Last week I saw a woman on a gluten-free diet eat half a piece of regular cake because she was feeling left out. This week I read a message from a Mom who was concerned about giving her child a medication that had gluten-free ingredients and was made on a dedicated line because there was gluten in the factory.
These women represent the two extremes of attitudes about a gluten-free diet. I don’t think either attitude is healthy. Eating just a few bites of a wheat-based cake is enough to do damage to the small intestine of someone with celiac disease. Holding back on a medication because of a tiny possibility of gluten contamination is putting unreasonable limits on the diet.
Here’s my definition on what eating gluten free means:
- Avoiding products that contain wheat, rye, barley, or the related grains, including commercial oats that unavoidably contain wheat and barley.
- Understanding which products that may contain ingredients derived from wheat, rye, and barley are so extensively processed that they do not contain significant amounts of protein.
- Reading every label every time I buy a product.
- Not eating a product with ambiguous ingredients unless I call the manufacturer.
- Enjoying what I do eat.
What does this mean in practice?
- I don’t intentionally eat gluten-containing ingredients ever.
- I eat maltodextrin and natural flavors and distilled vinegar and alcohol and pure oats without worry because I have learned that they are safe for me.
- I read product labels when I shop.
- I don’t buy products with ambiguous labeling like seasoning or vegetable broth without including the sub-ingredients. Sometimes I contact the manufacturer to complain with the hopes of improving the labels.
- I make sure I take something I can eat in my purse when I go to events so that I don’t get overwhelmed by feeling left out.
This didn’t happen overnight. I learned about ingredients from the scientific advisory panels of support groups and from my own research. I still ask a lot of questions and I look up ingredients. It takes extra time to read ingredient lists, but I’m pretty good at it now and it takes less time than when I started.
My goal is to help other people find a healthy balance so they can thrive, not just survive, eating a gluten-free diet.
