GF Holiday Food Traditions

Today, I am on a self-imposed fast!

Fifteen years ago when the Christmas celebrating had ended, I would not have gained an extra pound due to my new gluten-free diet. That is not the case today. This year all of my holiday traditions were made with gluten-free ingredients, not just for me but for my extended family and friends.

One week ago at the annual cookie swap, I made cake pops with a festive red and green candy coating. For this recipe, I used a gluten-free chocolate cake mix, Betty Crocker, and store bough chocolate frosting. The Wilton Candy Melts are vanilla flavored and pretty much all sugar! Not only did they look adorable on their lollipop sticks, they were really tasty and everyone wanted to know how I made them.


Then we have my immediate family's Christmas Eve fondue tradition. My husband makes this dinner which, for me, is the best part of tradition! Our fondue is a gooey pot of sharp cheddar, cream, dried mustard, garlic and a bit of flour. Over the years, my husband has been able to adjust the recipe using gluten-free flour. The first year it was a congealed mess that we had to dilute with milk, but he has figured out how to reduce the amount of flour in his recipe so we get a really thick but not cement-like structure to the cheese.

The baguettes go on separate trays for warming, but it’s pretty tough to tell the difference between the Schar’s gluten free baguettes and the one’s from the bakery. I used to just toast up the bread I had made in my bread machine, but today I have options such as Everybody Eats or Against the Grain or Schar’s baguettes. I have two separate fondue pots so we can all eat without worry!


We had a mix up for the extended family celebration desserts so I brought two, both gluten free! One was my traditional apple crisp with Bob’s Red Mill GF Oats and Mi-Del ginger snaps. The other dessert I brought was gluten-free chocolate cupcakes from a King Arthur mix with a candy cane butter cream frosting and a sprinkling of peppermint sugar on top! We did not have much in the way of leftovers.

I received three Christmas cards where a friend wrote me a little note saying that he or she had just been diagnosed with either a gluten intolerance or celiac disease. My new year’s wish is that everyone who finds out he or she needs to eat a gluten free diet realizes just how far GF food has come in the past fifteen years and they learn that this diagnosis does not mean that they will have to give up holiday traditional foods like I thought I had to fifteen years ago!

However, there is one unintended consequence of all these GF food choices, I am embracing a different type of new year’s resolution this year…”lose five pounds.”

Kendall Egan

Have a happy GF holiday

I just went to the By the Way Bakery here in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY to pick up my gluten-free holiday order. All products at this tiny, charming bakery are gluten free. The piece de resistance is a red velvet cake beautifully decorated in white and red for the holiday. It will be served to everyone and I expect everyone to love it.

To me, the gluten-free life has always been a gift. When I was diagnosed, I was thrilled I didn’t have any of the ominous things I was tested for and actually thought I had. To learn that all I had to do was avoid gluten was a huge relief. Not being much of a cook, baker or foodie, I simply adjusted and moved on. I firmly believe the gluten-free life has made me a better, certainly healthier person

Then I was also given the opportunity to turn my profession into a gluten-free business that is helpful to others. Like the diet and the life itself, the business has also been a pleasure.

Frankly I can’t say enough good things about being gluten free. So rather than gush on, I will simply extend my best wishes and those of my staff to all the gluten-free people out there who rely on us and thank us for what we do. I hope your holiday is as happy and well fed as I expect mine to be,

Treasured Gluten-Free Holiday Cookies

I have pushed back my sleeves and started my annual Christmas cookie baking.

The first thing I do is gather up all my recipes. I'd like to say I have them neatly sorted and stored, but I actually keep everything randomly together in one recipe box.

Most are worn and tattered from use. A few are spotted with the remnant of some ingredient that splashed on and never completely wiped off.

But what I noticed this year was all the gluten-free recipes I have from about 20 years ago when my daughter was first diagnosed with celiac disease. Many are handwritten, thankfully by others with penmanship much neater than mine.

Two decades ago, gluten-free recipes were traded directly from one person to another. A mom who had come up with a recipe for cut-out cookies that actually didn't crumble generously wrote it out for me on a index card. I still use that recipe today.

Another woman, a stranger who I never met, penned about dozen recipes after someone at a support group meeting mentioned to her that I had a young daughter and needed some help. She somehow got my address,  put the recipes in an envelope and mailed them to me without my ever asking.

A close look at recipes from those years shows how much work went into gluten-free baking. Pre-made flour mixes were nearly non-existent so every recipe ticked off combinations of three or four flours. Eggs were used in abundance to make up for the absence of gluten. We knew little about the use of whole grains and their nutritional value, so potato starch, rice flour and tapioca flour were the mainstays of most everything we made.

And we made everything. There were few gluten-free products even on health food store shelves, never mind the supermarket. I just wrote about gluten-free cookie mixes and packaged cookies for Gluten-Free Living. And I still had a sense of wonder that they exist and  that you can pick them up on your regular shopping trip.

