Now that you need to eat a gluten free diet where do you go? What are the gluten free bread alternatives available to you? Here are ten of the best options in no particular order. Each link has multiple reviews to help you make your decision.
Enjoy baking? Don’t like the price of store bought breads? Here are some excellent sandwich bread recipes from a few of my favorite bloggers.
I recently purchased a bottle of Drew’s All natural Smoked Tomato Dressing and Marinade at my local Ollie’s. The bottle was labeled gluten free. hen I went to use it I noticed that it had a disclaimer stating that the dressing is made on shared equipment with many known allergens including wheat. I am super careful with what I eat and avoid anything processed in a facility or manufactured on equipment shared with wheat. This dressing looked exceptionally tasty so I decided to email Drew’s and ask about there processes and the possibility of cross contamination. Here is my email to Drew’s and the response that followed.
“Hi,
I was about to use your Drew’s Smoked Tomato Dressing and Quick Marinade. I see that it is labeled gluten free, but it states that it is made on shared equipment with wheat. Is there a possibility of cross contamination from the wheat? If so how is it labeled gluten free? I would like to use it on my chicken tonight, but am celiac and do not want to get sick.
Thank you,
Laurie”
Drew responded within the hour which was quite impressive.
“Dear Laurie,
Thank you for taking the time to write to us regarding our Smoked Tomato Salad Dressing.
At Drew’s, we take our responsibility of eliminating the risk of allergen cross-contamination and ensuring the safety of consumers very seriously. Drew’s has implemented a number of comprehensive standard operating procedures for the handling of known allergens, including but not limited to: employee training, separate storage areas for allergen products, and an allergen cleaning/sanitation cycle of all equipment between production batches. Following the allergen clean, we test for the presence of allergens (soy, gluten, milk, coconut or egg) prior to the next production run. This ensures the cleanliness of our production equipment and the absence of known allergens. As an added precaution, we schedule our allergen items for production on separate days or at the end of the day whenever possible.
In addition, our facility is SQF (Safe Quality Food) Certified and items which are labeled as Gluten Free have been certified to be in compliance by the GFCO (Gluten Free Certification Organization – http://www.gfco.org/). Both of these certifications require very strict adherence to our aforementioned allergen control procedures. Audits and inspections are performed by the certifying agencies to verify our system’s effectiveness.
We appreciate your taking the time to write us – please rest assured that we share your concerns and have taken the appropriate steps to keep our consumers safe as they enjoy our delicious Drew’s All-Natural and Organic Salad Dressings and Salsas.
Should you have further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate in contacting our office.”
I was glad for the quick response but decided to give the product to Alan’s mom and go with something that I knew was without a doubt safe.
I know many people have different severities of gluten intolerance and different levels of comfort with gluten free products in general. I tend to be on the strict side but am really interested in how the rest of the gluten free community feels on the subject.
My question to you all is whether you eat products with statements of processed in a facility that contains wheat, or made on equipment shared with wheat, ect. Please let me know how you feel on the subject in the comments section below.
I have finally decided to do my first rafflecopter giveaway! one lucky person will win 1 pound of gluten free grain free coconut flour and over 18 dollars in gluten free coupons from companies like Namaste, Udi’s, Crunchmaster, and Enjoy Life. I was given this coconut flour by Bob’s Red Mill when I asked for it to write my comparison of 7 top coconut flours. The coupons are from the Washington DC Gluten Free Expo. I do not buy many gluten free prepackaged items due to my corn intolerance so I figured I would pass on these awesome coupons to you guys. Continue reading →
I love coconut flour. I bake with it as often as I can and eat it at least once every day. Some people would call me obsessed. Low calorie, high protein, low carb, high fiber, this flour has amazing benefits! What’s not to love? I have tried my fair share of coconut flour recipes from other food bloggers. Most worked out fantastically, but some flopped. After reading a bajillion comments on those recipes the common consensus was that the brand of flour may be the reason for the recipe failure. Coconut flour absorbs a ton of water. Coconut flours differ in how finely they are ground and how much fat they contain as well. I really wanted to figure out which flours worked best and why. Continue reading →
Alan reads Tosh daily. I can’t stand the guy and think he is unfunny and mostly meanspirited. Alan showed me a Tosh today about glutenfreesingles.com. It pokes fun at gluten free eaters. The comments, which Tosh’s blogs are famous for, are horribly mean. Chris Kieth’s comments made me extremely angry. Anyone who thinks that opening up a gluten free restaurant and feeding gluten filled foods to celiacs is funny is a very sick minded individual. Gluten free is not a fad diet. Bloggers like Tosh are further putting the idea that gluten free is a fad into the mainstream school of thought. I am livid and can not string my words together properly at this point so today I am handing over this post to Alan the gluten free boyfriend. Here is what he has to say on the subject. Continue reading →
Four days ago I wrote a post titled Celiac Alert: Sprouted Wheat in Athena Gluten Free Greek Yogurt Bars. Since then it has gotten many hits and shown up on reddit. This post got many people talking about these bars and their ingredients. Many said they were going to or had emailed the company for more information on the gluten free labeling. Continue reading →
Update: Athena will be removing the words gluten free from their packaging.
