A few years ago at Gluten-Free Living we started focusing on the lack of vitamins and minerals in gluten-free products.
We launched a series of articles, called Neglected Nutrition, which covered topics like whole grains, enriched foods, fat content, vegetarian and gluten-free diets and healthy eating for kids. (You can order back issues with these stories at Gluten-Free Living)
As more gluten-free products became available, we wanted our readers to know the nutrition facts so they could choose food that was gluten-free and healthy.
So I'm happy others are paying more attention to the important issue of healthy eating and the gluten-free diet. I found evidence of that trend everywhere from the Digestive Disease Week medical conference, to a Harvard Medical School health publication to the Institute of Food Technologists convention.
At Digestive Disease week, researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center presented findings of a nutrition study of about 100 men and women with celiac disease that showed most were not getting the daily recommend amounts of calcium, fiber and iron.
The study concluded it would be "sensible" to recommend a daily multi-vitamin for those who follow the gluten-free diet. (We'll have more on daily vitamins and the gluten-free diet in an upcoming issue of Gluten-Free Living.)
Food diaries kept by study participants showed they ate few healthy, gluten-free whole grains and that most of their foods were made from rice, potato and corn.
Meanwhile, in a recent article in the Harvard Health Letter Melinda Dennis, nutrition coordinator at the Celiac Center at Beth Israel, said gluten-free food made from rice, potato and corn starch lacks important vitamins and fiber. Dennis said gluten-free food makers have learned that adding xanthan and guar gums improves taste and texture of gluten-free foods made from nutrient-lacking starches. But these gums don't add any nutritional value.
So you end up with gluten-free food that tastes good, but is not really good for you.
Those who follow the gluten-free diet should eat "unconventional but nutritionally well-rounded substitutes," Dennis said. She calls them the super six - amaranth, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, sorghum and teff.
Many specialty gluten-free companies sell baking mixes made with the one or more of the super six flours directly to consumers for home baking. But many ready made gluten-free products still rely on the trio of nutritionally weaker starches.
We might start to see that change.
At the recent food technologists conference, Conagra Mills announced the development of gluten-free, all-purpose multi grain flour that the company says is both healthy and works well in gluten-free products. It contains a proprietary blend of whole grains, plus tapioca starch. Conagra has previously sold amaranth, quinoa, millet and teff as individual flours, but the company said the blend will improve the quality of gluten-free products. The blend can be used to make bread, tortillas, muffins, snacks, coatings and cereals, according to Conagra.
If these flours catch on and if we start paying attention to all the advice to eat whole grains, as well as naturally gluten-free fruits and vegetables, nutrition for those who are gluten free won't be quite as neglected.
Amy
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Culinary Pride
Typically in the back room of our board of education meetings, there is a platter of cheese and crackers, freshly cut fruit and chocolate chip cookies to sustain us through the long evenings. I always enjoy the havarti and gouda cheeses and the pineapple. I never care that I can’t eat the cookies or crackers. Nobody really needs chocolate chip cookies at midnight. Come to think of it, none of our arteries need cheese at that hour either.
Earlier this year a fellow board member and his son were diagnosed with celiac disease. That’s a tough transition for a kid in his sophomore year in college, but I guess he’s doing pretty well. Last night, my fellow board member brought us some gluten-free cookies for late night board meeting munchies that his son had baked! These were my very first cookies at a board of ed meeting and I was pretty impressed.
They were an oatmeal, chocolate chip cookie and they had a chewy, chocolate taste. I think it is very exceptional that a 20 year old man experimented in the kitchen to come up with a cookie. His dad said he went shopping at Whole Foods for ingredients and then whipped up a batch.
It served as a reminder that I need to further encourage the kitchen experimentation of my own celiac. Cooking is an important survival skill for someone with celiac disease. My son’s favorite snack is to “bake” himself a Food Tek cinnamon coffee cake. It’s a few simple steps…adding water into the mix, pouring the batter into the mold and hitting start on the microwave. The important thing is that a nine year old can do it all by himself and he is very pleased with the warm cake that he makes.
