What is Gluten?

Gluten is the protein found in wheat, barley and rye and cannot be digested properly by many individuals causing a variety of health issues. Oats do not contain gluten but are often cross contaminated due to growing and or processing near wheat, barley or rye. Unfortunately, gluten is “hidden” in many processed foods making it difficult to eliminate from the typical American diet.

Guide to Avoiding Foods Containing Gluten
Grains and Starches

Gluten is present in many grains and starches, as shown in the following table:

*controversial due to contamination

Foods That Often Contain Gluten:

Alcohols

Beer is made from grains and thereby contains gluten. Most other alcohols such as scotch, rye, and vodkas while made from grains that are glutinous, are distilled, which removes the gluten thereby making them safe to consume. Do keep in mind that alcohol when mixed with gluten in food seems to magnify the reaction and therefore should be avoided. Further, many patients who have celiac disease or who are gluten intolerant have intestinal infections that creates a poor reaction to alcohol.

Always Read the Label

The key to understanding the gluten-free diet is to become a good ingredient label reader. Foods with labels that list the following ingredients are questionable and should NOT be consumed unless you can verify they do not contain or are not derived from prohibited grains. Remember you need to be gluten-free, not just wheat-free. Also, many products say that they are gluten-free while having ingredients such as oats, hemp, wheat grass, malt or wheat starch which may contain gluten and cause intolerant persons to react negatively. Don't be fooled and compromise your health - always read the ingredient list carefully. If in doubt, write to the company on-line. Most companies are very forthcoming with such information.

• Blue Cheese - check with the company; many are fine but not all.
• Bran
• Brown Rice Syrup (frequently made from barley)
• Caramel Color (infrequently made from barley)
• Dextrin (usually corn but may be derived from wheat)
• Dry roasted nuts - processing agents may contain wheat
• Flour or Cereal Products
• Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP), Vegetable Protein, Hydrolyzed Plant Protein (HPP), Hydrolyzed Soy Protein or Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP)- label will say "wheat"
• Malt or Malt Flavoring (usually made from barley)
• Malt Vinegar
• Modified Food Starch- label will say "wheat"
• Starch- label will say "wheat"
• Soy Sauce or Soy Sauce Solids - wheat-free is available

Soy

Soy is considered an acceptable food for those who are gluten intolerant. Traditional soy foods such as tofu, edamame, soy pods and some types of miso and tempeh are gluten-free. Do read the label as grains or tamari can be added to miso and tempeh.

Unfortunately soy has some negative characteristics. Soy foods are one of the most common sources of hidden gluten. Seitan and most soy-based veggie burgers contain "vital wheat gluten" - the ingredient that gives these foods the texture and taste of meat.

Further, despite being gluten-free soy beans often provoke digestive bloating, gas and allergic symptoms. This is understandable because as a bean they contain the same lectins that grains have. Evaluate your tolerance to soy and if acceptable choose high-quality products and eat them in moderation.

Oats

Oats can be an area of confusion when trying to avoid gluten. Many companies are advertising oats as gluten-free. And there are some gluten free societies which will get quite impassioned when defending their ability to eat oats. Others don't recommend oats due to the problem of unacceptable levels of contamination. Oat fields frequently have wheat or rye growing in them and therefore most oats, when assayed, show gluten contamination. And if the contamination doesn't happen in the fields then it occurs in transport or at the manufacturing facility.

While we all agree that oats has a different protein from wheat, rye and barley and is therefore not classically gluten, in practicality when a gluten intolerant person consumes "regular" oats they often react to them the same as if they were consuming gluten. Whether this is from a contamination issue or the lectin content or both, the unhealthy reaction occurs and that is not acceptable. So please be cautious when reading other materials or consulting other web sites which say that "regular" oats are fine.

Fortunately there are some companies which recently started offering certified gluten-free oats which are an excellent source for some patients who tolerate them well. Bob's Red Mill (bobsredmill.com), Creamhill Estates (creamhillestates.com) and Gluten-free Oats (glutenfreeoats.com) are all certified as gluten-free. Bob's Red Mill is found most easily in healthfood stores while the others are available on-line only at this time. One caution with Bob's Red Mill is that they offer gluten-free oats as well as oats that are NOT gluten-free. So ensure that the package you buy states specifically that it's "gluten-free".