If you are new to gluten free, or if you have been working on it for a while and are curious if you've taken all the right precautions, this guide is for you. Please let me know if you think of anything I've missed. This guide is helpful not only to those who must eat gluten free, but also for those who would like to cook gluten free for their guests. So pass the link along to friends or family who might find this useful!
Phase 1 - Start Eating
Phase 2 - Remove the Obvious Gluten
Phase 3 - Try Some Gluten Free Grains
Phase 4 - Eliminating Cross Contamination in the Kitchen
Phase 5 - Removing Other Hidden Sources of Gluten
Phase 6 - Scour the Stores and Start Baking!
You can subscribe to Gluten Free Bumble Bee via Email, RSS or Twitter.
Shop at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca and support Gluten Free Bumble Bee.
Showing posts with label going gluten free. Show all posts
Showing posts with label going gluten free. Show all posts
Sunday, 16 October 2011
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Phase 6 - Scour the Stores and Start Baking!
Now that you have the basics, and the not-so-basics under control it is a great time to start experimenting with baked goods. Whether you choose to buy your gluten free bread and cookies or make your own, there will be a lot of trial and error. I'm hoping that I can minimize some of that for you, and save you some money along the way. Over time I will be posting all of my favourite store-bought foods and all of my favourite recipes and cookbooks to try and help you in your journey. I am quite particular in what I call "great", "amazing", or "fantastic" foods. I never thought I would use those terms with gluten free food but I now know that they exist and I want to share my findings with you.
The first store-bought gluten free baked goods that we purchased were very disappointing. Everything was dry and crumbly, and tasted terrible. We experimented over and over, and it got quite expensive. I finally attended a meeting organized by our local Chapter of the Celiac Association and some of the presenters there had brought in some home-baked goodies to share. There was also a local vendor, Judy's Magic Mixes, who had brought in some freshly made bread, cakes and even a pizza! It was at that meeting that I had my first tastes of great gluten free specialty foods. What a relief! I collected a few extra cookies to take home to PapaBee (still not trusting anyone else to make food for BoyBee), and then the gentleman from Judy's Magic Mixes caught me adding a corner of his loaf of bread to my stash…he asked what I was doing and I thought I was in trouble for a moment until he took what remained and gave me most of what was left! It was so exciting to take these goodies back to my family.
There are quite a few great foods available on the market nowadays but they are not always easy to source. I am a great supporter of purchasing gluten free products online (more on that in a later post), but the very best foods you can get are going to come straight from your kitchen. I've done a lot of experimenting with recipes and had many poor results. It was such a relief when things started to turn around. My advice is to hang in there, stock the most common flours and starches, and try to find a trusted source for recipes (maybe me?). Oh, and once you have found a place to buy a given item it is a great idea to record where you got it. It is hard to find a store that carries everything so my products have come from 5 or 6 different stores. I wish I had written down where I got certain ones as they were not all easy to find!
To start you off with your shopping, find two or three recipes that look great and start searching for ingredients. I found that every time I found a new recipe it would call for an ingredient that I didn't have yet so I started buying them all, whether I needed them at the time or not. Over time you'll learn which items are most useful to and you can stock up then. One final tip...If you know of a cookbook with a lot of great recipes that uses a pre-made mix, make a big batch - it is a wonderful time saver.
Here is a list of what I tend to stock...
Most frequently used:
- brown rice flour
- white rice flour
- almond flour/meal
- tapioca flour/starch
- arrowroot starch
- potato starch
- corn starch
- corn flour
- amaranth flour
- chickpea flour (aka garbanzo bean flour)
- buckwheat flour
- sorghum flour
- xanthan gum
- baking soda
- baking powder
Less often:
- sweet rice flour (aka glutinous rice flour)
- quinoa flour
- hazelnut flour/meal
- coconut flour
- flaxseed meal
- guar gum
- millet flour
- potato flour (different from potato starch)
- quinoa flakes
- teff flour
- cornmeal
Phase 1 - Start Eating
Phase 2 - Remove the Obvious Gluten
Phase 3 - Try Some Gluten Free Grains
Phase 4 - Eliminating Cross Contamination in the Kitchen
Phase 5 - Removing Other Hidden Sources of Gluten
You can subscribe to Gluten Free Bumble Bee via Email, RSS or Twitter.
Shop at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca and support Gluten Free Bumble Bee.
