Last night, I was invited to join a going-away dinner for a friend that reminded me how easy gluten-free basics can be. She wanted to meet at her favorite Italian restaurant. The menu is not online, so there was no way to prepare in advance for possible ordering options. Armed with a server card, I went without a back-up plan, trusting that I could find a suitable option. As it turns out, this restaurant offered gluten-free pasta, so ordering was easy.
The simplicity of my interaction with the waitress piqued the interest of the woman to my right. She asked, “Is it pretty easy to follow that diet?”
My answer was yes. All I have to avoid are foods containing wheat, rye, barley, malt and their derivatives. I also avoid oats unless they’re certified gluten-free. The list of foods I can eat is much longer than the list of foods I cannot. The only area in which I feel limited is processed food.
Now let’s get to the Gluten-Free. Back to Basics. Prohibited Foods. For those of you who are considering a zero gluten way of living and are wondering what will be prohibited, you must avoid foods listing any of these items on the label:
Barley
Barley Grass
Barley Malt
Beer (there are GF varieties)
Bleached Flour
Bran
Bread Flour
Brewer’s Yeast
Brown Flour
Bulgur Wheat
Cookie Crumbs
Cookie Dough
Couscous
Durum wheat
Edible Coatings
Edible Films
Edible Starch
Enriched Bleached Flour
Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour
Enriched Flour
Farina
Farina Graham
Farro
Filler
Flour
Fu
Germ
Graham Flour
Groats
Hard Wheat
Hydrolyzed Wheat Gluten
Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein
Hydrolyzed Wheat Starch
Kamut
Maida
Malt
Malted Barley Flour
Malted Milk
Malt Extract
Malt Flavoring
Malt Vinegar
Matza
Matzo
Matzo Semolina
Orzo Pasta
Pasta
Pearl Barley
Triticum
Roux
Rusk
Rye
Semolina
Semolina Triticum
Spelt
Sprouted Wheat or Barley
Tabbouleh
Unbleached Flour
Vital Wheat Gluten
Wheat
Wheat Bran Extract
Wheat Germ Extract
Wheat Nuts
Wheat Protein
Whole-Meal Flour
The following items sometimes contain gluten:
Artificial Color
Baking Powder
Boxed Cereals
Broth
Caramel Color
Caramel Flavoring
Clarifying Agents
Coloring
Dextrins
Dextrimaltose
Dry Roasted Nuts
Emulsifiers
Enzymes
Fat Replacer
Flavoring
Food Starch
Food Starch Modified
Glucose Syrup
HPP
HVP
Hydrolyzed Plant Protein
Hydrolyzed Protein
Hydrogenated Starch Hydrolysate
Hydroxypropylated Starch
Maltose
Miso
Modified Food Starch
Modified Starch
Natural Flavoring
Salad Dressing
Natural Flavors
Non-dairy Creamer
Oats
Seasonings
Soba noodles
Soy Sauce
Soup
Stabilizers
Starch
Tomato Paste
Vegetable Gum
Vegetable Starch
Vitamins
Wheat Starch
To fully eliminate gluten from your diet, it is important to review the ingredient list on all foods before you decide to consume them. If you live in the US, you’ll even need to read the ingredients on products that say “Gluten-Free”. Why? The FDA has never established a standard for foods to qualify as gluten-free.
When I eliminated gluten from my eating plan, label reading quickly became part of my daily routine. It’s not too time consuming, and it doesn’t take long for it to become a habit. It’s one of the few simple steps required for gluten-free living. Print out this list, and give it a try!
If you want to read more about safe or prohibited items, visit www.celiac.com.