Who would have thought a bar labeled gluten free would contain wheat sprout?
I often check out the gluten free options available at gas stations and rest areas when I travel. I have found some amazing products that way. While at a Sheetz in West Virginia I came across Athena Yogurt Bars.
I spotted the words gluten free on the front of the wrapper and thought about buying one. I would have walked out with a bar in hand and quickly devoured it based on the gluten free claim on the wrapper. Thankfully my corn intolerance saved me from this fate. I read every ingredient on every wrapper to check for corn as it is not a top eight allergen and is not disclosed.
When I turned over the Athena bar many ingredients alarmed me. (I am listing these in the order they show on the wrapper not in order of level of alarm or severity. If I listed them due to highest concern I would have started with the wheat sprouts.) I first saw grain dextrins and wondered what grain they were derived from. Then I saw barley grass and wheat grass which I know the fda approves for gluten free foods as long as the items test less than 20 ppm gluten or less. I will not eat anything with barley or wheat grass as it has a high rate of cross contamination. The grass itself is gluten free if it has not been allowed to sprout or begin producing grains, but who is to say that some of the blades of wheat grass don’t sprout sooner than others? It is just too much of a grey area for me to trust.
The third ingredient I saw was the one that made my jaw drop: WHEAT SPROUT! I immediately dropped the bar and had to retrieve it from the floor. I then took a photo of the ingredients and emailed Bella makers of Athena Bars. I knew that sprouting grains can begin the process of breaking down gluten proteins to make them easier to digest in general. In no way does sprouting wheat make it anywhere even close to gluten free. I did a bunch of research before writing this post and all of it pointed out that sprouted gluten grains are not gluten free. They are not even low gluten (I hate that trendy fad diet term). So I asked in my email to bella why their Athena Yogurt Bars are labelled as gluten free but show wheat clearly on the label. I have not gotten a response and I emailed them over a day ago. I also left a comment on the Bella facebook page asking the same question today and have yet to get a response. I am slightly impatient and wanted to get this information out to you all as soon as possible in hopes to save someone from a possible glutening. I will update this post as soon as I hear any word from the manufacturers. Until then I would cautiously advise you to steer clear of Athena Yogurt Bars. I could be wrong. There could be new research that escapes me and wheat sprouts could magically be gluten free now, but in case I’m not it wouldn’t hurt to eat something else until I get a clear response.
Alan and I are taking a much needed vacation this week. It is our first trip camping in our e350 super duty diesel van. We do not make any specific plans for vacations. We knew we were headed towards Pittsburgh to visit friends but that is it. On Friday evening I realized that the gluten free expo would be happening in DC on Sunday. I was really excited for the opportunity to go and share the experience with all of you. Alan being the sweet sweet man that he is made it happen. We had trouble (lots of trouble) finding a place to park the van to sleep overnight in the DC area. We finally found a Walmart parking lot and it was quite comfy. Continue reading →
In an attempt to categorize which alcoholic beverages were celiac safe I emailed the major alcoholic beverage corporations. The response that I received from Constellation Brands shocked me. Continue reading →
I have finally found satisfaction in flour. I am gluten free and mostly grain free. I have been struggling with losing that extra 20 lbs my whole life. I have been in love with cooking and baking everything I could since going gluten free three years ago due to Celiac . It is hard to shed these extra pounds while battling a monster sized sweet tooth. This is where coconut flour comes in. It is naturally gluten free, grain free, and low carb. Continue reading →