The first store-bought gluten free baked goods that we purchased were very disappointing. Everything was dry and crumbly, and tasted terrible. We experimented over and over, and it got quite expensive. I finally attended a meeting organized by our local Chapter of the Celiac Association and some of the presenters there had brought in some home-baked goodies to share. There was also a local vendor, Judy's Magic Mixes, who had brought in some freshly made bread, cakes and even a pizza! It was at that meeting that I had my first tastes of great gluten free specialty foods. What a relief! I collected a few extra cookies to take home to PapaBee (still not trusting anyone else to make food for BoyBee), and then the gentleman from Judy's Magic Mixes caught me adding a corner of his loaf of bread to my stash…he asked what I was doing and I thought I was in trouble for a moment until he took what remained and gave me most of what was left! It was so exciting to take these goodies back to my family.
There are quite a few great foods available on the market nowadays but they are not always easy to source. I am a great supporter of purchasing gluten free products online (more on that in a later post), but the very best foods you can get are going to come straight from your kitchen. I've done a lot of experimenting with recipes and had many poor results. It was such a relief when things started to turn around. My advice is to hang in there, stock the most common flours and starches, and try to find a trusted source for recipes (maybe me?). Oh, and once you have found a place to buy a given item it is a great idea to record where you got it. It is hard to find a store that carries everything so my products have come from 5 or 6 different stores. I wish I had written down where I got certain ones as they were not all easy to find!
To start you off with your shopping, find two or three recipes that look great and start searching for ingredients. I found that every time I found a new recipe it would call for an ingredient that I didn't have yet so I started buying them all, whether I needed them at the time or not. Over time you'll learn which items are most useful to and you can stock up then. One final tip...If you know of a cookbook with a lot of great recipes that uses a pre-made mix, make a big batch - it is a wonderful time saver.
Here is a list of what I tend to stock...
Most frequently used:
- brown rice flour
- white rice flour
- almond flour/meal
- tapioca flour/starch
- arrowroot starch
- potato starch
- corn starch
- corn flour
- amaranth flour
- chickpea flour (aka garbanzo bean flour)
- buckwheat flour
- sorghum flour
- xanthan gum
- baking soda
- baking powder
Less often:
- sweet rice flour (aka glutinous rice flour)
- quinoa flour
- hazelnut flour/meal
- coconut flour
- flaxseed meal
- guar gum
- millet flour
- potato flour (different from potato starch)
- quinoa flakes
- teff flour
- cornmeal
Phase 1 - Start Eating
Phase 2 - Remove the Obvious Gluten
Phase 3 - Try Some Gluten Free Grains
Phase 4 - Eliminating Cross Contamination in the Kitchen
Phase 5 - Removing Other Hidden Sources of Gluten
You can subscribe to Gluten Free Bumble Bee via Email, RSS or Twitter.
Shop at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca and support Gluten Free Bumble Bee.
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Phase 5 - Removing Other Hidden Sources of Gluten
"How many phases are there???" you may be asking. Well this is the last step in removing all gluten from your home, and I am going to include a final phase which is a little more on the fun side...gluten free baked goods. We're almost there.
We have already covered eliminating gluten from the kitchen quite extensively in Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 4. Now let's take care of unfinished business...gluten in the rest of the house.
Crumbs, crumbs, crumbs...in addition to making sure your floors are clean, be sure to vacuum underneath the cushions of your sofa and/or upholstered chairs. This is really important if you have little ones crawling around that you need to protect from gluten, but even if you don't, why not make your house really safe for yourself? Then you don't have to worry if you drop a chip on the floor and want to use the two second rule...or, if you're looking for change in the cushions you won't have to make sure to wash gluten crumbs off of your hands before start chewing on your nails or have a snack.
Toiletries and cleaning supplies...gluten is not absorbed through the skin - the molecules are too big. But some celiacs with Dermatitis Herpetiformis have external reactions when their skin comes into contact with gluten. We are careful to select gluten free toiletries and cleaning supplies because BoyBee is so young. He helps to put the tabs in the dishwasher. He swallows the toothpaste. He may not rinse his hands very well after washing them. He sometimes even drinks the bath water. But even if you're older than two, wouldn't it be nice not to have to be paranoid about getting glutened in your own home?
There are a number of specialty companies out there who produce gluten free household items. Although it is typically more expensive to purchase specialty products there is a level of comfort with reading "gluten free" on the label (or finding it in the gluten free section of the company's website). Green Beaver is great for gluten free products. I did a search for "gluten free" on their site and 62 items were returned - toothpaste, deodorant, facial cleanser and moisturizer, shampoo and conditioner, hand soap, and more. Kiss My Face and Tom's of Maine also have a number of gluten free items.
As far as mainstream products go we tend to stick to Vim for cleaning (we really should find something more natural), Sunlight for dish detergent, Finish dishwasher tabs, Vaseline moisturizer and Dove soap, shampoo and conditioner.
