Ingredients / Labeling

Naturally Gluten-Free Fresh Strawberries

Last Updated on March 7, 2023 by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 5 Comments

We live near a strawberry farm. Well, it’s actually about ten miles from us, but in this area that’s considered close by. Sometimes we get lucky and find pretty decent-tasting strawberries at Whole Foods and find them less often at Publix. However, nothing compares to fresh strawberries that you pick right off the vine. The sweet juicy flavor of fresh strawberries is one of my favorite things about summer. Though it’s not technically summer yet and the weather here can’t make up its mind, we’ve had average temps several days here already. What better time to put fresh strawberries to use?

Whole Foods actually has a great online article about how to use strawberries. Many of the recipes listed are gluten-free or can be easily modified to be so. We loved strawberry shortcake and in our gluten-eating days, used Sara Lee’s pound cake to make it. These days, we either bake a pound cake with a mix (123 gluten-free or Sylvan Border Farm) or use the ready-made sponge cake from Shabtai-Gourmet.

Even though we avoid using the oven during the summer – as much as we can – making fresh strawberry bread has become a ritual since our house went gluten-free. Before we knew there was a strawberry farm near us, we used frozen strawberries to make the bread. Now, only freshly picked will do. You can make full or mini loaves and freeze the loaves for up to six months. Here is the recipe I use from Recipe Zaar. For the flour, we now use Jules gluten-free, but Pamela’s baking mix or Gluten-Free Pantry’s all-purpose flour works well too. Add some xanthan gum if the flour blends you use do not contain it. To remove some of the fat and still make a moist loaf, use some unsweetened applesauce for some of the oil. Just don’t use all applesauce if you want it to be really moist.

Another way to enjoy strawberries it to use them over vanilla ice cream or in my case, frozen yogurt. Adding chocolate sauce and whipped cream makes the perfect summer sundae. Soak cut-up strawberries in a little orange juice for several hours or overnight. We do this for both sundaes and strawberry shortcakes. There are countless ways to enjoy this amazing summer fruit. And besides tasting delicious, strawberries are quite healthy as well. They have more fiber than you might think, contain no cholesterol, and are loaded with Vitamin C. Check out the full nutritional data here. How do you enjoy strawberries during the summer?

Watch Out for Barley Flour

Last Updated on April 1, 2023 by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 2 Comments

When Frito-Lay put out the press release about their updated gluten-free and non-gluten ingredient product list, several previously listed items were missing. The reason is that the items now contain barley flour. Yes, barley flour is now in some snack items. So far, it seems that food companies are listing barley in the ingredients, which is helpful. Barley is not considered a major allergen in the U.S. – by the FDA anyway. Therefore, it does not have to be called out on food labels. In the case of barley flour, companies know that just listing the word “flour” results in them getting flooded with calls from people asking exactly what kind of flour is in the item.

According to the Barley Foods website, barley flour contains over three times as much fiber as wheat flour. This gives the large food companies good reason to consider adding it to products, to make the products “healthier” for people who can eat gluten. Then the product labels will list a higher amount of fiber, possibly making gluten consumers reach for one bag of chips (or other items) over another that is barely free. Oh, and according to this report (or partial report), barley is heart-healthy too. Barley even made it into the May issue of Good Housekeeping in the healthy grains blurb. Interestingly, the few gluten-free grains that were listed were not called out as being gluten-free.

Most of us are aware of the powerful lobby of the National Wheat Association. However, the National Barley Foods Council is a group to be reckoned with. The powers that be in the group fought congress tooth and nail when Dr. Alessio Fasano tried to convince them to change the labeling law to include all forms of gluten. And the barley industry won. When food companies slowly started using corn malt instead of barley malt, the companies that grow barley started thinking of ways to get their product into other foods. And they have been successful in getting it added to some unsuspecting products, including Lays “Barbecue” and “Flamin’ Hot” potato chips. Even the Baked Lays “Barbecue” chips now contain barley flour.

Several times in the past, I’ve been contacted by people looking for help during visits to the U.S. These people were mostly from various parts of Europe. Each person asked various things, but all of them asked if it was actually true that in the U.S., products did not have to call out gluten – as in having to state “contains gluten” on packages of anything that does. I remember being embarrassed when I was diagnosed with celiac, that the U.S. was so far behind other countries on the issue. Each time I got notes from people outside the country, indicating they were in disbelief over the labeling situation here, I was a little embarrassed for our country – again.

There is nothing wrong with an industry trying to make sure their product is used as much and as often as possible, of course. But we have to make sure and stay on top of the food companies and let them know that they have got to list barley as an ingredient, regardless of what the law requires. Frito-Lay is a company willing to do that for us, and for that, we should be grateful. Think of all the odd places you see wheat in products today. Now think about the barley industry convincing companies to replace wheat with barley. This could turn into a total nightmare for our community. If there was ever a time for a formal labeling law regarding the term gluten-free in the U.S., it was yesterday.

What Flour Should We Use For Fried Foods?

Last Updated on March 5, 2023 by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

The person who sent this question in used plain rice flour to fry something and apparently it didn’t work out too well. The batter kind of dissolved and fell apart. This is a common problem when using gluten-free flours in hot oil.

Gluten-free flour blends that contain both cornstarch and tapioca starch seems to hold up well for fried foods. The Domata Living Flour works well for several things like chicken fingers and fried fish. For Thanksgiving this year we used Jules gluten-free Flour for fried onions and they were the best we’ve ever made with any type of flour.

