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Archives for December 2008

Subway’s Gluten-Free Menu

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff

These days it seems like a Subway restaurant is about as difficult to find as a McDonald’s restaurant! I seriously have 4 Subway restaurants within one mile of my workplace (not joking!).

Wouldn’t it be great if Subway offered gluten-free foods? Unfortunately, as their focus is on bread and the insane amount of cross-contamination possibilities, we are pretty much out of luck.

Official Website Menu Information: Subway Gluten-Free Menu
Location Finder: Find a Subway Location Near You

A quick browsing over the most current version of the document shows that many of the salads appear to be gluten-free. With the exceptions of the Seafood Sensation, Meatball Marinara, and Sweet Onion Teriyaki Chicken, all the other salads are safe (assuming they care to avoid cross-contamination).

If you decide to try a Subway salad, you’ll want to make sure you tell them to hold the croutons.  Oh, and as for the salad dressings, the only one which appears to contain gluten is the “Atkins Sweet as Honey Mustard,” so you’ll want to avoid that as well!

As always, when dining out gluten-free, do your due diligence and make sure the staff understands your needs. There are very few restaurants that are 100% gluten-free, so cross-contamination is always a risk. If you don’t feel comfortable with what you are hearing from the staff, perhaps it is best to dine elsewhere.

For information about other gluten-free restaurants menus, check out our gluten-free restaurants page.

Have you ever tried eating at a Subway since being diagnosed with Celiac Disease?

Does Gluten Trigger Eczema?

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff

No matter how much we talk about eczema, it seems that there is a lot of interest within the Celiac community regarding it, so I try to cover stuff about eczema as I come across it. What we do know is that one of the most common symptoms that is relieved once adhering to a strict gluten-free diet is eczema (or the more bothersome Dermatitis Herpetiformis). So, does consuming gluten actually cause the eczema problems?

According to gluten-free Health, gluten is in fact a trigger of eczema.  They also mention the following:

Some children and adults also react adversely to certain seafoods, sesame, soy (about which I will say more in a future blog), chocolate, cabbage, curry, chilli, salicylates (naturally occurring in some foods and in aspirin), tree nuts, some fruits (citrus and others, particularly if not ripe) and vegetables, food colourings and additives including sulphites, tatrazine and M.S.G.. Animal hair etc and some plants also contribute to eczema problems. Eggs, peanuts, sesame and shellfish have also been implicated in anaphylaxis.

Removing the offending foods from the breastfeeding mother’s and a young child’s diets often quickly reverses the condition.

Eczema is usually more prevalent in children where one or both of the parents have suffered from asthma, eczema and other chronic conditions: i.e. there is genetic or hereditary predisposition.

So, what are your experiences with either eczema or Dermatitis Herpetiformis?

Recipe: Gluten-Free Chocolate Chunk Peanut Butter Cookies

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff

Are you looking to fill that chocolate craving, gluten-free style? Here is a gluten-free recipe I tried for double chocolate chunk peanut butter cookies! Give it a try and let us know how they turn out in the comments below.

If you’d like to check out other recipe ideas, check out our gluten-free recipes page!

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chunk Peanut Butter Cookies

Cookie Ingredients:

  • 2 sticks softened, unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 3 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 1/5 cups gluten-free flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose GF Baking Flour)
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 cup pure cocoa powder
  • 3 cups chocolate chunks or chips (make sure they’re GF!)
  • 1 cup natural peanut butter

Cookie Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter, peanut butter, sugars, salt and vanilla until well combined. Beat in the egg. Scrape the bowl using a spatula as it mixes.
  3. In a small bowl, whisk together the GF flour, cocoa and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix on low speed until just absorbed. Remove the mixture from the electric mixer and incorporate the chocolate chunks with a strong spoon or spatula.
  4. Using a 1-inch ice cream scooper, drop dough balls about 3 inches apart onto non-greased baking sheets. Bake for 9-12 minutes, or until centers no longer appear moist. Let the cookies sit for 5 minutes before transferring them to wire racks to cool completely.
  5. Grab a tall glass of milk (or soy milk), kick back, and chow down!

Recipe: Gluten-Free Gingerbread House

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff

Have you ever wanted to build your own gluten-free gingerbread house? In the past we’ve discussed how you can purchase the supplies to build your own gluten-free gingerbread house, but who wouldn’t rather build their own? It is also dairy free, egg free, and soy free!

If you’d like to check out other recipe ideas, check out our gluten-free recipes page!