There is a bit a pride that goes into fending for oneself. It doesn’t have to be culinary artistry, sometimes an invented cookie recipe or a microwave cake is satisfying in more ways than one.
Kendall Egan
Earlier this year a fellow board member and his son were diagnosed with celiac disease. That’s a tough transition for a kid in his sophomore year in college, but I guess he’s doing pretty well. Last night, my fellow board member brought us some gluten-free cookies for late night board meeting munchies that his son had baked! These were my very first cookies at a board of ed meeting and I was pretty impressed.
They were an oatmeal, chocolate chip cookie and they had a chewy, chocolate taste. I think it is very exceptional that a 20 year old man experimented in the kitchen to come up with a cookie. His dad said he went shopping at Whole Foods for ingredients and then whipped up a batch.
It served as a reminder that I need to further encourage the kitchen experimentation of my own celiac. Cooking is an important survival skill for someone with celiac disease. My son’s favorite snack is to “bake” himself a Food Tek cinnamon coffee cake. It’s a few simple steps…adding water into the mix, pouring the batter into the mold and hitting start on the microwave. The important thing is that a nine year old can do it all by himself and he is very pleased with the warm cake that he makes.
There is a bit a pride that goes into fending for oneself. It doesn’t have to be culinary artistry, sometimes an invented cookie recipe or a microwave cake is satisfying in more ways than one.
Kendall Egan
Monday, June 8, 2009
Gluten free - getting it right
In the new summer issue of Gluten-Free Living, I review Elisabeth Hasselbeck's book, The G Free Diet.
I won't repeat what I say in the review here, but I wanted to comment on some of the things I've been reading about it on other blogs.
Some bloggers write that we should overlook inaccuracies in the book because it will still bring lots of attention to the celiac disease and the gluten-free diet.
Others say despite mistakes, it's a decent beginners' guide to the gluten-free diet.
At Gluten-Free Living, we have the advantage of the long view of celiac disease and eating gluten free. We've been publishing for 13 years. My daughter was diagnosed nearly 17 years ago and editor/publisher Ann Whelan at about the same time.
So we know the damage done by inaccuracies, big and small. From the beginning, our goal has been to give people the best information so they can live a happy, health gluten-free life.
By that we mean a life unfettered by needless worry over ingredients and foods that are questioned for no reason. Or those that have so little potential to contain gluten that finding even one example would be as rare as getting criticism of an American idol contestant from Paula Abdul.
And we've found lots of example of needless worry over the years -vinegar, maltodextrin, citric acid, glucose syrup - to name a few. When Gluten-Free Living was started, all of these were on lists of ingredients that you had to stay away from or question. Now, we know all are safe (Malt vinegar is an exception). Some got crossed off the list because of research we did at Gluten-Free Living. Others, like caramel color and modified food starch, were clarified by the allergen labeling law that requires wheat to be labeled when it is used in most foods. We now know that wheat is rarely used in either ingredient.
To me, accurate information is essential for my daughter and everyone like her to be healthy and gluten free.
So every time someone, especially someone new to the gluten-free diet, gets bad information that makes the diet more difficult to follow, a minor mistake grows into something larger and more limiting.
Is it a big deal to incorrectly tell someone struggling to figure out the gluten-free diet for the first time that the declumping agents in spices almost always contain wheat, that you have to worry about additives in modified food starch, that you should stay away from all marinades?
I think of all the ways this makes living gluten-free much more difficult. My answer is yes, it is a big deal.
Why all the fuss about calling celiac disease an allergy when we are getting all this free publicity from Hasselbeck?
