How To Go Gluten Free!

Gluten-Free Diagnosis

One of the most common questions I get is, “How did you know you were gluten-free?” or a variation, “Are you gluten-free by choice or necessity?” There are a few different ways to discover if you are gluten-intolerant.  Many people do a self-diagnosis by simply eliminating gluten from their diets for a couple weeks to see if they notice a difference.  You can do that but I also suggest that before you go off gluten completely that you get tested for Celiac, an autoimmune disease that needs more serious treatment than “gluten-intolerance” (which you can listen to your own body and decide how much gluten to consume based on your comfort level).

I do not have Celiac, for which I am profoundly grateful. People with Celiac have a much higher incidence of digestive cancers and need to be EXTREMELY careful about not allowing ANY gluten to get into their diets. If I had Celiac, I would rarely eat out or eat foods that I was “pretty sure” are okay.

Celiac can be tested with a blood test as long as you are still consuming gluten (there is also an endoscopy test and a genetic test, all of which have their advantages and drawbacks – consult with your doctor). My Celiac test was negative. The way we discovered my gluten-intolerance was through an elimination diet which was monitored by my doctor, Dr. Ed Linkner, in Ann Arbor.

If you are going to do an elimination diet I strongly suggest that you be monitored by a professional.  You are eliminating many necessary nutritients from your diet and it is important that you not be putting your body through unnecessary harm from the process, it is supposed to be healing, not hurting your body.

Let me back up to look at how we even started looking at gluten. Keith and I went on a vacation/conference to California and I experienced some discomfort in my stomach area. I would move toward bland foods hoping they would help the tightness to go away (you know, things like potatoes or crackers or bread). The feeling persisted and one night the pain became so bad we went to the ER where they kept me for observation. They thought my gallbladder was acting up (I have a strong family history of gallbladder disease). My pain subsided and after an ultrasound they said I should see my doctor as soon as I get back into town.

I saw Dr. Linkner and described my symptoms to him and he also looked over the records from California. He said he suspected it was my stomach, not my gallbladder that was giving me trouble and set out to determine if there was something going on there.

We went through several tests looking at everything from stomach acid, blood work, and how my food was digesting (by looking at the remains…not overly pleasant!). The results came back that I had an infestation of candida (a yeast) and inflammation in my digestive tract. The inflammation was a concern because that means my nutrients are not being absorbed properly plus over time that inflammation can turn into chronic disease (and discomfort).

Dr. Linkner put me on an “elimination” diet that removed all common allergens from my diet for six weeks. We also wanted to finish off the candida so I removed all fruits and any other form of sugar (because that is what they live on) and I took an herbal supplement to assist in restoring balance. Because my diet was so restrictive, I also took a rice-based shake supplement two or three times per day. NOT tasty. Here is what I removed: caffeine, sugar, eggs, milk, wheat, soy, alcohol, fruit, and more that I can’t remember. Oh yeah…corn too.

My wonderful husband went on the diet with me. What a guy! It was a tough six weeks. We ate a lot of rice, chicken (not a vegetarian at that time), beans, veggies, and potatoes. It was VERY hard with the sugar cravings to get rid of those candida. As they are in their death throes they get very demanding for their sugar. It took a lot of will power and I was grateful I had cleaned out my cupboards ahead of time to get tempting foods out of the house.

After the six weeks I was able to start adding back in foods, one at a time, three days apart. I was to add in a large quantity of the food and look for any reaction (headache, joint aches, runny nose or congestion, stomach upset, cramping, anything out of the ordinary). We were very strategic in adding back foods. I went with the foods first that are commonly found in other foods. I half-feared a milk reaction and was very pleased when I didn’t have one. Corn was early too and it sailed right through.

Wheat though gave me a runny nose almost immediately and a headache shortly after. I tried a couple times in the same day with the same results and had some achy joints the following day.

I let it clear from my system then added back another food then tried wheat again. Same results. Then I knew…life would not be the same in my kitchen.

It has been an interesting trip, learning which foods I can consume and how to find substitutes for my favs. Let me know if this post has been helpful to you. If you would like more information or recipes, just ask and I’ll be happy to include more.

Gluten in Home Cooked Meals

My sister-in-law is a wonderful woman and I am fortunate to have such a loving and caring woman in my life.  I know whenever we get together for dinner at her house we are throwing her a curveball because of my gluten intolerance and both my husband and I are vegetarians as well. 

The biggest challenge I find in my sister-in-law’s home cooked meals is she loves casseroles (and I do too!).  Many casseroles call for creamed or other canned soups.  In fact, I recently heard that when Campbells first came out with their creamed soups they weren’t designed to be soups at all but sauces.  That has certainly become the case in many casserole recipes.   Casseroles often add breadcrumbs or may have a main ingredient of noodles and some people may not realize that “egg noodles” are actually wheat.

