Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, semolina, spelt, and oats. Oats are only considered gluten free if they are not manufactured with other wheat containing products. Many people avoid gluten if they have a wheat allergy. Celiac Disease is the most prevalent reason to not eat gluten. Doctor recommended diets for ailments like Autism, ADHA, Cancer remission, Lymes Disease, Weight loss, Heart Disease, Diabetes, PCOS, and various other conditions eliminate the use of gluten.
Aside from wheat, barley, rye, semolina, spelt, and oats there are many other foods that contain gluten. The most obvious are breads, pastas, cakes, pizza, pretzels, crackers, cereal, and cookies. Don’t worry! They come in gluten free versions. There is even gluten free beer! Yes, there is gluten in beer. Most liquor is safe if it has been distilled.
Gluten is most often hidden in sauces, gravies, spices, fillers, preservatives, soups, salad dressings, soy sauce, malt, malt flavoring, malt vinegar, MSG, lunch meat, imitation seafood, broth or stock, dextrose, modified food starch, maltodextrin, medicines, beauty products and natural flavoring. Believe it or not some soft cheeses like blue cheese contain gluten.
Now that I’ve scared you, it is a little easier to find gluten in labeled ingredients since 2004. The FDA made it a law stating that any ingredient derived from wheat must be labeled so. If a label reads “maltodextrin” and is from the US or Canada then it is safe to assume the product does not contain wheat. If it did, it would have to read “maltodextrin(wheat)”. Remember this is only for US and Canada. Imports do not have to follow the FDA Food Allergy Labeling Law guidelines.
Click Celiac Disease for more information on gluten.
