Not Just A Fad
Labels Can Be Misleading, Three Things to Look For:
When buying prepackaged products, you need to pay attention to three parts of the label; the Ingredients, the Allergy Information, and finally any sort of Gluten Free certification or the words GLUTEN FREE on the label.
1. The Ingredients:
Look for words that you recognize as real food, for example carrots, beets, potatoes or beef. Make sure those food are gluten free. If you’re not sure, here’s a list of Gluten Free Foods, and here’s a list of the Other Names For Gluten. Occasionally, you’ll run into very vague words like: “Natural Flavors”. These can sometimes be from gluten containing sources, like barley. Some companies, like Kraft Foods, will list any allergens in brackets on their labels, like this: Natural Flavors (wheat), some companies won’t.
2. The Allergy Information:
The allergy information lets you know if the product contains any allergens. If you want more information on the laws governing food allergy labeling check out this handy pamphlet from the USDA.
Made in a facility that may also process dairy, egg, tree nuts, WHEAT, peanuts, soybeans, fish and shellfish.
3. Gluten Free Information:
The example above says Gluten Free on the label. In this case it means that none of the ingredients contain gluten. It does not mean that they guarantee that there’s absolutely no gluten in the product or that the product is Celiac Safe.
Even better than Gluten Free on the label, is an endorsement from the Celiac Disease Foundation, the words, “Processed in a Gluten Free Facility”, or a product from a respected Gluten Free manufacturer like Bob’s Red Mill or Glutino. A good example is Gluten Free Bisquick, shown below:
Final Thoughts:
If you have Celiac Disease or Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity, your Gluten Free product might not be safe for you to eat. To completely avoid gluten, stick with non-processed foods that are naturally gluten free. If you are buying processed foods, (because, hey, they’re so much more convenient, and we don’t all have time or desire to make our soda crackers from scratch, right?) be sure to Check the labels, stick with respected brands, look for products that have been manufactured in gluten free facilities.
10 Comments
Laurie
Great post! Thanks for including our link. 🙂 I shared this post on reddit for you.
jodi stewart
Cool! Thanks!
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Francie
Excellent advice! I have Celiac Disease and it is very easy to forget to read the “fine” print. I get frustrated with people who are into this as a “fad” diet. It seems to discredit those of us who really have to eat a true gluten-free diet. Thanks for sharing 🙂
jodi stewart
Thanks for dropping by Francie! It can be frustrating when people don’t take gluten free seriously, especially if you are very sensitive or have celiac disease. The fad isn’t all bad though, there’s now a huge variety of actual gluten free foods and you can find them in much smaller markets. But it does mean we have to be extra vigilant when picking up something that says “Gluten Free” on the label.
Irene
Hi Jodi,
It’s a big challenge to find food that are gluten safe combined with “Lactose-free”. I decided to make my own “Gluten-free milk by buying raw almonds from Costco. When I opened the package, I notice the allergen warning saying the almonds were processed in the same facility where other tree nuts, wheat, soy, etc. are also processed. Where can I buy bulk almonds that I’ll be sure will not be cross-contaminated? Thank you.
Irene
jodi stewart
Hey Irene, how disappointing! Silk Almond milk is gluten free, you should be able to find it in most North American grocery stores. You can order gluten free nuts from nuts.com if you want to make your own almond milk. You can also make rice milk by blending rice with water, vanilla and a little bit of sugar and straining it through a cheese cloth. Coconut milk (usually in the International Food aisle) is also a good gluten and dairy free milk alternative (especially in coffee! Nice and creamy!) Let me know if you need more info. 🙂 – jodi
Irene
Thanks Jodi. I do buy Silk almond milk from the grocery stores in our area. I just thought I’ll make my own GF non-dairy milk to be sure of the ingredients. I’ll just continue to use the “Silk” brand from now on. I hope they’re not adding other chemicals or preservatives in their product.
Cathy
Hi Jodi, I was just told today by Doctor that I need to go Gluten Free. So I went to local health food store and purchased some things. One of them was Amy’s Gluten Free Cheese Burrito. After reading through your website (which is wonderful)….I decided to give another look at some of the items I purchased and found that Amy’s Cheese Burrito contains milk and is processed a facility that processed wheat & nut items. Why can the company say their product is Gluten Free if it contains milk??
Thank you for all you wonderful information.
Cathy
jodi stewart
Hi Cathy! If you just need to give up gluten, it’s okay to have milk. Gluten is a protein in wheat, rye, barley and a couple of other grains. As for being processed in a facility with Wheat, with the new FDA rules, any product that contains less than 20ppm gluten can be labled gluten free. Good luck!!