In addition to casseroles, and of course any bread, rolls, or pasta, there are other places where gluten may show up in a home cooked meal that otherwise looks safe:

• Marinades are a trouble spot because of the frequent addition of soy sauce or other wheat or malt flavorings.  This includes some pre-cooked chicken and some lunchmeats.
• Breading is something to be avoided since 99% of the time it is wheat (this includes panko which is the Asian-style breading and “beer battered” which has beer in the batter but is wheat-based).
• Any sauce should be investigated for ingredients, especially if it is thick (such as alfredo).  This includes creamed vegetables.  Vegetables can still be creamed using milk and cornstarch or substitute arrowroot or tapioca but if the person cooking is familiar or comfortable with these applications they have likely used flour.  Sauces that are not thick have the possibility of having soy sauce in them, another common source of gluten.
• Soups, especially creamed or thick soups, will often have wheat in them.  Or they may have noodles or orzo (which looks like rice but is wheat).
• Desserts are especially problematic, including some ice cream.  Many special flavors of ice cream (like cookies and cream) have wheat in them.  Always read the label to be sure.
• Prepared salad dressings are another source of gluten although if you make your own, the likelihood of gluten being in there is very small (unless you include soy sauce).

There are many modifications that can be made when you are cooking for yourself or if you have family or friends who are open and interested in learning new cooking techniques.  Home cooked meals can be gluten-free and tasty, it just takes a little more education and effort.

A Gluten-Free Halloween

I was diagnosed as gluten-free as an adult so I never had the issue of avoiding so many yummy treats when I was a child.  I know many of you out there are not gluten-free but you want to make life easier on those who are gluten-free.  Maybe you already purchased your candy to pass out and you may be curious if it is gluten-free. 

Before I get into the details, I want to make an important distinction between those with Celiac (an autoimmune disease) and those who are “gluten-intolerant”:

• People with Celiac need to be 100% gluten-free.  Their bodies cannot tolerate even the smallest amount of gluten.  Some of them become physically ill after a very small contamination, others may not have the same physical experience but research has shown that gluten remains in our systems for two weeks and for people with Celiac that is generating issues that put them at a higher risk for certain digestive cancers and perhaps other illnesses as well. 
• People who are gluten-intolerant fall along a scale of how much gluten their bodies can handle.  I tend to live my life closer to the level of a person with Celiac because I can tell the difference however I know that I do not have some of the same cross-contamination issues that people with Celiac have.  For instance, I can eat a gluten-free pasta option in a restaurant that serves regular pizzas and not have it affect me; this wouldn’t work for someone with Celiac.

In the world of candy, there are a lot of gluten-free options.  And of course, outside the world of candy, there are tons of possibilities:

• my mom used to pass out balloons (have a safer option for small children)
• little toys
• miniature figures (like tiny ninjas)
• pennies and nickels
• miniature gliders to assemble

There is a group called ROCK (Raising Our Celiac Kids) who put together a very extensive list for 2009 of gluten-free candies.  If you read through the list you may be surprised at some of what is NOT gluten free (Milky Ways) and what is (Milky Way Midnight).  Thanks to www.HarrisWholeHealth.com for helping to get the list out to more people.  You can find the list at:

http://www.harriswholehealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Gluten-Free-Candy-List-October-2009.doc

In addition, there are some creative ways parents can help their gluten-free kids to still have a fun Halloween experience.  Many of the kids Trick-or-Treat and then their parents help them sort through the candy after and separate out what is safe and what is not.  (Of course, parents should do this anyway to make sure there are no hidden dangers.)  After the candy is sorted these are some clever solutions I heard about:

• The parents “buy back” the gluten-containing candy and the child gets cold hard cash
• The parents swap out the gluten-containing candy for non-gluten-containing favorites of the child.
• The container of gluten-containing candy is left on the kitchen table overnight and in the morning it has been replaced by the gluten-fairy with a very nice toy in trade (this is my favorite option because it is fun, a surprise AND it reduces the amount of sugar the kids are consuming.

Together we can help all kids (young and old) to have a safe Halloween.

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Gluten Free Pineapple Upside Down Cake

You can still enjoy delicious pineapple upside down cake that is gluten free!

I am thrilled to be able to share a tasty pineapple upside down cake with you today!  I last attempted a pineapple upside down cake a couple years ago and the results were so disappointing I haven’t had the heart to try again…until yesterday!  Rather than use a special recipe from a gluten-free cookbook (which is what I did the first time), I found a vanilla cake recipe that looked promising and combined that with my “old faithful” Betty Crocker red cover cookbook recipe. 