Medications and vitamins: many medications and vitamins now come labelled gluten free if you look very closely. Others you, or your pharmacist, will have to contact the company to find out about. I recently came across a great article called How to Protect Yourself from Hidden Gluten in Medications. The article offers some great advice and I encourage you to take the time to read through it.
Miscellaneous: the only other thing I can think of is pet food. Yes, you can buy gluten free pet food!
It is a lot of work to go completely gluten free. Congratulations if you have made it this far!
Phase 1 - Start Eating
Phase 2 - Remove the Obvious Gluten
Phase 3 - Try Some Gluten Free Grains
Phase 4 - Eliminating Cross Contamination in the Kitchen
Phase 6 - Scour the Stores and Start Baking!
You can subscribe to Gluten Free Bumble Bee via Email, RSS or Twitter.
Shop at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca and support Gluten Free Bumble Bee.
We have already covered eliminating gluten from the kitchen quite extensively in Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 4. Now let's take care of unfinished business...gluten in the rest of the house.
Crumbs, crumbs, crumbs...in addition to making sure your floors are clean, be sure to vacuum underneath the cushions of your sofa and/or upholstered chairs. This is really important if you have little ones crawling around that you need to protect from gluten, but even if you don't, why not make your house really safe for yourself? Then you don't have to worry if you drop a chip on the floor and want to use the two second rule...or, if you're looking for change in the cushions you won't have to make sure to wash gluten crumbs off of your hands before start chewing on your nails or have a snack.
Toiletries and cleaning supplies...gluten is not absorbed through the skin - the molecules are too big. But some celiacs with Dermatitis Herpetiformis have external reactions when their skin comes into contact with gluten. We are careful to select gluten free toiletries and cleaning supplies because BoyBee is so young. He helps to put the tabs in the dishwasher. He swallows the toothpaste. He may not rinse his hands very well after washing them. He sometimes even drinks the bath water. But even if you're older than two, wouldn't it be nice not to have to be paranoid about getting glutened in your own home?
There are a number of specialty companies out there who produce gluten free household items. Although it is typically more expensive to purchase specialty products there is a level of comfort with reading "gluten free" on the label (or finding it in the gluten free section of the company's website). Green Beaver is great for gluten free products. I did a search for "gluten free" on their site and 62 items were returned - toothpaste, deodorant, facial cleanser and moisturizer, shampoo and conditioner, hand soap, and more. Kiss My Face and Tom's of Maine also have a number of gluten free items.
As far as mainstream products go we tend to stick to Vim for cleaning (we really should find something more natural), Sunlight for dish detergent, Finish dishwasher tabs, Vaseline moisturizer and Dove soap, shampoo and conditioner.
Medications and vitamins: many medications and vitamins now come labelled gluten free if you look very closely. Others you, or your pharmacist, will have to contact the company to find out about. I recently came across a great article called How to Protect Yourself from Hidden Gluten in Medications. The article offers some great advice and I encourage you to take the time to read through it.
Miscellaneous: the only other thing I can think of is pet food. Yes, you can buy gluten free pet food!
It is a lot of work to go completely gluten free. Congratulations if you have made it this far!
Phase 1 - Start Eating
Phase 2 - Remove the Obvious Gluten
Phase 3 - Try Some Gluten Free Grains
Phase 4 - Eliminating Cross Contamination in the Kitchen
Phase 6 - Scour the Stores and Start Baking!
You can subscribe to Gluten Free Bumble Bee via Email, RSS or Twitter.
Shop at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca and support Gluten Free Bumble Bee.
Saturday, 17 September 2011
Phase 4 - Eliminating Cross Contamination in the Kitchen
As I explained in an earlier post, we haven't done this half way. We have gotten rid of every speck (I hope) of gluten in our house. If you are trying a hybrid method you can decide on the logistics that work best for you. If you're playing it safe, read on.
Sugar: If there's a chance that you once measured flour in a measuring cup and then reused it to measure out your sugar, your sugar may be contaminated. It's safest to start over.
Spices: Consider the cross contamination risk for spices that you may have double-dipped in.
Salt and pepper: Are you certain that your salt and pepper are gluten free? If you have a pepper grinder, was it always used with gluten free pepper?
Condiments: Any condiments that you already had while gluten was in your house may be contaminated. With squeeze bottles that is unlikely, but beware of containers that you have to dip into. Think peanut butter, Nutella, butter, jam, mayo, mustard, honey...
Oven mitts: Throw all your oven mitts in the wash to make sure they're not holding onto any gluten residue.
Towels and dishcloths: Make sure these are fresh as well.
Dish detergent and dishwasher tabs: We use All in One FINISH Powerball Tabs and Sunlight dish soap.