Because celiac disease is not an allergy and it does not really help spread the word when we confuse waiters, chefs and food makers by using the wrong explanation. More than 15 years ago when Amanda was diagnosed, hardly anyone had heard of celiac disease. When we used the words in a restaurant or when talking to a teacher or the parent of child who had invited Amanda to a birthday party, the response was usually a blank stare. Now, because so many people have painstakingly spread awareness and because so many more have been diagnosed, the reaction is more likely to be, "Oh, my friend just found out he has celiac disease."
Why turn the clock back to a time when you sometimes needed the crutch of saying it's an allergy? Plus, it's one thing to use "allergy" on a small, personal scale. It's another to declare that's what celiac disease is in front of millions of television viewers you are lucky enough to reach because of you are a television celebrity.
Finally, what's the big deal about diagnosing yourself with celiac disease and going on the gluten-free diet without benefit of the much improved testing and diagnostic tools available today? Some bloggers say there are cases where this might work.
For one, as long as you don't have a real diagnosis of celiac disease, you can't be added to the official number of those in the US who have it. If you can't be counted, the celiac community as a whole loses a little bit of clout in lobbying for improved labeling on foods and drugs, more money for research that might one day result in a cure, more access to gluten-free food in schools, colleges, hospitals and nursing homes. And when food makers start tallying up the people who are surely going to stick with the gluten-free diet and buy gluten-free products for life, they might not count you either.
Celebrity and publicity are the popular kids in today's culture. It makes sense to use them whenever we can to create a better life for anyone living the gluten-free lifestyle. But this isn't high school and they don't get a free pass. Accuracy matters too.
Amy
I won't repeat what I say in the review here, but I wanted to comment on some of the things I've been reading about it on other blogs.
Some bloggers write that we should overlook inaccuracies in the book because it will still bring lots of attention to the celiac disease and the gluten-free diet.
Others say despite mistakes, it's a decent beginners' guide to the gluten-free diet.
At Gluten-Free Living, we have the advantage of the long view of celiac disease and eating gluten free. We've been publishing for 13 years. My daughter was diagnosed nearly 17 years ago and editor/publisher Ann Whelan at about the same time.
So we know the damage done by inaccuracies, big and small. From the beginning, our goal has been to give people the best information so they can live a happy, health gluten-free life.
By that we mean a life unfettered by needless worry over ingredients and foods that are questioned for no reason. Or those that have so little potential to contain gluten that finding even one example would be as rare as getting criticism of an American idol contestant from Paula Abdul.
And we've found lots of example of needless worry over the years -vinegar, maltodextrin, citric acid, glucose syrup - to name a few. When Gluten-Free Living was started, all of these were on lists of ingredients that you had to stay away from or question. Now, we know all are safe (Malt vinegar is an exception). Some got crossed off the list because of research we did at Gluten-Free Living. Others, like caramel color and modified food starch, were clarified by the allergen labeling law that requires wheat to be labeled when it is used in most foods. We now know that wheat is rarely used in either ingredient.
To me, accurate information is essential for my daughter and everyone like her to be healthy and gluten free.
So every time someone, especially someone new to the gluten-free diet, gets bad information that makes the diet more difficult to follow, a minor mistake grows into something larger and more limiting.
Is it a big deal to incorrectly tell someone struggling to figure out the gluten-free diet for the first time that the declumping agents in spices almost always contain wheat, that you have to worry about additives in modified food starch, that you should stay away from all marinades?
I think of all the ways this makes living gluten-free much more difficult. My answer is yes, it is a big deal.
Why all the fuss about calling celiac disease an allergy when we are getting all this free publicity from Hasselbeck?
Because celiac disease is not an allergy and it does not really help spread the word when we confuse waiters, chefs and food makers by using the wrong explanation. More than 15 years ago when Amanda was diagnosed, hardly anyone had heard of celiac disease. When we used the words in a restaurant or when talking to a teacher or the parent of child who had invited Amanda to a birthday party, the response was usually a blank stare. Now, because so many people have painstakingly spread awareness and because so many more have been diagnosed, the reaction is more likely to be, "Oh, my friend just found out he has celiac disease."
