I recently discovered that I am allergic to gluten. Despite having many other food allergies, this newly revealed one had me a bit perplexed. I knew that I needed to avoid foods that contained gluten from now on. The problem was that I had no idea what sorts of foods had gluten in them. It was time to find out!
Years ago, I had allergy testing done. At the time, I was informed that I had allergies to wheat, (and a few other grains). This was ages ago, long before the phrase “gluten allergy” was all over the news. At the time, my allergist simply shrugged it off, and had no advice for me. If I had the exact same allergy testing done today, I am certain that an allergist would have handed me a list of foods that I should be avoiding.
In short, this means that I am basically on my own, trying to learn about what foods will be safe for me to eat. I go through this experience each and every time I figure out that I have an allergy or intolerance to a certain food. Now that I have to avoid gluten, I am starting the process over again.
Gluten, as defined by the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is “a tenacious elastic protein substance especially of wheat flour that gives cohesiveness to dough”.
According to the American Diabetes Association, gluten can be found in wheat, and also in rye, barley, and in any foods that have been made with these grains. This includes foods made with white flour, durum wheat, graham flour, triticale, kamut, semolina, spelt, wheat germ, and wheat bran.
Livestrong.com adds more types of flours and grains to the list. It includes couscous, cream of wheat, farina, matzo/matzoh meal, seitan, sprouted wheat, sprouted barley, tabbouleh, triticale, udon, and wheat starch.
If you go to Celiac.com you can find a huge list of foods that contain gluten. I won’t try to list absolutely all of the foods on that extensive list.
Among the flours and grains that Celiac.com says contains gluten are: Abyssian Hard (also called wheat triticum durum), wheat protein, atta flour, barley grass, barley hordeum vulgare, barley malt, bleached flour, brewers yeast, brown flour, bulgur, bulgur wheat, club wheat, common wheat, dinkle, einkorn (or wild einkorn), emmer (or wild emmer), enriched bleached flour, enriched bleached wheat flour, enriched flour, farina graham, and fu (dried wheat flour).
You can also add to the list germ, graham flour, granary flour, groats (barley and wheat), hard wheat, maida (indian wheat flour), malt, malted barley flour, macha wheat, matzo semolina, oriental wheat, pearl barley, persian wheat, poulard wheat, polish wheat, rice malt (if it has barley or koji), rye, strong flour, wheat grass, and more.
This is not a complete list. I highly recommend that a person who has gluten allergies or intolerances speak with a doctor, an allergist, or a nutritionist to find out more about what they shouldn’t be eating.
Image by isabel*la on Flickr