Greenman's Blog

This is not medical advice. Check with your doctor if you have any questions.

Always, always, always check the packaging. Every Single Time. No Matter What. If you don’t know it’s safe, don’t eat it. Many GF products will state that they are tested to assure that they don’t have gluten. If they aren’t tested — be careful. Read the packaging.

BTW, If it says “Gluten Free” but isn’t assayed (tested), it may not be *entirely* gluten free. Just a word of warning. If you aren’t used to reading labels, you will be very shortly.

Try to avoid bulk food (where you package the food) if you can. Get pre-packaged ingredients. Preferably sealed at the factory, if possible.

Things to look out for and avoid:

• Wheat, spelt, durum
• Barley
• Rye
• Bulgur
• Triticale
• Oats, unless they are specifically GF. The problem is that they are often stored in the same silos as wheat was.
• Oats, part 2. Oats have gliadin, which is a precursor to gluten. You may or may not tolerate them.
• Modified Food Starch (with no source specified)
• Glucose syrup
• Most pasta & noodles (Note: rice noodles are fine and are often used in Asian cooking. Be sure to ask.)
• Breading (but can be corn starch. Ask.)
• Crutons
• Couscous
• Matzoh
• Wine Coolers (or anything with alcoholic malt)
• Beer (There are now GF beers. Check.)
• Cheap alcohol — however, distilled alcohol is often OK.
• Soy Sauce — however, most tamari is OK. Check the label. Also, some tamari is labeled as “soy sauce” or “wheat free soy sauce”.
• Noodle soup
• Most cheap soup
• Doritos and many snack foods
• Rice crispies (barley syrup! Argh!)

Here’s a list that I found googling:

http://www.csaceliacs.org/gluten_grains.php