Why turn the clock back to a time when you sometimes needed the crutch of saying it's an allergy? Plus, it's one thing to use "allergy" on a small, personal scale. It's another to declare that's what celiac disease is in front of millions of television viewers you are lucky enough to reach because of you are a television celebrity.
Finally, what's the big deal about diagnosing yourself with celiac disease and going on the gluten-free diet without benefit of the much improved testing and diagnostic tools available today? Some bloggers say there are cases where this might work.
For one, as long as you don't have a real diagnosis of celiac disease, you can't be added to the official number of those in the US who have it. If you can't be counted, the celiac community as a whole loses a little bit of clout in lobbying for improved labeling on foods and drugs, more money for research that might one day result in a cure, more access to gluten-free food in schools, colleges, hospitals and nursing homes. And when food makers start tallying up the people who are surely going to stick with the gluten-free diet and buy gluten-free products for life, they might not count you either.
Celebrity and publicity are the popular kids in today's culture. It makes sense to use them whenever we can to create a better life for anyone living the gluten-free lifestyle. But this isn't high school and they don't get a free pass. Accuracy matters too.
Amy
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Grossology 101
I had a college reunion this past weekend, as did my husband. He is a graduate from the same school in the same year, so getting out the door and off to the reunion was an absolute feat in the middle of spring sports madness with my children.
Last Wednesday I realized that my pantry of gluten-free foods was precariously low and while that wouldn’t stress out my celiac, it would stress out his Grandma who was babysitting. I went shopping at night since I was going straight from a meeting to catch a train on Thursday.
This gluten friendly store was calm and quiet at that point of the evening so I cruised quickly around the aisles. I also picked up a couple of quick dinners and some extra milk. In the vegetable section, I had a seriously eye opening experience.
As a lazy cook, I always buy my lettuce shredded and pre-washed whenever available. I scooped up a bag of mixed field greens and smiled to the guy who was waiting for my tongs. I stepped aside to tie my bag in a knot and he scooped up some greens as well. I moved down a bit to carrots and a woman moved into the lettuce section as the gentleman tied up his greens in the bag.
All of a sudden, she reared her head back and sneezed loudly. People sneeze all the time, it was just completely horrifying because she didn’t cover her mouth and she projectile AH-CHOO’d all over the pre-washed, pre-shredded mixed field greens that I had just scooped into my bag.
My jaw dropped to the ground and I sounded like the girls in the “Baby Got Back” video…”OH. MY. GOD. I can’t believe you just did that.” The guy was so repulsed he just dropped his bag on the floor and walked away.
I was thankful for all of my boxed and wrapped gluten-free goodies that were protected from sneeze germs and I re-washed all of my pre-washed, pre-shredded greens when I returned home.
Kendall Egan
Last Wednesday I realized that my pantry of gluten-free foods was precariously low and while that wouldn’t stress out my celiac, it would stress out his Grandma who was babysitting. I went shopping at night since I was going straight from a meeting to catch a train on Thursday.
This gluten friendly store was calm and quiet at that point of the evening so I cruised quickly around the aisles. I also picked up a couple of quick dinners and some extra milk. In the vegetable section, I had a seriously eye opening experience.
As a lazy cook, I always buy my lettuce shredded and pre-washed whenever available. I scooped up a bag of mixed field greens and smiled to the guy who was waiting for my tongs. I stepped aside to tie my bag in a knot and he scooped up some greens as well. I moved down a bit to carrots and a woman moved into the lettuce section as the gentleman tied up his greens in the bag.
All of a sudden, she reared her head back and sneezed loudly. People sneeze all the time, it was just completely horrifying because she didn’t cover her mouth and she projectile AH-CHOO’d all over the pre-washed, pre-shredded mixed field greens that I had just scooped into my bag.
My jaw dropped to the ground and I sounded like the girls in the “Baby Got Back” video…”OH. MY. GOD. I can’t believe you just did that.” The guy was so repulsed he just dropped his bag on the floor and walked away.
