Gluten-Free Diet

Lessons Learned from 16 Years of Testing Food for Gluten

https://youtu.be/YndPtvzMm_I This video presentation with audio is about 30 minutes long. The focus is on lessons learned from 16 years of testing food for gluten. The positive news is that the vast majority of the hundreds of foods tested through GFWD have tested below 20 parts per million of gluten. There have been a few unwelcome surprises over the years, including the level of cross contact in lentils and the number of products impacted by facial misbranding. We’ve also learned through...

Child led gluten-free product reviews

Children with celiac disease occupy a very special place in my heart. I love to hear about the positive ways they are approaching the gluten-free diet. Luke's mom Julie (a subscriber to Gluten Free Watchdog) recently reached out to me about a YouTube channel she started called No Glu Tube. In the videos Luke and Julie taste and review gluten-free products. According to Luke, “Making videos means a lot to me, so people know what to buy and know what...

Food is Love: My weekly pandemic gluten-free dinner menu

This information is provided here in the hope that it is in some small way useful.  Sending love. My family of three is back together again (as of tomorrow--Tuesday). We have varying tastes, likes and dislikes, and of course one of us is gluten-free, egg white-free, and milk protein-free (me). My kitchen is not 100% gluten-free but dinners tend to be naturally gluten-free. My son is now home from graduate school so meals have to accommodate his preferences (smile).  To...

Gluten and Cross-Reactivity

For the past several years there have been rumblings in the celiac disease community about gluten and foods that are “cross-reactive”. These foods supposedly include coffee, dairy, yeast, corn, millet, and rice.  Where does this information come from?  The information comes from a study published in 2013 and co-authored by the Chief Scientific Advisor at Cyrex Laboratories. We're not going to get into the weeds in this brief post but the full article entitled Cross-Reaction between Gliadin and Different Food and Tissue Antigens...

Yeast extract confusion made worse by the lack of manufacturer transparency

Gluten Free Watchdog received a consumer complaint about Health Valley Gluten Free Café Chicken Noodle Soup. The product includes the ingredient “flavors (including yeast extract).” Long story short, according to the consumer who contacted us, she was told by Health Valley customer service representatives that the source of the yeast extract was brewer's yeast. However, she never received a definitive answer regarding whether the brewer's yeast was spent brewer's yeast. Generally speaking, we do not advise contacting manufacturers about labeled gluten-free foods containing yeast extract. The...

Significant Study Published on the Amount of Gluten Eaten by Folks with Celiac Disease on a Gluten-Free Diet

Study authors have affiliations with ImmunogenX and Biomedal/Glutenostics   Gluten Free Watchdog has no affiliation with either Biomedal/Glutenostics or ImmunogenX. The study, “Determination of gluten consumption in celiac disease patients on a gluten-free diet” was recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. In the opinion of Gluten Free Watchdog this is one of the more significant studies published on celiac disease and the gluten-free diet in recent memory. It is the first study that attempts to analytically determine the...

Folks sometimes ask me, What does the Gluten Free Watchdog eat?

In Honor of Celiac Disease Awareness Month, Gluten Free Watchdog is writing a series of articles (the goal is one per day during the month of May) related to the gluten-free diet–currently the ONLY treatment for celiac disease.  Post (#27)… Subscribers to Gluten Free Watchdog frequently reach out to me asking whether or not I eat a particular food, such as oats, or what I do in certain situations, such as restaurants. Before answering the general question about what I eat along with a...

Gluten-Free Grain Foods and the Lack of B-Vitamin Enrichment

In Honor of Celiac Disease Awareness Month, Gluten Free Watchdog is writing a series of articles (the goal is one per day during the month of May) related to the gluten-free diet–currently the ONLY treatment for celiac disease. Post (#26)… A bit of background… My second published article in the scientific literature way back in 1999 was entitled, Thiamin, riboflavin, and niacin contents of the gluten-free diet: is there cause for concern? This article assesses the enrichment status of gluten-free breads, pastas, breakfast cereals,...

Nutritional Quality of the Gluten-Free Diet

In Honor of Celiac Disease Awareness Month, Gluten Free Watchdog is writing a series of articles (the goal is one per day during the month of May) related to the gluten-free diet–currently the ONLY treatment for celiac disease.  Post (#25)… Yes, gluten-free diets are as varied as the people who follow them. Yes, gluten-free diets can be exceedingly healthy. And yes, gluten-free diets can be very unhealthy. All of this is true of “non gluten-free diets” as well. But our focus is on...