The Gluten Free Façade part 2 – dining in

While I’ve had my fair share of horrible experiences dining out, I hate trying to hunt down that elusive, seemingly illusive ingredient that is making me ill on a daily basis.

If you’re going gluten free don’t buy bulk

Unless the factory is a 100% gluten free facility don’t risk it. It’s a lot easier to buy more of a smaller quantity than it is to fight with something for weeks on end until you realize it’s something like the table salt. Also if you have to toss 5lbs instead of 1lb it's a lot more expensive.

Surprise, it’s the table salt

I was ill for almost a month straight. We resorted to only salt and freshly ground pepper on my food. Couldn’t figure out what it was. In all of my expensive efforts of scrapping spices and tossing condiments that we weren’t sure about, and tossing pounds and pounds of cross-contaminated meats we cut a corner. Rather than buying the Morton’s table salt (which is awesome), we bought the Aldi brand Stonemill Essentials brand salt. According to Celiac.com, “All Stonemill Essentials Spices ‘may Contain Soy, Wheat, Milk’.”

Run from Wal-mart like they have the plague

When it comes to buying spices, meats, and anything close to Gluten Free stuff from Wal-mart I’ve had bad experiences with their generic brands. I’ve picked up boxes of “Gluten Free” pasta only to get home and see the little warning on the side “Made on machinery that also processes wheat.” Their spices have this warning. While the meat vendors for Wal-Mart are regionally different, I’ve found that some of their chicken breasts are injected with fillers that trigger my response. The same goes for some of the pork roasts. The red meats seem to be okay, but I don't eat a lot of that.

Be careful of small butchers and grocers

We recently tried a small grocery store’s meat products when we had an issue with Wal-mart brand meat. I did fine, the first couple of days with the pork from the small grocer. When we tried the chicken it made me ill. Looked at the package and they didn’t have any fillers. They weren’t large over-injected birds, so we went to the store took a look around.  The store also prepackaged flavored birds and hams. Upon looking at the store’s own self packaged spices we noticed that they not only made their own cinnamon spice flavorings (like used on the hams) and lemon pepper spice flavorings used on the chicken, they also packaged their own bread crumbs at the same facility. Because it’s a small grocer they likely don’t clean their equipment that well when they’re covering the preflavored meats so we had to look for someone else.

When Gluten Free on the box doesn’t mean Gluten Free

I went through a bout with sugar. Craving all sorts of different sugary things. Aldi had become one of the stores we shopped at regularly because of their low prices and selection of good produce and veggies. We picked up a box of Millville Crispy Rice Treats and I ate the whole box quickly. The next day I was fine. Next trip, I picked up another box. I had a couple and became deathly ill. Severe response. Having tried them the week before I figured it was something else.  I waited three days wavering on trying them again until the weekend and was hit again. When I called the company Millville (who have wheat in their logo) I was not surprised that although they have “Gluten Free” on the package, they’re processed in the same warehouse as some other wheat items made with flour. Those items are “at the other end of the warehouse and do not share the same lines” but flour when airborne can travel quite a distance and stay airbornefor hours.

It’s the nuts

Same as the spices, anything processed on a line with anything else can cause contamination. That being said, at Aldi again I desperately loved their chocolate and hazelnut candy bars. The back of the package said gluten free. I went for a time without eating them. I had to go to town without my wife one evening and in a moment of desperation broke down and bought a bar. I brought it home and ate it. I was sick as ever. Foggy, you name it. Peanuts,more specifically roasted peanuts can be covered with wheat before roasting. Since that’s the high-dollar item for the nut plants, they use the same equipment to package the hazelnuts. That’s likely what nailed me in the chocolate bar. They have plain chocolate bars, but since they’re run on the same line I would dare not try them (in case it’s something else).

It’s the cheese

While block American cheeses don’t normally contain any sort of wheat additive, I found something else to watch out for. One day standing in the cheese section of Meijer I browsed all of the various cheese types. To my surprise shredded cheeses by some brands contain wheat based anti-caking agents which prevent the cheese from sticking to itself and making a giant mass in the package.

Watch out for canned foods

We were buying canned foods for a while. My wife loved these fire roasted tomatoes from Hunts. I didn't like them one bit. I blamed the dosing on the spices. She made a bland chili one night to prove a point after we had done another spice purge. I was still dosed. Dug the can out of the garbage and surprise it contains yeast extract and natural flavors. We stopped using all of the Hunts canned tomatoes at that time because they were all likely run on the same equipment. With any canned foods you're taking a risk unless you know it's from a company that doesn't use wheat on their canning equipment.