I was thankful for all of my boxed and wrapped gluten-free goodies that were protected from sneeze germs and I re-washed all of my pre-washed, pre-shredded greens when I returned home.
Kendall Egan
Monday, June 1, 2009
Gluten-free Pierogi triggers memories
There are few foods I'm more emotionally attached to than pierogi.
So I took notice right away when I read that Conte's Pasta Company is going to feature gluten-free pierogi at the upcoming All Things Organic conference.
In my family just the mention of pierogi triggers strong craving and even stronger memories.
When I was growing up, the first sign that my grandmother was about to make this traditional stuffed Polish dumpling came when a sturdy, white station wagon pulled up in front of her small yellow brick house on hilly Tenth Avenue in a steel mill town 20 miles from Pittsburgh.
A woman we called "the Farmer Lady" drove the station wagon and she was delivering - yes delivering - raw milk from her farm. My grandmother, my mother and sometimes her sisters would use the milk to make what we called "Farmer Lady Cheese."
The process was a bit of a smelly mystery to me, but I know in the end there was always a tasty mound of white cheese swaddled in gauzy cheese cloth.
Once the cheese was done, my grandmother mixed it by hand with salt and pepper, egg and green onion in a big ceramic bowl.
Then dough was made from scratch by mixing flour, egg and sour cream. The team work in my grandmother's tiny kitchen really began when super-ball-sized pieces of the dough were rolled into thin little pancakes. Some of my grandmother's friends rolled all the dough out at once and cut circles with a glass, but my family always preferred to roll each pierogi individually. My mother and aunts got the dough so thin it was almost translucent. A dollop of the cheese mix was plopped in the middle and the pancake folded over to make a half-moon pocket. Then the seam was pinched tight.
Next the pierogi were boiled, though this was only a preliminary cooking step. The finish came later, when we sizzled butter in a frying in pan, then sautéed a precious pierogi or two until it was golden brown - ok so maybe it was usually three. Frying the pierogi gave the dough a little crunch along with a little color and the smell that filled the kitchen could bring all my grandmother's grandchildren running.
You don't have to go back too many years to find food far removed from the processed and packaged items we use so prolifically today. But pierogi-making was so labor intense that it occurred only a few times a year. The pierogi were divvied up among my grandmother's children, and they then divided them among their children and grandchildren.
We each tallied and guarded our shares carefully. Woe be unto anyone who left theirs in the refrigerator where my younger brother could find them. When it came to pierogi, he did not respect any boundaries. Once I grew up and moved out-of-state, my portion was hidden in the freezer until I could come home and get it.
Whenever the subject of pierogi comes up - as it did recently at a gathering of my Baltimore neighbors of Polish and Slovak descent - the farmer's cheese filling is see as an oddity, since most pierogi are filled with sauerkraut or mashed potato and cheese. From the time I was a kid, I always thought it made ours taste best.
But my own daughter, born into my Polish family as a fourth generation girl, never had a chance to taste one of these wonderful creations. Amanda was diagnosed with celiac disease right after her second birthday and since the dough was made from wheat flour, pierogi were off-limits.
So I thought the Conte's pierogi, though they are filled with potato and onion, might at least provide Amanda an introduction to a food that carries so much meaning for me. I'm encouraged that the ingredient list includes egg in the dough, which is made with rice flour and cornstarch, since my mother says egg was an important ingredient in my grandmother's original recipe. (You can order online at contespasta.com or amazon.com).
My grandmother died 10 years ago and each of her daughters has had health concerns in recent years so it has been a really long time since I've had a homemade pierogi. When I started to crave one after talking about them with my neighbors, I bought Mrs. T's brand for myself (They are not gluten free). I have to admit they were about close to my families' recipe as instant coffee is to Starbucks.
So it might seem backward to think packaged gluten-free pierogi would be the best way to introduce them to Amanda. But even their existence has me thinking we might be able to make a gluten-free version of the taste and smell and tradition that I remember. We could start slow, try the packaged ones and then tackle my grandmother's original recipe.