But over the holidays I am back in my kitchen, as are 84 percent of home cooks recently asked in an All-recipes survey if they bake Christmas cookies.

My mother and grandmother always baked a wide and wondrous assortment of cookies when I was growing up.  I continue the tradition, though everything I make now is gluten free. My daughter dons her own apron and helps me every year, which is one of the best parts of holiday baking.

Today, you don't have to rely on a new gluten-free friend or a complete stranger who pulls out a pen and paper to share a treasured recipe with you. You can get so many gluten-free cookies recipes online. Inventive and inspired gluten-free bloggers have come up with wonderful recipes that are yours with the click of mouse. You'll also find collections of recipes submitted by bakers all around the country. You can even read these recipes on a computer or iPad right in your kitchen.

But whether it's paper recipe gone soft from years of use or a pristine image on a screen, it all comes back to the spirit of sharing among those who follow the gluten-free diet.

This generosity is a true holiday gift.

Wishing you and yours a healthy, happy gluten-free holiday and new year.

Amy Ratner

Update: Are Burger King's new fries gluten free?

If you have started to see the Burger King Television ads promoting their new French fries, you might be wondering if they now contain gluten.

The fries are still on the company's "gluten sensitive" list, which includes menu items that do not contain wheat, barley, rye or oats.  Kristen Hauser, a Burger King spokeswoman, sent me the most updated version of the list yesterday.  It indicated the fries continue to be made without gluten-containing ingredients.

Hauser also provided this ingredients list for the fries:
Potatoes, Soybean Oil, Modified Potato Starch, Rice Flour, Salt, Leavening (Disodium Dihydrogen Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate), Dextrose, Xanthan Gum, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate to Preserve Natural Color

All of the ingredients are clearly gluten free.

But none of this might matter to you because of cross contamination issues.

Burger King continues to note that the fries may be fried with gluten-containing foods. This could include breaded onion rings. Foods fried in oil shared with gluten-containg items are generally considered to be cross-contaminated and unsafe on the gluten-free diet.

Burger King says the new fries are thicker and have less sodium. "A thicker cut of potato gives each bite more fluffy, potato flavor on the inside and crispy, golden-brown deliciousness on the outside," the company said in a press release anouncing the change in their fries, the first since 1998.

Amy Ratner

Gluten Free and new Burger King Fries

If you have started to see the Burger King television ads promoting their new French fries, you might be wondering if they now contain gluten.

The fries are still on the company's "gluten sensitive" list, which includes menu items that do not contain wheat, barley, rye or oats.  Kristen Hauser, a Burger King spokeswoman, sent me the most updated version of the list this morning. It indicated the fries continue to be made without gluten-containing ingredients.
Hauser did not immediately provide details on specific ingredients. But if she does supply that information I will update this blog. Of most concern to gluten-free consumers is a  new coating reportedly on the fries to keep them crispier and hotter longer. 

Burger King continues to note that the fries may be fried with gluten-containing foods. This could include breaded onion rings. Foods fried in oil shared with gluten-containg items are generally considered to be cross-contaminated and unsafe on the gluten-free diet.

Burger King says the new fries are thicker and have less sodium. "A thicker cut of potato gives each bite more fluffy, potato flavor on the inside and crispy, golden-brown deliciousness on the outside," the company said in a press release anouncing the change in their fries, the first since 1998. 

    

First scientific research into gluten in drugs

Do you spend a lot of time worrying about gluten in your prescription and over-the-counter medicine?

It's a topic I've researched and written about many times. The general conclusion is that gluten does not turn up in drugs that often.  But because it sometimes does and is not clearly labeled, we are left looking through everything from common pain relievers to prescriptions used for rare ailments to find that oddball medicine that might contain some form of gluten.

Now there is word that the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness has received a grant to conduct the first scientific research into the use of gluten in drugs. This is good news for everyone who is gluten free.

The $50,000 grant from the Food and Drug Administration will fund preliminary research that the NFCA says "aims to validate or nullify" anecdotal reports of gluten reactions to drugs from those who have celiac disease or gluten intolerance.

The research project goes by the rather cumbersome title, "Gluten in Medication: Qualifying the extent of exposure to people with celiac disease and identifying a hidden and preventable cause of an adverse drug event." The NFCA says the project will "characterize the problem of unlabeled gluten in medication and raise awareness of the potential harm that can occur to patients who ingest medications that they do not recognize as containing gluten."

My hope is that the research will mainly concentrate on objectively determining the extent to which gluten is found in the vast array of drugs available and in what amounts. We need to have that information to determine what kind of risk actually exists and how to proceed with steps for better labeling.