The Jules flour blend works well in most every recipe we’ve tried it in so far. From quick breads to battered and fried items to pizza crust. It’s the only flour that performed like wheat flour for fried foods. None of the batter came off in the pan, which is a problem with every other gluten-free flour blend we’ve used.

Many people like making their own flours but some of us don’t care to measure all those flours and then store the left over bags. If you’re cooking for a household you can save quite a bit of money by buying different flours and mixing your own blend. If you’re cooking for one or two people, you’ll likely end up throwing flour out when it goes rancid before you get around to using it all.

Carol Fenster’s website, Savory Palate, has several gluten-free flour blend recipes. Anyone looking to mix their own flours up will do well to start with Carol’s great recipes for various flour blends. Carol’s #2 or #3 blend recipes would probably work best for fried foods.

Are All Nuts Gluten-Free?

Last Updated on March 4, 2023 by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff

Nuts in their pure form are gluten-free. Peanuts, almonds, pecans, macadamia nuts, walnuts, pine nuts, pistachios, cashews, Brazil nuts and all other natural nuts are gluten-free. Sesame seeds and sunflower seeds are also gluten-free. The thing you have to watch out for with nuts is packaged nuts that have flavors added. Many of those are gluten-free but several brands make nuts with wheat added into the seasonings that have been added to the nuts.

Blue Diamond and Planters both make many flavored nuts that are gluten-free. Read the label to determine the gluten-free status of any nuts. Typically, any nuts that contain gluten do so in the form of wheat, not barley or rye. Nuts are one food category that has fairly easy to read labels, making it simple to determine the gluten-free status of the products. Candied nuts are also an area of concern when it comes to gluten. Some brands are gluten-free and others are not. Naturally Fresh Salad Toppings nut products are all gluten-free, according to the Atlanta based manufacturer.

Candied nuts in restaurants contain gluten more often than not. For whatever reason, the Chefs at many places add flour to the coating mixture for candied or spiced nuts. Often times I’ve ordered salads that come with candied nuts, only to be advised that I can’t have the nuts due to them containing gluten. It’s extremely easy to make both candied and spiced nuts without any flour whatsoever – gluten or otherwise. Here are a few tasty recipes from Recipe Zaar, in case you want to make some for the holidays.

Candied Spiced Nuts
MAG’S Extra Special Delicious Candied Pecans
Candied Cinnamon Pecans (Copycat Outback Steak House)

Nuts are something you have to read the labels of, just like every other item that is not labeled gluten-free. The main thing to remember is that plain, unadulterated nuts are gluten-free and all others need to be checked for their gluten-free status. Any time I’m ordering a dish with nuts when dining out, I double check with the server, asking them to double check with the Chef that the nuts are indeed safe for me to have. For some reason, nuts are one of those things that are often overlooked when dining out, in regards to gluten. When looking for safe foods to enjoy at holiday parties, remember not to assume the nuts on the table are gluten-free.

Have a question about the gluten-free diet that we haven’t covered yet? You can now submit your questions here! (Note: All medical questions should be directed to your physician)

Are Pickles, Mayo and Mustard Gluten-Free?

Last Updated on March 12, 2023 by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff

Condiments in general seem to stump some people on the gluten-free diet due to some old information about vinegar floating around online. Several years ago, vinegar was finally proven to be gluten-free as long as it was 1) not made from malt vinegar and 2) it was distilled. Malt vinegar is made from barley. It is not distilled and it is not gluten-free. It is not true that only apple cider vinegar is gluten-free.

Most pickles, mayos, and mustard are made with vinegar. The vinegar is often distilled from gluten grains and the distillation process renders it gluten-free. Since this news is less than ten years old, you can find online warnings about vinegar containing gluten all day long. That is why I highly recommend people on this diet for health reasons invest in Shelley Case’s book on the subject.

Gluten-Free Diet: A Comprehensive Resource Guide is exactly that – a truly factual, comprehensive guide regarding all things related to the gluten-free diet. The book covers ingredients, hidden gluten, products, and labeling laws in the U.S. and Canada. There is a section explaining what nutrients one eating a gluten-free diet might be deficient in and how to rectify that. There is a listing of gluten-free stores and 100% gluten-free restaurants – yes, a few do exist!

It’s very hard for people to learn this diet and lifestyle and it does not help when so much incorrect or outdated information will just not go away. Instead of trusting someone on a message board who tells you that you have to drink potato vodka (not true, by the way), why not go directly to the most trusted guide about this challenging-to-learn diet? Shelley’s book is the best investment anyone can make when trying to learn the many intricacies of this diet.

Generally speaking, pickles are gluten-free but label reading is required with those and all products not marked gluten-free. There are some mustards that list wheat as an ingredient. They tend to be high-end gourmet products and there are only a few of them, but they do exist. French’s, Heinz, and Hellman’s make some gluten-free mustards but at last check, only Hellman’s was labeled gluten-free. Hellman’s mayo is also labeled gluten-free. Most mayos in the stores are gluten-free but you can find homemade mayos in restaurants that can contain gluten. Don’t ask how they get gluten into the mayo but they do it somehow. As always, READ the labels of every product you buy that is not labeled gluten-free.

References: gluten-free Diet: A Comprehensive Resource Guide, Celiac Disease: A Hidden Epidemic.