Stress and My Gut

Before I post, I want to share the good news...our next issue is on press! It's a really good one and all of our energies have been focused on print media for the past couple of weeks.

I've been preoccupied for a bit longer and can't believe how much time has elapsed since my last post. I find that stress doesn't do much for creativity.

I don’t recall a period of my life where I’ve been under so much pressure. When I look at the cost of college and I look at what happened to my college savings, when people all around me are getting laid off, when my advertising pages are off their usual numbers, when, as an "elected official" in my town, I am swept up in nasty small town politics…the stomach acid just flows. You know what I am craving? Saltines.

Saltines are those bland, sodium laden crackers that are just perfect for an acid gut and I can’t eat them. I’ve tried toast. I’ve tried plain cereals. I’ve tried a variety of rice crackers. Nothing is taking their place right now.

I always felt bad for my celiac son when the 24 hour flu bug hit the house. Everyone else eased back in to eating after a killer attack of the vomitrociousness with ginger ale and saltines. Of course, he’s been on a gluten-free diet for so long that he doesn’t know what he’s missing. He thinks plain toast is what you eat after you’ve been ill.

So in lieu of Saltines, I have been planning a reunion with my high school friends. I read in the paper this weekend about the benefits of life long friends and figured these ladies who knew me when I was a total lurch with buck teeth would quell the acid in my stomach far better than any food. But, if anyone has the perfect gluten-free answer to Saltines…by all means, let me know.

Kendall Egan

First chance to try Starbuck's gluten-free cake, last chance to comment on gluten-free labeling study

We are really, really busy working on the next issue of Gluten-Free Living, but I wanted to take a minute to remind you that tomorrow, May 5, is significant in two ways for those following the gluten-free diet.
First, Starbucks is expected to launch it's new gluten-free Orange Valencia cake nationwide. Not a lot more to say about this than we can't wait! It is supposed to be in the pastry case and clearly marked gluten free.
Second, if you are interested in commenting on the FDA's experimental study of gluten-free labeling the deadline is also tomorrow.
To comment on the Internet go to http://tinyurl.com/cw3s92. So far the FDA has only posted seven comments. I am not surprised by the low number, given how difficult it is to understand exactly what kind of comments the FDA is looking for.
At this point the FDA is only interested in comments on how the study is set up. In about two months, the agency will start to collect consumer input on the actual point of the study, which is to determine what consumers think of labels like "free of gluten," "without gluten," and "no gluten." The FDA also wants to know what consumers think of advisory statements like, "made in a gluten-free facility."
Michael Herndon, an FDA spokesman, said the study is designed to test how effective gluten-free labeling options being considered by the agency are. The FDA is working on a definition for the gluten-free label because it is required to come up with one by Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act.
Specifically, the FDA wants to see if study participants understand what gluten-free labels mean or if the labels cause them to make incorrect assumptions about gluten-free food.
About 5,000 people will participate, including those have celiac disease or gluten intolerance or care for someone who does. A review of the public comments should be the last step before a final definition is approved, but the FDA has not said how long that will take.

Amy

Simple Pleasures

I went to the Suffolk county Food Fair on Sunday and it was a rip roaring success. They had over 50 gluten-free vendors there and had to turn away another 20 or 30 for space reasons. There were plenty of samples available and you could easily have eaten breakfast and lunch just by walking around tasting things. Another plus was the ability to buy products all under one roof and without a shipping charge.
My prize purchase was two long baguettes and a half dozen rolls from Everybody Eats. While there are plenty of really good GF bread products currently available, Everybody Eats is in a league of its own. Toasted, the baguettes crunch as well as the very best wheat-containing baguettes you remember from your gluten-eating days, maybe even better.
So far I have eaten them for breakfast topped with a soft boiled egg or cottage cheese and for lunch, topped with a thin layer of mayo, slices of ripe tomato and plenty of salt. Divine. Absolutely divine. Simple. Healthful. Delicious. These products are pricey but worth every penny. I will be very sad when they are gone.
It was a lovely day but for one down note. In a food-laden milieu, no one cares about magazines! In the great scheme of human pleasures, gulping down good information is just not in the same league as gulping down good food. Still we love what we do, and since we are all on a gluten-free diet, we eat, too, and enjoy that.
The “take home” message is this: Our gluten-free lives have gone from difficult, even sometimes pitiful, to glorious in a few short years. Who needs a cure? I certainly don’t. A baguette, a tomato and sunshine and I am a happy woman!

Help with cost of gluten-free foood

Recently, I wrote about an innovative program to help those in need with the cost of gluten-free food.
Now the Palm Beach Post is reporting that the Palm Beach County Celiac Support Group is helping a mother and her daughter by providing a $25 per month voucher through the group's Gluten-Free Assistance program.
Phyllis Kessler, support group president, told the Post the daughter was diagnosed but her mother was struggling to feed her.
It’s great that the program is helping one family. But Kessler said it can help up to 30 participants this year, with the possibility of doubling that number next year.
Hopefully word of the program’s first participant will help spur others in South Florida with financial need to apply. The program is open to those who have celiac disease or dermatitis herpetiformis and are living at or below the poverty line. The voucher can be used at designated stores to buy gluten-free items.
Applicants must provide proof of income that meets federal poverty guideline levels and/or proof of participation in other public assistance programs, including food stamps, federal public housing assistance or Medicaid. The PBC board of directors will then determine who qualifies for the assistance program. All information provided as part of the application process will be strictly confidential.
Kessler is also looking for the program to spread beyond her own group. "I hope other celiac support groups across the country do something similar," she said. South Florida residents who are interested in applying should contact Kessler at 561-637-0396 or Pkessler23@aol.com.