The NFCA is the leading advocate for better labeling of gluten in drugs, something that would surely be helpful to those with celiac disease or gluten intolerance. The group says the research will a first step in providing a foundation for further investigation within the FDA and scientific communities.

"To date, there has been no scientific research conducted to determine if the amount of gluten that is in medication results in harm to people with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity, although there are reports of significant patient reactions to gluten in medication," the NFCA says in a press release announcing the study.

Since we know that reactions to gluten are not a reliable way to determine the gluten-free status of a food or, in this case, a drug, scientific evidence is very important.

A drug's active ingredients, which actually treat an illness or condition, are gluten free. But inactive ingredients,  which make up the bulk of most medications, occasionally contain gluten, mainly in the form of wheat starch.

Everyone, including the NFCA, agrees that relatively few medications contain gluten, but poor labeling requirements make it difficult to identify them. As a result every drug becomes suspect.

Further complicating matters is the fact that prescription drugs don't have to list inactive ingredients on the label. The only way to find out what's in them is to ask the pharmacist or call the drug company.

While over-the-counter medications do detail inactive ingredients,  unlike food, the FDA does not require that the use of wheat be clearly spelled out on a label.

Loretta Jay, an NFCA consultant, and Dr. Robert Mangione, dean and professor of pharmacy at St. John's University, are leading the research team doing the NFCA study.  A survey of celiac disease patients will help the researchers select types of drugs reported to have caused reactions. The drugs will  tested to determine how many parts per million and milligrams per dose of gluten they might contain.

Currently, the best source of information about gluten in drugs can be found on a website run by Steven Plogsted, a pharmacist at Columbia Children's Hospital who regularly researches gluten in specific medications. Also, some over-the-counter products are now labeled gluten free.

Otherwise, determining a drug's gluten-free status can be an arduous and frustrating process for gluten-free consumers. Drug companies can be reluctant to give out information and often simply say none of their drugs have been tested to be gluten free. Other times they give conflicting and confusing answers to questions about ingredients and gluten content.

The valuable research being done by the NFCA could eventually lead to clear labeling of gluten in prescription and over-the-counter drugs. And that would make any pill easier to swallow for everyone who is gluten free.

Amy Ratner

Thankful for Mainstream Media November Love Fest on All Things Gluten Free

We are only 22 days into the month, but every time I open a mainstream publication I find another article on something gluten free.

Let’s start with the free publication, Natural Awakenings. The November 2011 Westchester/Putnam NY issue includes an article on Gluten-Free Baking, written by Claire O’Neil. It has a review of different types of flours and some lovely sounding recipes.

The second article I found was in the November 2011 issue of Health magazine. This was a really good article entitled, “Is going gluten-free the secret to weight loss?” by Kate Lowenstein. Spoiler alert…they got the answer right, if you just swap out one type of carb for another type of carb, you are not going to lose weight. There is still a lot of gluten free “junk food,” that has calories in it! You can lose weight if you cut out the pasta, pizza and breads altogether but that is not “going gluten-free,” that is just cutting back on carbohydrates. Thanks so much for getting it right.

The third article was in Sports Illustrated, November 7, 2011, entitled “The New Training Table” by Alexander Wolff. This article was fascinating and it really was more about diet and “performance, wellness and recovery.” Athletes are “eating to win.” This really talks about reducing inflammation to speed recovery, which is another facet of a gluten-free diet. Some of the athletes in the article actually eat gluten-free food because they have to due to a diagnosis, but others are not. We have a major article on athletes & CD in Gluten-Free Living Vol 11, #4…shipping November 28th!

The New York Times has taken a particular interest in a gluten-free diet. The New York Times Magazine that centered on food back in October, had three mentions of a gluten-free diet or gluten-free food in that issue…including a coast to coast GF quote! But, the one that really caught my eye was the New York Times Magazine on November 13, 2011 in the Diagnosis article. The minute I read the symptoms, I knew what the mystery ailment was…celiac disease. What was really great about this presentation of symptoms is that the patient experienced muscle or joint pain for 10 years, anemia, depression, IBS, fibromyalgia, endometriosis, had periods of terrible weakness and had been through many different doctors. That is the reality with diagnosing CD, it doesn’t always present with straight gastrological symptoms!

Then last Sunday, the Wall Street Journal weekend edition, November 19-20, 2011, featured an article about Alice Medrich, an award winning cookbook author, and her latest dessert project. She is developing gluten-free baked good recipes. Right now she is experimenting with all types of gluten-free flour and I’m sure this will be very interesting when it is finished!

Fifteen years ago when I was diagnosed, I was told celiac disease was a “very rare” condition. From the coverage I’m seeing about a gluten-free diet, I hope that original doctor is now telling his patients about a “very common” condition that strikes 1 in 133 Americans. Thanks to everyone this year who has helped grow the awareness for celiac disease and gluten intolerance.

Kendall Egan