Foods To Avoid On A Gluten Free Diet

It should be a simple thing, right? You’ve found you need to avoid gluten, so you’ll knock out the bread, the biscuits, and all the Dunkin’ Donut products. (You’ll decide about your favorite malted barley beer later.)

While this is a good start, it barely begins to be the tip of the iceberg. There are foods that are clearly in the wheat or gluten camp – but there are a far greater number of food products that you wouldn’t suspect.

Obvious suspects to avoid: wheat products where the grain serves as the chief content. This includes items such as bread, bagels and most breakfast cereals. Foods which contain any of the grains wheat, rye, barley, or mixes of these grains are forbidden. Normal wheat flour products (think “cookies”) are out.

Less obvious but understandable: foods which contain a gluten product not as a primary content but for secondary reasons such as texture, binding or production purposes. These over-looked sources of gluten include most coating mixes, many candies, luncheon meats, and even the broth used to make soups and gravies. Obviously stuffing is forbidden, but even self-basting poultry includes gluten. One unexpected source: soy sauce. Who would have thought?

And even more pernicious: those herbal supplements and many prescription and over-the-counter medications that we take to be healthy! Perhaps most surprising: lipstick and lip glosses can contain gluten. And for children? Watch out for play-doh. Glutens aren’t absorbed through the skin but can be easily carried to the mouth, so wash hands well after playing with your children at the play-doh table.

It would be nice to be able to rely on packaging and labeling to know which foods to avoid. But be careful: consistent labeling standards for gluten-free foods cannot be counted on, and what standards are present vary from country to country. In the United States the Food and Drug Administration has yet to issue official rules for use of the term “gluten-free.”

The health effects of consuming gluten products for gluten-sensitive individuals are deadly serious. Gluten-free diet folks must set out on a life-long lesson to know what foods to avoid, which foods to substitute, and how to discern patterns that can help lengthen your life and health. Do your homework!

If you're new to a gluten free diet, it's easy to be overwhelmed with all of the food that you can't eat anymore. The good news is that there are plenty of great tasting gluten free foods and recipes out there, like this gluten free pizza recipe. Take some time to look around and you'll find plenty of good food to eat.

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