Gluten-Free Stuff

[helwen]

Useful Page on Being Gluten-Free While Getting Stuff You Need

Am hopefully done with being stupid for the week. Did you know Lindt chocolate truffles have barley malt in them? I didn't. And if I'd only had a couple I probably still wouldn't know, but I had a couple yesterday, and a couple the day before, and oh yes, a couple the day before that. And then we had Wild Bill's teriyaki beef jerky because we were too busy to make food like we should have, and the teriyaki has wheat in it. Blah.

So, the above page has some info on gluten, some foods that have it, may have it, and don't have it.

It also talks about celiac disease, and I'm considering that I might be a celiac sufferer, although not the most serious stuff at least. Plus, all I really have to do to recover is NO EAT FOOD WITH GLUTEN IN IT.

There's also a bit on Prebiotin, which your body needs, and which gluten foods have a lot of -- that's right, GF people miss out on that. Fortunately, there are a bunch of other foods with prebiotin in them, which the site lists. Also, you can get a GF prebiotin supplement if you want.

The page is good enough that I think I'll compile all the bits I want from it into a separate document and print it out for personal reference.

I was amused to see that Jerusalem Artichoke, a plant I got a couple of years ago from a friend, has prebiotin in it. I've been leaving it to its own devices until now, but this year there will be harvesting. Also, since it's thriving rather well, I need to move it to areas that it will find more challenging, so that it doesn't take over the garden.

Non-gardeners will be happy to know that plenty of the useful foods are easy to get at the market, and likely you've been eating some of them already.

Comments

[danabren.livejournal.com]

Useful page, thanks.

[danabren.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhh hey can I order some maple syrup and have it delivered at SWF?

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Sure!

Um.... did you get medium or dark last time? I'm pretty sure I didn't get you light...

If it's for pancakes,etc., I like light or medium (light's more confectionery and delicate). Dark is good too, of course. For cooking, if you want the maple flavor, dark is the way to go.

1/2 pint: $8
pint: $13
quart: $20

[danabren.livejournal.com]

Medium or Light, I think, and a pint, please.

Can I have the link to your order info so as to pimp?

[helwen.livejournal.com]

The official site is
http://www.grayssugarhouse.com

And there is an order form there and everything!

However, for personal delivery, they'd have to contact me directly, not Marian, and I'd have to be traveling their way. You are currently one of the privileged few :)

[danabren.livejournal.com]

Woo hoo!

[danabren.livejournal.com]

And a pint of amber syrup and a package of candy, please.

[gardengirl6.livejournal.com]

Wæs hæl! I'm glad that changing your eating habits will suffice for that. Constant Vigilance, and all that.

Should you find that you have an overabundance of Jerusalem Artichoke tubers, I'd love to give some a good home :)

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Indeed!

Sure, I can bring some down come summer. Some folks refer to them as invasive. They were growing here back in colonial times though, so if they're invasive it's from a long time ago. What they are is aggressive, so that's why I'm planning on moving them this year. Think edge of woods, mixed in with other stuff that grows at the edge of the woods. They're part of the sunflower family (Helianthus).

[oakmouse]

If not celiac itself, then possibly Gluten Sensitive Enteropathy (GSE), or even a gluten allergy.

That's a good page. Gluten Intolerance Group also has useful info, and Living Without's website too, on where gluten hides and how to avoid it completely.

Did you know you'll need to replace any nonstick cookware, and reseason cast iron, because gluten hides in the pores? Stainless steel and glass are safe, aluminum varies but the newer kind is usually ok. (The old heavy pre-60s stuff is kind of porous, but you might be able to burn it clean the way you can cast iron.)

[oakmouse]

Oh, and cheap American soy sauces like LaChoy are often made with corn, not wheat, so check labels and you may well find a safe one for less than the ungodly price of wheat-free tamari ($7.95 for a 10-oz bottle here). Just watch caramel color, which is usually sugar-based but can come from wheat. Look for the allergen label to be sure. LaChoy has a good clear allergen label on it, and contains no wheat or gluten; its caramel color is sugar-based.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Yes, my soy sauce at home is LaChoy :)

[oakmouse]

I never thought I'd be grateful to a large corporation for its food products, but trust me --- I'm grateful to LaChoy.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

I didn't know about the cookware, but I think I'm okay. We haven't gotten back into use the cast iron (it would be a learning experience for me anyway). Currently I'm using either nonstick or stainless steel.

I stopped using aluminum since you can't use it for cooking anything acidic, and I don't like to have to think about too many factors when cooking.

Oh, although I do sometimes use casserole dishes -- you know, the white glazed ceramic stuff? Corning and that kind of thing. Are those porous? I've used them a few times in recent years, for transporting food for potlucks.

[oakmouse]

Yeah, we don't use aluminum either, haven't for years, except for our one nonstick frying pan, which has an aluminum shell.

Corningware is pretty safe; it's not very porous, and that's the issue. We were able to keep using all of ours, and all of our Pyrex baking dishes. It can have minor gluten residues in the burnt-on overflow stuff on the outside, but the good thing about exterior gluten residue is that it burns up at oven temperatures.

You may also not be sensitive enough for that kind of low-level residue to be an issue.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

It's also my hope that now that I'm working on this, that I can avoid becoming more sensitive.

But for today, I'm hurting enough that I gave in and took some ibuprofen :P

Although the study one page referred to was for children and youth, I'm kind of hoping that the diet change will also help with things like asthma. At the very least, I'll be in better shape to deal with it.

[oakmouse]

Increased sensitivity is complicated, but avoiding low-level exposure is a very good way to help head off trouble as a general rule.

Going GF helped my asthma, because without the constant inflammation and irritation from the gluten I tend to wheeze and gasp a lot less. My lungs are healthier, basically, because my immune system isn't having fits. Ihope you have improvements there (and elsewhere) too!