Small appliances: Consider the crevices that gluten could get into in your blender, food processor, bread maker etc. and decide whether you think it's possible to decontaminate them completely. If you are in doubt, throw it out (better yet, give it away). You definitely need to get a dedicated gluten free toaster.
Knife block: If you don't always wash your bread knife well after cutting bread, crumbs could be lingering in your knife block.
Grills: The grills inside your oven and on your barbeque may be hosting gluten. We kept our oven grills and just never put food directly on them, but we replaced our barbeque grills. I'm not entirely sure that this is necessary, but gluten is still gluten whether it is burnt to a crisp or not.
Baking sheets and muffin pans: You could use your old sheets and line them with parchment paper when you use them, or play it safe and get new ones (I still line them for easy cleanup).
Cast iron pots and pans: These are expensive to replace. Some people say that you can put them in your over on self-clean to scorch them and then you'll just have to re-season them...This is a tough call. Ours were barely used and they weren't scratched up, so we cleaned them really well, and really well again. I *think* we'll be ok with this...
Plastic plates and containers: Plastic plates, and cheaper plastic containers, tend to get cut marks all over them, which are perfect little grooves for gluten to cling to and there's no guarantee your dishwasher will get it all off.
Serrated knives: Another nice place for gluten to cling to.
Drawers and shelves: Crumbs, flour etc. tend to hang around the bottom of drawer and shelves for years (am I the only one who doesn't wipe these areas down regularly?). Clean them all out.
Microwave: Throughly wash out your microwave, and any food cover you might use in there.
Non-stick frying pans, colanders, cutting boards: I covered these in Phase 1, but wanted to mention them here as well.
Going gluten free requires a major shift in how you think. We were catching ourselves almost making mistakes with grocery shopping a year into it, and it took us about that long to identify all of the items on this list and completely decontaminate. As a side benefit we felt much cleaner knowing that we had decontaminated so thoroughly.
The places that gluten can hide are not always obvious. I wish I had a list like this to help me out when we were making the transition. I hope this list helps someone out there! Please let me know if I have forgotten anything :) Please pass this along to anyone you know who is on a gluten free diet incase they have missed something or have something to add!
Phase 1 - Start Eating
Phase 2 - Remove the Obvious Gluten
Phase 3 - Try Some Gluten Free Grains
Phase 5 - Removing Other Hidden Sources of Gluten
Phase 6 - Scour the Stores and Start Baking!
You can subscribe to Gluten Free Bumble Bee via Email, RSS or Twitter.
Shop at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca and support Gluten Free Bumble Bee.
Sugar: If there's a chance that you once measured flour in a measuring cup and then reused it to measure out your sugar, your sugar may be contaminated. It's safest to start over.
Spices: Consider the cross contamination risk for spices that you may have double-dipped in.
Salt and pepper: Are you certain that your salt and pepper are gluten free? If you have a pepper grinder, was it always used with gluten free pepper?
Condiments: Any condiments that you already had while gluten was in your house may be contaminated. With squeeze bottles that is unlikely, but beware of containers that you have to dip into. Think peanut butter, Nutella, butter, jam, mayo, mustard, honey...
Oven mitts: Throw all your oven mitts in the wash to make sure they're not holding onto any gluten residue.
Towels and dishcloths: Make sure these are fresh as well.
Dish detergent and dishwasher tabs: We use All in One FINISH Powerball Tabs and Sunlight dish soap.
Small appliances: Consider the crevices that gluten could get into in your blender, food processor, bread maker etc. and decide whether you think it's possible to decontaminate them completely. If you are in doubt, throw it out (better yet, give it away). You definitely need to get a dedicated gluten free toaster.
Knife block: If you don't always wash your bread knife well after cutting bread, crumbs could be lingering in your knife block.
Grills: The grills inside your oven and on your barbeque may be hosting gluten. We kept our oven grills and just never put food directly on them, but we replaced our barbeque grills. I'm not entirely sure that this is necessary, but gluten is still gluten whether it is burnt to a crisp or not.
Baking sheets and muffin pans: You could use your old sheets and line them with parchment paper when you use them, or play it safe and get new ones (I still line them for easy cleanup).
Cast iron pots and pans: These are expensive to replace. Some people say that you can put them in your over on self-clean to scorch them and then you'll just have to re-season them...This is a tough call. Ours were barely used and they weren't scratched up, so we cleaned them really well, and really well again. I *think* we'll be ok with this...
Plastic plates and containers: Plastic plates, and cheaper plastic containers, tend to get cut marks all over them, which are perfect little grooves for gluten to cling to and there's no guarantee your dishwasher will get it all off.
Serrated knives: Another nice place for gluten to cling to.
Drawers and shelves: Crumbs, flour etc. tend to hang around the bottom of drawer and shelves for years (am I the only one who doesn't wipe these areas down regularly?). Clean them all out.