Amy

Gluten-free goody goes national at Starbucks

Starbucks just announced that a gluten-free cake will be available at all Starbucks nationwide beginning May 5.

The company has been testing gluten-free items in some of its stores, but this is the first product to be offered everywhere. The launch was announced on Starbucks blog, called My Starbucks Idea: Ideas in Action. The blog says the gluten-free Orange Valencia Cake with Almonds was designed, named and merchandised based on consumer comments made on the blog.

The cake will be sold in the pastry case and labeled “gluten free,” two things consumers also said they wanted. With Starbucks in so many places, gluten-free consumers all around the country will now have a chance to enjoy a little cake with their coffee!

This is another example of a large mainstream company deciding the lucrative gluten-free market deserves some much needed attention. To that we say, bottoms up!





Amy

Gluten-Free Comfort Food

I am on the Board of Education in my town and on this past Tuesday we had a rough meeting. To make the long story short, I arrived home exhausted at 1am.

The next morning I went to a ballet class right after school drop off to “decompress.” But, the teacher is somewhat fussy and demanding, and it just wasn’t the stress reducing experience that I was hoping for.

I always stack my post-meeting Wednesday’s with somewhat easy tasks because I need my sleep and I am borderline dysfunctional without it. So I spent the day analyzing web metrics, circulation reports and searching for images for the next cover of Gluten-Free Living.

I won’t tell you what the cover will look like, but I got really hungry looking at images! Around 4pm, I hit that wall…the point where I either must caffeinate my body or try to power through with a carbohydrate snack. I chose to shove my face full of cookies.

At that moment I remembered that the Business Official of my district has offered to stop by The Three Dogs Bakery on her way in to work to pick up gluten free stuff if I wanted to peruse the website and put in an order. I flipped her an email explaining that ballet had just not done it for me today and that I would have preferred “diving headlong into a box of high calorie confections” and that I wanted to put in an order.

Today I got a call telling me that she had stopped and picked out a bag full of stuff that looked good to her. I skipped my toast that I had burnt in the toaster and went to a meeting hungry. After that, I stopped by the office to grab my gluten-free, baked good booty and settle up.

I just melted a tablespoon of butter and fried up a blueberry muffin and it was de-lish! I know that I’m supposed to eat because I’m hungry, but sometimes you just need comfort food. Sometimes that warm chocolate chip cookie and ice-y cold milk is just the right thing for what ails you. It’s so exciting to me that there are gluten-free bakeries springing up all over the country to supply celiacs with much needed comfort food.

Kendall Egan

Malt extract in gluten-free food

Michael Jones, an astute gluten-free consumer, just told us that he found new gluten-free Cinnamon French Toast Sticks and Pancakes made by Van's. The company has produced gluten-free waffles for a long time.

The interesting thing about the new products is that they contain malt extract made from barley.

Barley malt extract has long been prohibited on the gluten-free diet. So Michael quickly contacted Van's to see what was up.

Here's what the company told him:

"While the malt extract in these two products is derived from barely, it is tested and meets the gluten-free standard as the gluten protein found in barley is removed during the malt extraction process. "

Van's said processing includes steeping, germination, drying, grinding, mashing and evaporation, all of which remove gluten from the barley. Also, the company says the French toast sticks contain less than 1 percent of the malt extract and the pancakes less than 2 percent. Van's tests both the raw materials and the finished products to make sure they meet the Food and Drug
Administration's proposed standard of less than 20 parts per million.

"We understand the concern regarding the use of malt extract in gluten-free products. (We want) to assure you that these new products meet the same standards as all other Van's Wheat-Free products," the company wrote in an email to Michael.

There are ingredients made from wheat that are so highly processed that all the gluten is removed, including glucose syrup, maltodextrin, and citric acid, so it does not surprise me that the same thing is being said about barley malt extract.

Still, it is hard for those who follow the gluten-free diet to accept that information even when food scientists say the proof is in the testing. Maybe that's because for so many years, the only thing gluten-free consumers had to go by were lists of ingredients that were allowed and prohibited. These ingredients and the products they are in were rarely, if ever, tested. That meant no one knew how much gluten protein they actually contained, only that there was a risk they contained some.

But things are changing, mainly spurred by the FDA's move to come up with the first definition for exactly what "gluten-free" means when it appears on a food label. The definition, which sets a standard of less than 20 parts per million of gluten in foods labeled gluten free and requires testing to prove the standard is met, does not yet have final approval. An international group that sets standards for gluten-free foods, CODEX, recently adopted the less than 20 ppm threshold.

It appears more food companies are testing their gluten-free products, and they are confident they can meet the standard when they use highly processed ingredients that previously were prohibited.

These changes can be very confusing to gluten-free consumers. But we are entering a new era e of figuring out what is gluten-free and what isn't. The best thing you can do is learn the facts and apply them to your gluten-free life. At Gluten-Free Living, our goal has always been to dig out those facts and we will continue to do so.

Amy