Gingerbread House Ingredients:

  • 1 bag Pamela’s Wheat Free Bread Mix (Do not use enclosed yeast packet)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1/3 cup unsalted shortening
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 egg (or egg replacer for 1 egg, prepared)
  • 1/2 cup mild or light molasses for lighter cookies or dark molasses for darker cookies
  • 1 to 2 Tablespoons water

Gingerbread House Directions:

  1. Use heavy duty stand mixer, dough is heavy.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine Pamela’s Wheat Free Bread Mix with salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and ginger. Whisk together thoroughly. Do not use the yeast packet in this recipe.
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream shortening with sugar. Add egg, mix to incorporate. Add molasses, mix to incorporate. Add dry ingredients, mix to incorporate. Add water. Continue mixing gently together until dough comes together. If needed, add an additional tablespoon of water. (Dough prepared with egg replacer may require more or less water.)
  4. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour before rolling out.
  5. Use template (provided below) to cut out house pieces. Roll dough out at 1/4 inch. Cut out one house piece at a time on parchment using template. Leave the cookie on parchment and pull away excess dough from around cookie. Trim excess paper around cookie to about 1-inch, then transfer cookie on parchment to baking sheet. Multiple pieces can fit on one baking sheet. Remove templates from cookies before baking.
  6. Bake cookies twice to dry enough for building a house. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes. Then turn off oven leaving cookies inside with door shut. Leave them to cool completely in the heat of the oven (3 to 4 hours).
  7. Once cool, remove cookies from oven, preheat oven again to 350°, then bake for an another 10 minutes. Turn off oven with cookies inside with door shut, leave until cool. Construct the house using Pamela’s Royal Icing (see recipe below) made with Pamela’s Vanilla Frosting Mix. Decorate using candies stuck into the icing.

Gingerbread House Icing Directions:

  1. Mix one bag Pamela’s Vanilla Frosting Mix with 1 teaspoon Cream of Tarter and two egg whites. (For salmonella concerns, substitute equivalent of 2 eggs with dried egg white powder or meringue powder prepared).
  2. Mix on high until icing thickens and stiff peaks form. Icing will harden when dry. For the truly creative, try adding food color for colored icing.

Templates for building your gluten-free gingerbread house (PDF):

  • Gingerbread House Front & Back
  • Gingerbread House Roof
  • Gingerbread House Sides

Gluten Sensitivity is More Than Just Celiac Disease

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

If you are a reader of this website, you probably either have Celiac Disease or have a family member or friend that has Celiac Disease. I’m sure by now we’ve all heard the statistic that it is believed roughly 1 in 133 Americans have Celiac Disease.  However, did you know that it is believed that a significantly higher percentage of Americans actually have some form of gluten sensitivity?

If you’d like to learn more about gluten sensitivities, Whole Health Source recently took the time to explain that gluten sensitivity is much more than just Celiac Disease:

Approximately 12% of Americans can be diagnosed as gluten sensitive using blood antibody tests (anti-gliadin IgA or IgG). A subset of these have full-blown celiac disease. The vast, vast majority are undiagnosed. Gluten sensitivity associates with a dizzying array of diseases, including autoimmune disorders, cancer, and neurological problems. The problem with the blood tests is they aren’t very sensitive. The most common blood tests for celiac disease look for a class of antibody called IgA. IgA is produced by the mucosa, including the gut. Unless gut damage is already extensive, the majority of IgA stays in the gut. This may cause the assay to overlook many cases of gluten sensitivity. A negative blood antibody test does not rule out gluten sensitivity!

I recently discovered the work of Dr. Kenneth Fine of EnteroLab. He has developed an assay that detects anti-gliadin IgA in stool. Gliadin is one of the problematic proteins in gluten that is implicated in gluten sensitivity. Dr. Fine has been conducting informal research using his fecal anti-gliadin IgA test (data here). He has found that:

  • 100% of untreated celiac patients are antigliadin IgA positive by fecal test, compared to only 76% by blood (n= 17).
  • 76% of microscopic colitis (a type of chronic diarrhea) patients are positive by the fecal test, compared to 9% by blood (n= 57).
  • 57% of symptomatic people (digestive problems?) are positive by the fecal test, compared to 12% by blood (n= 58).
  • 62% of people with autoimmune disease are positive by the fecal test.
  • 29% of asymptomatic (healthy) people are positive by the fecal test, compared to 11-12% by blood (n= 240).
  • Baby and cow feces are 0% positive by the stool assay.

He also later mentions:

Not everyone who is genetically susceptible will end up developing health problems due to gluten, but it’s impossible to estimate how many of the problems we attribute to other causes are in fact caused or exacerbated by gluten.

If you think you have Celiac Disease, you may actually simply have a gluten sensitivity of some sort, which is why it is so important to go through the proper channels and to get an official diagnosis.