Gluten Intolerance

Many people discover that they have a gluten intolerance.

What is a Gluten?

Gluten is the general name for the storage proteins (prolamins) found in wheat, rye and barley. These particular prolamins damage the small intestine in people with celiac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis.

The actual names of the toxic prolamins are gliadin in wheat, secalin in rye and hordein in barley.

Gluten is the substance in flour responsible for forming the structure of dough, holding products together and leavening. The presence of this substance is evident in baked goods, but it is often a hidden ingredient in many other items such as sauces, marinades, gravies, salad dressings, soups, prepared meats (hamburger patties, etc.) candy, flavoured coffees and teas, as well as some medications and nutritional supplements. Even Communion Wafers are made with a small amount of specially processed wheat starch.

There is an entire list of Grains to Avoid when you have a gluten intolerance.

All forms of wheat, rye and barley must be avoided and are outlined next.

Oats and Testing Results:

Originally oats was also thought to be toxic when a gluten intolerance is present, but this is widely debated. Barley is often one of the main contaminating grains in oats and some of the studies used the barley-insensitive omega-gliadin method for testing the gluten content or the purity of the oats.

Oats has been cross-contaminated by the purity of seed used in planting to equipment used for planting, harvesting, transporting and processing the oats. Wheat, rye and barley are often detected during testing.

When using a pure, uncontaminated oat product, some individuals experienced gastrointestinal symptoms, although these were generally mild and transient in nature.

Some highly sensitive individuals with celiac disease did not tolerate this pure and uncontamined oats.

In spite of different test results and the evaluating the safety of oats, some health professionals, celiac organizations and celiac research centers allow consumption of moderate amounts of pure, uncontaminated oat products while on a gluten-free diet, while others restrict oats and do not recommend oats at all.

A comprehensive list of Foods and Ingredients to Avoid when a Gluten Intolerance is present:

WHEAT

Atta - A fine whole-meal flour made from low-gluten, soft textured wheat used to make Indian flatbread. This is also know as Chapatti Flour

Bulgar

Couscous

Dinkel – (Also known as Spelt)

Durum

Einkorn

Emmer

Farina

Farro or Faro (also known as Spelt)

Fu – This term is used interchangeably to denote a concentrated liquid solution of barley malt that is used a flavouring agent.

Graham Flour

Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein

Kamut- A type of wheat

Matzoh, Matzoh Meal

Modified Wheat Starch

Seitan – A meat like food derived from wheat gluten used in many vegetarian dishes. Sometimes called “wheat meat”

Semolina

Spelt

Triticale

Wheat Bran

Whet Flour

Wheat Germ

Wheat Starch

BARLEY

Ale: Most regular ale, beer and lager are derived from barley, which is not gluten free.

Barley (Flakes, Flour, Pearl)

Beer

Brewer’s Yeast

Lager

Malt – Malt is an enzyme preparation usually derived from sprouted barley. Other cereal grains can also be malted.

Malt Extract/Malt Syrup/Malt Flavouring

Malt Vinegar

Malted Milk

RYE

Rye Bread Rye Flour

OATS - Oatmeal, Oat Bran, Oat Flour and Oats.

Other Grains:

The prolamins in rice and corn are not toxic to persons with Celiac disease.

Some of this information was taken from The Gluten-Free Diet by Shelley Case.

It is really important to read the labels, even on additives, flavour agents, sweeteners, food colouring agents and vegetable gums.

As these products can be very toxic with anyone with celiac disease, learning how to eliminate these products is very important and reading labels of foods purchased is very important.

You can eat lots of tasty foods and live very comfortably when you are aware of the grains and other safe foods.

There is another complete list of Foods Allowed, Foods to Question and Foods to Avoid, which I will put up on my site later. Another page will be going up with recipes for you to enjoy.

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