Microwave: Throughly wash out your microwave, and any food cover you might use in there.
Non-stick frying pans, colanders, cutting boards: I covered these in Phase 1, but wanted to mention them here as well.
Going gluten free requires a major shift in how you think. We were catching ourselves almost making mistakes with grocery shopping a year into it, and it took us about that long to identify all of the items on this list and completely decontaminate. As a side benefit we felt much cleaner knowing that we had decontaminated so thoroughly.
The places that gluten can hide are not always obvious. I wish I had a list like this to help me out when we were making the transition. I hope this list helps someone out there! Please let me know if I have forgotten anything :) Please pass this along to anyone you know who is on a gluten free diet incase they have missed something or have something to add!
Phase 1 - Start Eating
Phase 2 - Remove the Obvious Gluten
Phase 3 - Try Some Gluten Free Grains
Phase 5 - Removing Other Hidden Sources of Gluten
Phase 6 - Scour the Stores and Start Baking!
You can subscribe to Gluten Free Bumble Bee via Email, RSS or Twitter.
Shop at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca and support Gluten Free Bumble Bee.
Thursday, 15 September 2011
Phase 3 - Try Some Gluten Free Grains
In an earlier post I suggested eliminating gluten from your diet, and letting your body get used to that for a few weeks, and then start introducing gluten free grains. These are major dietary changes and I think it is best to take it slow.
The first two grains I am suggesting you try are quinoa and buckwheat. Before I was introduced to the gluten free world I had never heard of quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) and I thought buckwheat was something only hippies ate. Now they are two staples in our household and I am loving them! They're very versatile and easy to digest. And if you have recently gone gluten free you probably want to be eating foods that are easy to digest.
You can usually find quinoa and buckwheat in the health food section of your grocery store. Natural food stores sell them too. Make sure the brand you buy is gluten free.
I usually buy Eden Organic Quinoa or GoGo Quinoa. Bob's Red Mill produces gluten free quinoa as well. If you go with Bob's Red Mill make sure you look carefully for the gluten free symbol. Many of their products come in gluten free versions and non-gluten free versions. You can use quinoa in place of rice or couscous in your recipes, or make a delicious quinoa salad (I will be posting my favorite quinoa salad recipe soon). Quinoa is a very healthful grain, high in fiber and iron among other nutrients.
When it comes to buckwheat you can buy buckwheat groats and make a hot cereal out of them (I have never tried this), or you can buy buckwheat flour and use it in place of regular gluten flour. In most recipes you can't substitute gluten flour with straight buckwheat flour - you would normally need a combination of starches and flours. However, I've been making some delicious buckwheat pancakes lately and buckwheat flour is the only special ingredient you need. I have been using Cuisine Soleil Buckwheat Flour but Bob's Red Mill makes it as well (again, look for that gluten free symbol just to make sure). I'll be sure to post my recipe for buckwheat pancakes soon too!
Also, see my other posts:
Phase 1 - Start Eating
Phase 2 - Remove the Obvious Gluten
Phase 4 - Eliminating Cross Contamination in the Kitchen
Phase 5 - Removing Other Hidden Sources of Gluten
Phase 6 - Scour the Stores and Start Baking!
You can subscribe to Gluten Free Bumble Bee via Email, RSS or Twitter.
Shop at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca and support Gluten Free Bumble Bee.
The first two grains I am suggesting you try are quinoa and buckwheat. Before I was introduced to the gluten free world I had never heard of quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) and I thought buckwheat was something only hippies ate. Now they are two staples in our household and I am loving them! They're very versatile and easy to digest. And if you have recently gone gluten free you probably want to be eating foods that are easy to digest.
You can usually find quinoa and buckwheat in the health food section of your grocery store. Natural food stores sell them too. Make sure the brand you buy is gluten free.
I usually buy Eden Organic Quinoa or GoGo Quinoa. Bob's Red Mill produces gluten free quinoa as well. If you go with Bob's Red Mill make sure you look carefully for the gluten free symbol. Many of their products come in gluten free versions and non-gluten free versions. You can use quinoa in place of rice or couscous in your recipes, or make a delicious quinoa salad (I will be posting my favorite quinoa salad recipe soon). Quinoa is a very healthful grain, high in fiber and iron among other nutrients.
When it comes to buckwheat you can buy buckwheat groats and make a hot cereal out of them (I have never tried this), or you can buy buckwheat flour and use it in place of regular gluten flour. In most recipes you can't substitute gluten flour with straight buckwheat flour - you would normally need a combination of starches and flours. However, I've been making some delicious buckwheat pancakes lately and buckwheat flour is the only special ingredient you need. I have been using Cuisine Soleil Buckwheat Flour but Bob's Red Mill makes it as well (again, look for that gluten free symbol just to make sure). I'll be sure to post my recipe for buckwheat pancakes soon too!