Gluten Free Pizza

I remember what good pizza tastes like. I crave it. When I smell it, it makes me feel insane. That being said we’ve tried various ways of making pizza at home. We bought the Bisquick brand Gluten Free flour from Wal-mart. Surprise it’s made by Bisquick, so I got sick. We tried making gluten free crusts with rice and potatoes. None of it came close.

Someone suggested Udi’s Gluten Free pizza. If you’re desperate for something that tastes like a cheesy rice cake covered in nasty tomato sauce, then this product is for you. Aldi has a line of Gluten Free (processed) foods branded "Live GFree." I've tried their Gluten Free pizza with success. It actually tastes like pizza. It’s not as good as Giordano’s, but for someone who can’t eat normally pizza it will have to do. The Aldi Live GFree pizza hot pockets were tasty as well, but left me feeling uncomfortable. Not like I was dosed, but like I had eaten something highly processed. They definitely contain more preservatives than the pizza.

What about meat?

For meats we’ve been getting pork from places that do a lot of pork butchery. That way we know it’s not going to be contaminated. Because of the levels of injections in the chicken we resorted to buying half and whole chickens. Also the non-breast cuts of meat seem to be okay as well. Frozen salmon from Aldi is excellent and cheap. Their swai fish isn’t bad either. Packets and cans of tuna from Aldi are good as well, but have a higher salt content. Some of the tuna from other vendors, if buying the packets, can contain wheat (StarKist Tuna Creations Herb & Garlic for example).

Condiments

Louisiana Hot Sauce is my favorite. No issue there. French’s Yellow Mustard has given me no issues. I’m on the fence about Annie’s Organic Ketchup, but it’s likely that someone in my household (or myself) contaminated the last bottle of ketchup I used (will know more on the next bottle). Tabasco is fine, especially the Tabasco Buffalo Style Hot Sauce. Aldi’s organic maple syrup and their organic honey are both excellent.

Spices

As I mentioned before, Morton’s Salt is fine. It's produced in mass quantity at a salt plant. On the ground pepper we’ve been using the McCormick Black Peppercorn Grinder and it should work nicely provided nobody contaminates your bottle. I generally stay away from any of the mixes. There are too many spice mix recipes that have one random ingredient that can really cause a world of hurt.

Rice and Quinoa

We’ve had excellent luck with the organic basmati and brown rices from Costco. While many of their other bulk foods are run on the same lines as wheat, the organic rice is fine. Additionally the Costco Organic Quinoa is excellent (and cheaper than the smaller boxes from big box retailers).

Mixed vegetables

I’ve had excellent success with the large bags of Bird’s Eye brand mixed vegetables. Watch out for the Wal-mart brand mixed vegetables (and other smaller brands) because they’ll often bag them on the same lines as things like fried breaded okra.

Whole foods

No I’m not talking about the grocery store Whole Paycheck here, but if you want to buy whole foods at Whole Foods, then go for it. If you buy fruit and vegetables in their whole forms they are so much better for you. Whole potatoes can be cleaned and cooked in a matter of minutes. If you use whole unprocessed foods you know what you're getting, and that means no additives or cross contamination.

Finger foods

I seem like a bit of eccentric when I eat grapes with chopsticks, but in our house there is still wheat around. Because of this I don’t take any chances with common areas like sinks, door handles on the refrigerator, or the buttons on the microwave. I avoid finger foods at all costs because I can’t trust that someone didn’t have a cookie or a cracker or a piece of bread nearby. Anybody with small children knows what I mean when I say nothing is safe in this regard. Kids get food everywhere. My kid will rub his head with a flour tortilla or a pizza crust while he’s not thinking about it (he’s 5), and deny that he's doing it in the process. Also I've had relatives deny they had any wheat nearby while waving a cookie about (unintentionally of course); and they know about the allergy.

Final thoughts

Wheat is everywhere. It’s not going away anytime soon. People are engineering new wheat derivatives to trick people’s taste buds into craving it more. All I can say is be diligent in your research, and try to limit the number of variables. Whole foods are excellent. It’s a lot easier to tell if it’s a new shampoo if that’s the only thing that’s changed for the day. Also if you can keep relatives from bringing over cookies and cakes it helps too.

Good Luck.

Originally I had mentioned something about shampoos. My wife brought up a good point, so check to the upcoming entry on dosings by non-food items.

If you've not read the first part of this segment, check out The Gluten Free Façade part 1 – dining out