exactly how to tailor your diet? When shopping, plan to spend extra time reading labels, and keeping an eye out for bargains and coupons as gluten-free products can be pricey. If in doubt, ask. Case recommends calling food companies to ask them about their manufacturing process and the steps they take to ensure the products are gluten-free. Also, ask your pharmacist to find out if your medications contain gluten. If they do, ask your health care provider about alternatives.
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