Also, see my other posts:
Phase 1 - Start Eating
Phase 2 - Remove the Obvious Gluten
Phase 4 - Eliminating Cross Contamination in the Kitchen
Phase 5 - Removing Other Hidden Sources of Gluten
Phase 6 - Scour the Stores and Start Baking!
You can subscribe to Gluten Free Bumble Bee via Email, RSS or Twitter.
Shop at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca and support Gluten Free Bumble Bee.
Tuesday, 13 September 2011
Contacting Companies
The quickest way to find out if a product is truly gluten free is to phone the manufacturer. Many manufacturers provide informative answers over email as well, but it may take a while to hear from them, and some may not respond at all. Manufacturing procedures are subject to change at any time so it's ideal to contact the company every time you purchase the product. For this reason I don't recommend relying on forums or blogs for answers, though they do provide a great starting point. What may be safe one day may be cross contaminated the next. Always find out for yourself.
Following are some sample phrases you might use on the phone:
"I am calling to find out if one of your products contains gluten, or if it is processed on any of the same equipment that processes gluten."
"What procedures are in place to prevent cross-contamination?"
"Would it be possible for you to find out and phone me back?"
"Do you have a list available of all of the company's gluten free products?"
"What is your labelling policy when it comes to gluten?"
You have to decide what threshold you are comfortable with. We are very strict when it comes to cross-contamination, yet if a company is able to answer my questions in a confident and informative way, and assure me that they thoroughly clean and sterilize their equipment between runs, we give it the green light. Red flags are words like "think", "believe", "probably", and "unlikely". If a company tells me that they clean the lines between runs but that there may still be residue on the line, it's a no-go for us.
A sample email might go something like this (feel free to copy and paste):
Dear Company X,
I am writing to find out more details about potential allergens in one of the X products.
I recently found out that I have Celiac Disease and must adhere to a strict gluten free diet. Even trace amounts of gluten (wheat, rye, oats, or barley) can make me sick. I would like to find out if product X contains any gluten, or if there is any risk of gluten cross-contamination in the product.
In addition, if you happen to have a list of all of your gluten free items I would greatly appreciate if you would forward me a copy.
Any information you can provide would be very helpful.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
The process of finding out whether every pre-packaged food in your house is truly gluten free can be very time consuming and overwhelming. Prioritize. Check on the foods that are staples in your household. Contact one or two companies a day. To save time, be sure to ask about multiple items that you have from the same manufacturer.
You can subscribe to Gluten Free Bumble Bee via Email, RSS or Twitter.
Shop at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca and support Gluten Free Bumble Bee.
Following are some sample phrases you might use on the phone:
"I am calling to find out if one of your products contains gluten, or if it is processed on any of the same equipment that processes gluten."
"What procedures are in place to prevent cross-contamination?"
"Would it be possible for you to find out and phone me back?"
"Do you have a list available of all of the company's gluten free products?"
"What is your labelling policy when it comes to gluten?"
You have to decide what threshold you are comfortable with. We are very strict when it comes to cross-contamination, yet if a company is able to answer my questions in a confident and informative way, and assure me that they thoroughly clean and sterilize their equipment between runs, we give it the green light. Red flags are words like "think", "believe", "probably", and "unlikely". If a company tells me that they clean the lines between runs but that there may still be residue on the line, it's a no-go for us.
A sample email might go something like this (feel free to copy and paste):
Dear Company X,
I am writing to find out more details about potential allergens in one of the X products.
I recently found out that I have Celiac Disease and must adhere to a strict gluten free diet. Even trace amounts of gluten (wheat, rye, oats, or barley) can make me sick. I would like to find out if product X contains any gluten, or if there is any risk of gluten cross-contamination in the product.
In addition, if you happen to have a list of all of your gluten free items I would greatly appreciate if you would forward me a copy.
Any information you can provide would be very helpful.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
The process of finding out whether every pre-packaged food in your house is truly gluten free can be very time consuming and overwhelming. Prioritize. Check on the foods that are staples in your household. Contact one or two companies a day. To save time, be sure to ask about multiple items that you have from the same manufacturer.
You can subscribe to Gluten Free Bumble Bee via Email, RSS or Twitter.
Shop at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca and support Gluten Free Bumble Bee.
Monday, 12 September 2011
Phase 2 - Remove the Obvious Gluten
Phase 1 was all about setting you up to eat safely right away - we've all gotta eat! Now that the basics are covered let's move on to some more serious work.