I'll keep you posted.
Amy
So I took notice right away when I read that Conte's Pasta Company is going to feature gluten-free pierogi at the upcoming All Things Organic conference.
In my family just the mention of pierogi triggers strong craving and even stronger memories.
When I was growing up, the first sign that my grandmother was about to make this traditional stuffed Polish dumpling came when a sturdy, white station wagon pulled up in front of her small yellow brick house on hilly Tenth Avenue in a steel mill town 20 miles from Pittsburgh.
A woman we called "the Farmer Lady" drove the station wagon and she was delivering - yes delivering - raw milk from her farm. My grandmother, my mother and sometimes her sisters would use the milk to make what we called "Farmer Lady Cheese."
The process was a bit of a smelly mystery to me, but I know in the end there was always a tasty mound of white cheese swaddled in gauzy cheese cloth.
Once the cheese was done, my grandmother mixed it by hand with salt and pepper, egg and green onion in a big ceramic bowl.
Then dough was made from scratch by mixing flour, egg and sour cream. The team work in my grandmother's tiny kitchen really began when super-ball-sized pieces of the dough were rolled into thin little pancakes. Some of my grandmother's friends rolled all the dough out at once and cut circles with a glass, but my family always preferred to roll each pierogi individually. My mother and aunts got the dough so thin it was almost translucent. A dollop of the cheese mix was plopped in the middle and the pancake folded over to make a half-moon pocket. Then the seam was pinched tight.
Next the pierogi were boiled, though this was only a preliminary cooking step. The finish came later, when we sizzled butter in a frying in pan, then sautéed a precious pierogi or two until it was golden brown - ok so maybe it was usually three. Frying the pierogi gave the dough a little crunch along with a little color and the smell that filled the kitchen could bring all my grandmother's grandchildren running.
You don't have to go back too many years to find food far removed from the processed and packaged items we use so prolifically today. But pierogi-making was so labor intense that it occurred only a few times a year. The pierogi were divvied up among my grandmother's children, and they then divided them among their children and grandchildren.
We each tallied and guarded our shares carefully. Woe be unto anyone who left theirs in the refrigerator where my younger brother could find them. When it came to pierogi, he did not respect any boundaries. Once I grew up and moved out-of-state, my portion was hidden in the freezer until I could come home and get it.
Whenever the subject of pierogi comes up - as it did recently at a gathering of my Baltimore neighbors of Polish and Slovak descent - the farmer's cheese filling is see as an oddity, since most pierogi are filled with sauerkraut or mashed potato and cheese. From the time I was a kid, I always thought it made ours taste best.
But my own daughter, born into my Polish family as a fourth generation girl, never had a chance to taste one of these wonderful creations. Amanda was diagnosed with celiac disease right after her second birthday and since the dough was made from wheat flour, pierogi were off-limits.
So I thought the Conte's pierogi, though they are filled with potato and onion, might at least provide Amanda an introduction to a food that carries so much meaning for me. I'm encouraged that the ingredient list includes egg in the dough, which is made with rice flour and cornstarch, since my mother says egg was an important ingredient in my grandmother's original recipe. (You can order online at contespasta.com or amazon.com).
My grandmother died 10 years ago and each of her daughters has had health concerns in recent years so it has been a really long time since I've had a homemade pierogi. When I started to crave one after talking about them with my neighbors, I bought Mrs. T's brand for myself (They are not gluten free). I have to admit they were about close to my families' recipe as instant coffee is to Starbucks.
So it might seem backward to think packaged gluten-free pierogi would be the best way to introduce them to Amanda. But even their existence has me thinking we might be able to make a gluten-free version of the taste and smell and tradition that I remember. We could start slow, try the packaged ones and then tackle my grandmother's original recipe.
I'll keep you posted.
Amy
Monday, May 18, 2009
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
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
Monday, May 4, 2009
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
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
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