gluten and glutenfree . Tiffany

[Guest guest]

I'm sorry I was confusing. :-( That's what I get for trying to be

brief... when I'm not so good at being brief. :-) (BTW, if you do

experience symptoms when eating gluten, you might still consider

being tested. Fibro is a common mis-diagnosis for celiac (as is

IBS), and the symptoms of celiac are not all gastrointestinal. Most

of mine are mental and whole body. Just a thought. Then again, if

you're committed to going GF anyway, maybe you don't need the needle

stick. :-) )

 

First, did you catch the part about the two uses of gluten? The

technical term which simply refers to a plant's storage proteins, and

the food-labeling term which refers to the specific protein sequences

which case a reaction in people considered gluten-intolerant. I'm

assuming you did....

 

As for the gluten free products, no, most of them should be naturally

gluten free, not made gluten free. Some contries (and I don't know

that anyone from Australia on the celiac boards has

mentioned " rendered gluten free " flours...) - particularly in Europe -

have flours that have been modified to make them " gluten free " .

While I still can't find the details, it basically means removing as

much of the protein from the wheat, rye, barley, or oat grain as

possible, so that the level meets the Codex Alimentarius standard.

(Codex Alimentarius is an internaltion organization run by the World

Heath organization and FAO that sets food standards, and

allows " rendered gluten free " products to have up to 200mg/kg of

gluten.) (That's where the name " Codex wheat " comes from - it's

regular wheat that everyone else eats, but has been modified -

probably chemically - to get rid of the protein.)

 

But a lot of celiacs and gluten-free organizations don't want to

ingest even that much gluten, however, most GF products that you get

at a store are simply made from grains other than wheat, barley, rye,

and possibly oats. They'll be made from things like amaranth,

quinoa, millet, teff, sorgum, arrowroot, rice, corn, soy, potato,

nuts, beans, and buckwheat (not actually related to wheat at all).

(Note, all of these are available as whole grains and flour - and

amaranth flour makes a mighty tasty pancake. :-) )

 

The only trouble is that gluten is hidden in SO many things. Soy

sauce, some vitamins, some stamps, some rice/soy beverages, HPV/TVP,

food starch, blue cheese, flavorings, spice mixes, etc - all might

contain gluten. (I don't know how many times I picked something up,

though it was ok, checked the label again, saw " natural flavorings "

and had to put it back. And it was just a can of tomatoes! Sigh...)

 

I'll put a couple lists that I found handy before, and please excuse

me if I've duplicated stuff you already know! I haven't been reading

the list long at all, so I just sort of jumped in on this one since I

had to become so familiar with it after my diagnosis.

 

A list of items that do and do not contain gluten - as well as ones

that no one is really quite sure of:

http://www.csaceliacs.org/grainsflours.html

 

A list of gluten-free foods:

http://www.celiac.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_prod.html?

p_prodid=183 & p_catid=12 & sid=91hH9H0

 

A list of NOT gluten-free foods:

http://www.celiac.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_prod.html?

p_prodid=185 & p_catid=12 & sid=91hH9H0

 

A list of things that may or may not be gluten-free but you should be

wary of:

http://www.celiac.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_prod.html?

p_prodid=186 & p_catid=12 & sid=91hH9H0

 

Also, if you take a look at the www.celiac.com message board, you'll

find a place to ask people a lot of questions. I know there are at

least one or two Australians on the board, and they're all friendly,

helpful people.

 

Tiffany

 

herbal remedies , " Hanneke " <blosshan@o...>

wrote:

> Hi Tiffany,

>

> It's very early here, 5.15 am Australia, and I've tried to

understand what you were saying but...sorry, it doesn't seem to sink

in.

> I was under the impression that, when I buy gluten free products,

that I buy a product that has done something to the grains to get rid

of the gluten component(s) that causes problems (I'm not a celiac

only bad flare ups of fibromyalgic pains when eating anything grain).

>

> Is the process they use in Europe to make them 'gluten-free' done

after the grain has been reaped, or is it the type of seeds that have

been modified before sowing? The use of the word Codex makes me think

it is the latter.

> Which grains bar the once you mentioned in your list are the ones

that do not genetically produce the gluten? I don't know but I

doubt we get many products here in Oz that use European grains.

>

> I used to buy sprouten breads (Essene bread) which clearly says:

contains gluten.

>

> Hanneke

>

>

> Tiffany wrote:

>

> Pardon me for butting in, but it's late and I saw this, and being

> celiac (gluten intolerant - my body thinks gluten is toxic), I

> thought I'd respond.

> \

> Unless your talking about modified grains in europe, they

> don't " make " grains gluten free. I understand that there's a

process

> that's used in Europe to isolate the protein and remove it, but

> american groups don't recognize those grains as gluten free. (And

> they're not, they just have almost all of the gluten removed.)

>

> But most grains (anything but wheat, rye, barley, possibly oats,

and

> the ancient grains related to wheat, like spelt and kamut) simply

> don't have the genetics to produce the gluten that gets labeled.

>

> Keep in mind that all grains contain some amount of " gluten " , but

> those labeled gluten free tend to be the ones that don't cause

> reactions in people who are gluten-intolerant. (Ok, I think I'm

> being confusing. :-) " Gluten " is simply a generic term for storage

> proteins of grains. It's specific ones - horedin, gliandin, and

> secalin, and possibly avenin - that are commonly called " gluten "

when

> talking about gluten free grains.)

>

> Anyway, I'm not sure of the details of the process they use in

Europe

> to make Codex wheat (wheat where they remove the gluten), but many

> celiacs - in Europe and not - don't feel safe using this wheat.

>

> Tiffany