What Really is a Gluten Free Diet?

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What Really is a Gluten Free Diet?
Posted 3/24/09
by Dr. Vikki Petersen
Gluten Free Fox

I consider gluten sensitivity to be a critical factor to rule in or out when someone is trying to improve their health. A person could be trying their best to live a “clean” life but if they were gluten sensitive and didn’t know it, all that hard work would be for naught.

If you do find out that you’re gluten sensitive it’s a big lifestyle change. I wanted to clear up some of the most common confusions I run into with patients and errors I see on various websites and blogs.

What is gluten? Simply said, gluten is a protein found in the grains wheat, rye and barley. Other grains that are also glutinous include: bulgur, couscous, farina, graham flour, spelt, kamut, matzo, semolina and triticale.

Perhaps you’ve heard that oats are a no-no. That’s true to a degree, but not because they contain gluten. The problem with oats is contamination, not the oats themselves. While this doesn’t help much when you want to order oatmeal in a restaurant, or eat a cereal bar containing oats, it does open a wonderful world of home-made granola and hot oatmeal you can make yourself, to say nothing of some nice oatmeal raisin cookies.

The solution is uncontaminated, certified gluten-free oats. They are available in health food stores but they must say that they are gluten-free or you’ll fall into the trap of semantics: “All oats are gluten-free so this product containing oats is thereby gluten-free.” No it isn’t because it’s been contaminated either in the field, in the truck or in the processing plant. No oat product is safe unless the label states that it’s certified gluten-free.

What about hard liquor? Another source of confusion is alcohol. Now I’m not condoning hard liquor but the truth of the matter is that distillation of alcohol removes the protein gluten. So scotch, rye, vodka, etc that are made from glutinous grains are gluten-free by the time they are bottled.

Beer is not distilled and therefore not gluten-free. In addition to beer there are other malted products, some boasting alcohol flavors that are similarly not gluten-free due to the presence of malt which usually is made from barley but sometimes wheat. Read the label and avoid malt.

Beer lovers fear not, Annheiser-Busch has developed a gluten-free beer. I took this to be a good sign that our numbers are definitely growing that a large manufacturer of a traditional gluten containing product went to the expense of making a gluten-free version.

Learn a little about cooking. Another category I wanted to discuss involves understanding how food is prepared. Often the reason someone mistakenly eats gluten is because they don’t cook much. Teriyaki chicken or beef is such an example. The meat is marinated in soy sauce – and not the gluten-free variety!

If you’re just avoiding obvious sources of gluten like fried chicken and tempura, you won’t be successful. Beyond marinated meats are things like meatloaf and meatballs where, once again, if you don’t cook you wouldn’t instantly realize that they contain bread as an ingredient.

Another pitfall can be fish. Some fish are dredged (light coating) in flour before they’re cooked to prevent it from sticking to the pan. This is sometimes done with chicken breasts as well. The coating is so thin you won’t see it, but your body will know it’s there.

The moral of this story is that you can’t be shy if you’re going to be successful avoiding gluten. In a restaurant you need to send the waitperson back to the kitchen to ask about what the food contains. To make it simple just tell them you have celiac disease. It’s not really even a white lie as I consider celiac to be a subset of gluten sensitivity anyway. I make this suggestion because most chefs understand what celiac is though they may not have heard of gluten sensitivity.

If your salad comes with croutons, send it back – don’t just pick off the croutons. You will be eating gluten. If the burger comes with a bun and it’s stuck to the cheese, send it back. And definitely make sure the French fries are not made with gluten. Many of the tastiest fries have a coating of flour on the outside to make them crispier.

Be Patient. The last category I want to discuss involves reading labels. I find that many of us are a bit lazy. We read the first few ingredients, get bored, and stop. Or, we’re so “sure” that something doesn’t have gluten in it that we don’t even think to look for it.
In the past few weeks I’ve found gum, cough drops and truffles as the culprit in problems patients were having from which they couldn’t find the source.

And don’t forget to use the internet. I’ve found companies to be extremely accommodating in answering questions about their product’s ingredients.

Awareness is improving. Just be patient, read all the labels and don’t be shy about communicating what you need. You’ll feel great and your health will improve dramatically.

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