The next step is to remove the obvious gluten from your house. Clean off a nice big space on your kitchen counter and start going through your cupboards. Clean out all of the gluten pasta, flours, cereals, breadcrumbs etc. Look at every item. Read labels. If you see "wheat", "rye", "oats", or "barley" on the ingredient list or may contains statement, out it goes. If there is no label and you're just not sure, out it goes. Throw out, give away or donate all of your gluten as soon as you can.
Once you've cleared out some space in the cupboards, move all of your processed foods to one section (possible cross contamination) and leave another section free for foods that you confirm are safe.
Follow the same process for all of your fridge and freezer foods, your pantry or cold-storage room.
Once you have the obvious gluten out of the house start contacting companies to find out if the processed foods that you have left are safe or not. Removing the obvious gluten from your house is a big enough task for one day though. We'll talk about contacting companies in an upcoming post!
Phase 1 - Start Eating
Phase 3 - Try Some Gluten Free Grains
Phase 4 - Eliminating Cross Contamination in the Kitchen
Phase 5 - Removing Other Hidden Sources of Gluten
Phase 6 - Scour the Stores and Start Baking!
You can subscribe to Gluten Free Bumble Bee via Email, RSS or Twitter.
Shop at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca and support Gluten Free Bumble Bee.
The next step is to remove the obvious gluten from your house. Clean off a nice big space on your kitchen counter and start going through your cupboards. Clean out all of the gluten pasta, flours, cereals, breadcrumbs etc. Look at every item. Read labels. If you see "wheat", "rye", "oats", or "barley" on the ingredient list or may contains statement, out it goes. If there is no label and you're just not sure, out it goes. Throw out, give away or donate all of your gluten as soon as you can.
Once you've cleared out some space in the cupboards, move all of your processed foods to one section (possible cross contamination) and leave another section free for foods that you confirm are safe.
Follow the same process for all of your fridge and freezer foods, your pantry or cold-storage room.
Once you have the obvious gluten out of the house start contacting companies to find out if the processed foods that you have left are safe or not. Removing the obvious gluten from your house is a big enough task for one day though. We'll talk about contacting companies in an upcoming post!
Phase 1 - Start Eating
Phase 3 - Try Some Gluten Free Grains
Phase 4 - Eliminating Cross Contamination in the Kitchen
Phase 5 - Removing Other Hidden Sources of Gluten
Phase 6 - Scour the Stores and Start Baking!
You can subscribe to Gluten Free Bumble Bee via Email, RSS or Twitter.
Shop at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca and support Gluten Free Bumble Bee.
Thursday, 8 September 2011
Phase 1 - Start Eating
Ready to go gluten free? Before you go out and rack up your credit card bill on gluten free specialty foods from your local health food store…read on.
Grocery Shopping
Keep things simple when you start out. Go back to basics and stick to foods that are naturally gluten free. Whole fruits, vegetables, meats, milk, eggs…make sure that the foods you are eating haven't been processed in any way. While it is unlikely that those pre-sliced mushrooms and the 1/4 watermelon are cross contaminated you don't actually know. That roasted pork? You're better off to roast your own for now. Rice *should* be gluten free, but you still have to check with the manufacturer unless the package is labelled gluten free. Lundberg makes (and labels) a lot of gluten free products, including rice.
A great rule of thumb to help you out with grocery shopping is to stick with Kraft. Kraft will properly label all of their products. If there is any risk of gluten cross contamination it will clearly be stated on their ingredients list as wheat, rye, oats, or barley. If you don't see any of these words on a Kraft product then you're safe. Kraft makes a lot of condiments so start reading labels on for salad dressing, Miracle Whip, peanut butter etc.
I don't recommend trying gluten free bread or flours right from the start. It might be more of a change than your body is ready for. It's best to introduce these foods slowly.
Kitchen Tools
Buy yourself a new cutting board and designate it as gluten free. Or if you already have a glass cutting board you can continue using it. Gluten is sneaky stuff and is impossible to get off of wooden or plastic cutting boards. Same goes for wooden spoons, colanders and scratched up frying pans. Buy yourself new ones if you need them. Stay away from those knives with the tiny serrations - those little grooves are a great place for gluten to grip onto.
I will be making some great product recommendations in upcoming posts.
Phase 2 - Remove the Obvious Gluten
Phase 3 - Try Some Gluten Free Grains
Phase 4 - Eliminating Cross Contamination in the Kitchen
Phase 5 - Removing Other Hidden Sources of Gluten
Phase 6 - Scour the Stores and Start Baking!
You can subscribe to Gluten Free Bumble Bee via Email, RSS or Twitter.
Shop at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca and support Gluten Free Bumble Bee.
