Gluten intolerance and coeliac disease
Go Gluten Free Food Shopping
You may find the gluten free foods which you are looking for in these suggested categories. This selection of gluten free food has been made from the labels of the product and we do ask that you check the ingredients before consumption as recipes change from time to time.
Gluten is a mixture of two proteins found in wheat, rye, barley and oats. One in every hundred people is thought to be allergic or intolerant to gluten and as the population is over 61 million that is quite a few of us. Intolerance to gluten is also called coeliac disease, (or celiac disease in the United States), and means that the gluten in these grains causes our bodies to create antibodies that attack the delicate villi lining our our small intestines where the nutrients would normally be absorbed. The result is that we show symptoms of discomfort, bloating, diarrhoea, constipation, tiredness, bone pain, ulcers, and eventually signs of malnutrition. The remedy of course is to avoid gluten, selecting only gluten-free foods.
Gluten, where could it be hiding in your food?
Eating a gluten free diet is relatively easy these days with such an amazing selection of gluten free food to choose from. There are the food groups that are naturally gluten free: fruit and vegetables, rice, potatoes, dairy products, fish, meat, eggs, corn and maize, polenta, nuts, salads are all perfectly fine. But watch out for those foods where gluten may be hiding in disguise. For example these foods are not gluten free: spelt (is a strain of wheat), couscous, bread, pasta, breakfast cereals, malt vinegar, some soya sauces and other sauces use wheat to thicken them, wheat germ oil or cooking oil, beer, and licorice. Did you get any surprises there?
Gluten free foods and alternatives
Bread, pastries, pies and other baked goods are often the most difficult thing for coeliacs to replace in their gluten free diet as they are so much part of the staple UK foods. There is now a great choice of gluten free bread and baked products, (gluten-free pies, pasties and pizzas) as well as the more exotic and unusual foods, sauces and condiments. Plus products like Xanthan gum and other gluten free baking aids which can help you get the same texture in your gluten free recipes as when baking with normal flour. As a coeliac, you needn’t go without anything at all.
Oats and gluten free shopping
Oats do contain gluten although it is not detectable by the same tests as for the other grains. In general it is the issue of cross contamination which put oats on the 'unsuitable for those on a gluten free diet' list. For these reasons coeliacs avoid oats although one or two can tolerate them. This variation can be true of gluten intolerance or gluten allergy in general, gluten sensitivity can vary enormously from person to person.
Eating healthily on a gluten free diet
As gluten is found in wheat, rye, barley and oat grains it is baked goods that can be the biggest problem. And so it is baked gluten free foods that are generally manufactured for the gluten free diet. These can be laden with sugar and fats, so do take care when following a gluten free diet to choose foods form other food groups (not just bread, cakes, cookies, pies and pizzas) for your menu.
Remember that once you have selected 'gluten free', to narrow your search you will no longer see any other products other than those marked gluten free. This may not be a problem, but just to remind you that we only mark as gluten free relevant products and so general groceries, rice, fruit & veg etc. may not be labelled even though they have no gluten content.
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