The vanilla cake recipe comes from the magazine “Living Without” April/May 2009 edition on page 29.  It makes about twice as much cake as you need for a 9 x 13 pineapple upside down cake.  So I suggest either halving the recipe, make TWO pineapple upside down cakes (they freeze well) or do one pineapple upside down cake and turn the rest of the batter into cupcakes or a plain cake (very nice for strawberry shortcake).

Put four eggs in a bowl of warm to hot water to bring to room temperature and soften the butter.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  While heating, put 9 x 13 cake pan in oven with 2/3 stick of butter.  In the meanwhile, drain two cans of pineapple and, optional, open maraschino cherries.  When butter has melted, remove pan from oven, sprinkle with one cup of packed brown sugar, and place pineapple rings across bottom of the pan.  Place 1/2 maraschino cherry in the middle of each pineapple ring, if desired.  Chopped nuts may also be added if desired.

Cream together:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter or non-dairy alternative
• 2 cups granulated sugar (I used the more coarse turbinado sugar)
• Then add (one at a time) 4 eggs (at room temperature)
• And add 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

In a separate bowl combine or sift together (I did not sift as suggested but if you are extra-particular, go ahead and sift):

• 3 and 1/2 cups flour blend (1/2 rice flour, 1/4 tapioca starch/flour, and 1/4 cornstarch or potato starch)
• 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon salt

Heat 1 and 1/2 cups milk (type of your choice) to hot, not boiling.

Add 1/2 dry mixture to the creamed mixture and combine well. 

Add 1/2 hot milk into batter and mix.

Add remaining dry mixture and hot milk and beat until smooth.

Pour about half the batter over the prepared pan with the pineapple rings and bake in the oven until knife come out clean (30-45 minutes).  Allow the cake to cool for a few minutes then turn upside down on a cookie sheet or other large tray.  Serve plain or with whipped cream.  Delicious!

Use other batter as you had planned to and enjoy your results!

This gluten free pineapple upside down cake freezes well.  I like to prepare it into individually wrapped servings and place those servings in a freezer bag to stay fresh longer.

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Where gluten hides on food labels

Thanks to the labeling laws getting more and more clear there are fewer places where gluten can hide in the list of ingredients.  For example, food starch is a common ambiguous term that may or may not mean wheat.  In addition, sometimes a company will use a strain of wheat that isn’t as common or that makes it sound fancy and may cause you to question if it is wheat or not (such as “Einkorn” or “Semolina” or “Triticale”).  Of course you also want to avoid any barley, rye, or oat products.

Watch out for Aisan dishes as they often contain a lot of ingredients and the soy sauce may be hidden in the middle of the list.  I have found that in general Thai and Indian food are less likely than Chinese to have wheat in them.  You still want to read the labels or check with the kitchen every time.

The longer the list of ingredients, the more processing that probably happened to produce that “food” product and the less healthy it probably is for you.  That is a good general rule around label-reading. 

For people with gluten-intolerance they can be a little more lax on label reading, if they choose to and are willing to accept the consequences.  For those with Celiac, they really need to be clear about the safety of a food before they purchase it.  For example:

¨     Vitamin E is sometimes processed with wheat germ oil.  This is a concern not only for Vitamin E supplements but also shortenings which may contain Vitamin E.

¨     Shortening: See the Vitamin E explanation above.

¨     Spices: Straight spices are pretty much always gluten-free because it is just the spice as the only ingredient.  For spice blends you may run into gluten as an additive. 

¨     Pudding: May contain barley malt for flavoring and/or wheat starch.

¨     Cereal: May contain any number of wheat grains and/or non-gluten-free oats; may contain malt flavoring.

¨     Rice Syrup: May contain barley enzymes.

¨     Brewer’s Yeast: often processed with wort, a fermented barley.

¨     MSG: May contain wheat, especially if produced outside the United States.

¨     HVP/TVP Hydrogenated Vegetable Protein or Textured Vegetable Protein*

¨     Natural Flavor*

¨     Stabilizers*

¨     Fillers*

¨     Vegetable Gums*

¨     Monoglycerides*

¨     Diglycerides*

¨     Modified Food Starch*

* By “ingredient” alone you cannot tell what the raw materials are so you cannot determine if gluten is or is not an ingredient.  Contact the company, especially if you are highly sensitive or have Celiac.

Cross contamination is also a concern since the same equipment may be used to process both gluten and non-gluten products.  If you contact the company they will be able to tell you if a product is produced in a dedicated gluten-free facility or what kind of cleaning the equipment goes through.

It is important to stay on top of labels and any concerns you may have.  Food manufacturers can change their ingredients with every batch if they choose to so you always need to read labels.  Manufacturers are recognizing the purchasing power of those with gluten-intolerance and Celiac Disease and they are getting much better about voluntary labeling.

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