Grocery Shopping
Keep things simple when you start out. Go back to basics and stick to foods that are naturally gluten free. Whole fruits, vegetables, meats, milk, eggs…make sure that the foods you are eating haven't been processed in any way. While it is unlikely that those pre-sliced mushrooms and the 1/4 watermelon are cross contaminated you don't actually know. That roasted pork? You're better off to roast your own for now. Rice *should* be gluten free, but you still have to check with the manufacturer unless the package is labelled gluten free. Lundberg makes (and labels) a lot of gluten free products, including rice.
A great rule of thumb to help you out with grocery shopping is to stick with Kraft. Kraft will properly label all of their products. If there is any risk of gluten cross contamination it will clearly be stated on their ingredients list as wheat, rye, oats, or barley. If you don't see any of these words on a Kraft product then you're safe. Kraft makes a lot of condiments so start reading labels on for salad dressing, Miracle Whip, peanut butter etc.
I don't recommend trying gluten free bread or flours right from the start. It might be more of a change than your body is ready for. It's best to introduce these foods slowly.
Kitchen Tools
Buy yourself a new cutting board and designate it as gluten free. Or if you already have a glass cutting board you can continue using it. Gluten is sneaky stuff and is impossible to get off of wooden or plastic cutting boards. Same goes for wooden spoons, colanders and scratched up frying pans. Buy yourself new ones if you need them. Stay away from those knives with the tiny serrations - those little grooves are a great place for gluten to grip onto.
I will be making some great product recommendations in upcoming posts.
Phase 2 - Remove the Obvious Gluten
Phase 3 - Try Some Gluten Free Grains
Phase 4 - Eliminating Cross Contamination in the Kitchen
Phase 5 - Removing Other Hidden Sources of Gluten
Phase 6 - Scour the Stores and Start Baking!
You can subscribe to Gluten Free Bumble Bee via Email, RSS or Twitter.
Shop at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca and support Gluten Free Bumble Bee.
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
Why We're Extreme
When we first suspected that BoyBee had an issue with gluten we tried keeping him on a gluten free diet while the rest of us ate gluten. We were careful about crumbs and were meticulous about washing the counters and floors if we did any baking. Over time we learned that if it was in the house we wouldn't be able to keep him 100% gluten free, no matter how hard we tried. Keep in mind that he was less than a year old when we started.
Over the course of about 6 months we went from "being careful" with gluten in the house, to eating our baguettes and cheese outside after BoyBee was in bed, to not bringing it into our house or yard at all. Not only was it too difficult to keep it completely separate, we wanted our son to know that our home was a safe place for him. We wanted him to be able to open the cupboards or fridge to search for a snack and not worry about gluten. We wanted him to be able to use the two-second rule like all the other children. We use every opportunity to teach him how to stay gluten free outside of the house, but at home he can relax.
All this to say…we are a bit extreme with some of the measures we have taken in the transition to gluten free. We tried doing it half way and it just wasn't good enough. You must decide how far you are willing to go. For Boy Bee we did, and still do, everything we can.
On this blog I will guide you through the process we followed. It can be an overwhelming task to go gluten free but I will break it down into phases. You can tackle it all at once or you can work on it over time. You can go all out, or you can stick to basics, depending on your situation.
In the meantime, I will leave you with a link to How to Go Gluten-Free by gluten-free goddess. It is a very comprehensive guide and the one that I found most helpful when I was getting started. Grab a cup of gluten free tea before you get start reading - she covers A LOT of information in the article.
Shop at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca and support Gluten Free Bumble Bee.
Over the course of about 6 months we went from "being careful" with gluten in the house, to eating our baguettes and cheese outside after BoyBee was in bed, to not bringing it into our house or yard at all. Not only was it too difficult to keep it completely separate, we wanted our son to know that our home was a safe place for him. We wanted him to be able to open the cupboards or fridge to search for a snack and not worry about gluten. We wanted him to be able to use the two-second rule like all the other children. We use every opportunity to teach him how to stay gluten free outside of the house, but at home he can relax.
All this to say…we are a bit extreme with some of the measures we have taken in the transition to gluten free. We tried doing it half way and it just wasn't good enough. You must decide how far you are willing to go. For Boy Bee we did, and still do, everything we can.
On this blog I will guide you through the process we followed. It can be an overwhelming task to go gluten free but I will break it down into phases. You can tackle it all at once or you can work on it over time. You can go all out, or you can stick to basics, depending on your situation.
In the meantime, I will leave you with a link to How to Go Gluten-Free by gluten-free goddess. It is a very comprehensive guide and the one that I found most helpful when I was getting started. Grab a cup of gluten free tea before you get start reading - she covers A LOT of information in the article.
Shop at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca and support Gluten Free Bumble Bee.
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