15 Foods People Wrongly Think Are Gluten-Free

On-line Gastroenterologist had many celiac patient who were not able to tolerate the following food items/food stuffs.  He labeled them gluten cross-reactors because of the chemical structures being so similar to gluten that the human body has difficulty in distinguishing between them.  This is the list:

1. Yeast (gluten response = 15/20 min while yeast response = 45 min) Response: hideous

2. Egg (depends how much/how many & how prepared)

3. Dairy (all regular milk with skim being the worst response) I tolerated aged parmesan & cheddar without additives.  I spoke to a chef who indicated fermentation process changes its protein structure. Oddly, I can add some "heavy" cream to a stew to thicken it & the response is mild

4. Coffee (I use a mild coffee once a week) Response mild

Thanks for the tips on the tinned & packaged meats. Many broths contains the yeast & infused meats (beef & chicken labeled as fresh) result in a hideous reaction. I read all labels & verify NO broth used.  There are now 3 brands of boxed broth that do not list yeast as an ingredient.  

I appreciate everyone's comments.

Laura-

 I think your "online" doc is somewhere between "conservative" and "hooly-gooly" on some of the subjective and unproven conclusions they're making.

 While celiac, and non-celiac wheat allergy and a host of other very real problems all seem related to some larger issue that is not at all clearly understood, yet, there's some jumping to conclusions there.

"1. Yeast".
 Funny thing, most of us have absolutely no problem with gluten-free baked goods that are chock full of conventional baker's yeast. How the microbiome in general reacts to yeast, and whether the body itself is mistaking yeast for something else, is AFAIK pure speculation at this time. It would be more appropriate for a medic to say "There's no correlation, but if yeast bothers you TOO, avoid it." Making the assumption that there is any relation between the two is just bad science, and we have too much of that already.

"2. Egg" Again, same as yeast. BAD SCIENCE. Many people have multiple allergies and they are NOT RELATED as far as anyone knows. Except, it is speculated, for the fact that having multiple allergies may have been caused by not being exposed to those multiple items while an infant.

"3. Dairy... cheddar ... I spoke to a chef who indicated fermentation process changes its protein structure. "
 Years ago I spoke to the wonderful folks at Cabot, a dairy cooperative in NY/VT who make wonderful packaged brick cheeses. He told me that they had conducted tests, and very specifically any of their cheddars that was aged for 90 days or longer (which is all of tem) was GLUTEN FREE AND LACTOSE FREE, because the enzymes that make the cheese also break down lactose, and by 90 days there will be zero lactose content in their cheeses. While this will depend on specific enzymes, the rule of thumb is that any hard cheese (including parmesan and romano, in my experience) will have the same absence of lactose. This of course would not apply to any cheese made with bread crumb cultures, i.e. blue cheeses, but I've never heard of them being found as hard cheeses.

In theory my villae have long since come back...or totally failed to. Dunno, as a practical matter I have to treat dairy the same way. Incredible number of non-dairy "ice cream" products now in the stores, even if the taste isn't traditional some are pretty good as "frozen desserts". A company called "Daiya" makes a wide number of non-dairy gluten free frozen foods (including pizzas and fruit pies) that are worth looking for.

"4. Coffee"
I'm a heavy coffee drinker. NEVER heard of anyone having a celiac type reaction to coffee. Now, coffee can motivate the bowels, especially in the morning, but not in any abnormal way. You will find that if you are drinking INSTANT COFFEE, some companies process that on dedicated equipment, while others process it on equipment that is used to make powdered drinks that DO CONTAIN WHEAT. And apparently there's significant cross-contamination. So, Nescafe Instant apparently is safe, Folger's is not. Check with the maker for your specific coffee. I've always figured, if the company can't figure out how to simply steam clean their own production equipment, they just might not understand how to keep things clean, and I really don't need to buy anything from them.

Whole-bean coffee should never be a problem, and I've yet to hear of ground coffee being a problem--just the instant.

Cross-contamination could turn anything including fresh fish or beef into a "problem". A deli that slices pastrami on the same counter where they cut part a pastrami on rye SANDWICH could be a problem. But that's the cross-contamination, not the food.

"There are now 3 brands of boxed broth that do not list yeast as an ingredient." And wasn't I "DAMN IT NOT AGAIN?!" surprised the first time I found out GLUTEN is actually used to give the umami flavor in many prepared broths and soups. If you go to Outback, where they are generally very gluten aware, they'll even warn you that you can't have the steamed mixed vegetables. Why? Because, they're steamed with broth, not just steam, and the broth contains...gluten.

It sounds like you really might want to consider seeing a good allergist, and having them do panels for a number of other sensitivities. I hate needles, but you've got more than a wheat/gluten problem there.

20 hours ago, lyfan said:

Laura-

 I think your "online" doc is somewhere between "conservative" and "hooly-gooly" on some of the subjective and unproven conclusions they're making.

 While celiac, and non-celiac wheat allergy and a host of other very real problems all seem related to some larger issue that is not at all clearly understood, yet, there's some jumping to conclusions there.

"1. Yeast".
 Funny thing, most of us have absolutely no problem with gluten-free baked goods that are chock full of conventional baker's yeast. How the microbiome in general reacts to yeast, and whether the body itself is mistaking yeast for something else, is AFAIK pure speculation at this time. It would be more appropriate for a medic to say "There's no correlation, but if yeast bothers you TOO, avoid it." Making the assumption that there is any relation between the two is just bad science, and we have too much of that already.

"2. Egg" Again, same as yeast. BAD SCIENCE. Many people have multiple allergies and they are NOT RELATED as far as anyone knows. Except, it is speculated, for the fact that having multiple allergies may have been caused by not being exposed to those multiple items while an infant.

"3. Dairy... cheddar ... I spoke to a chef who indicated fermentation process changes its protein structure. "
 Years ago I spoke to the wonderful folks at Cabot, a dairy cooperative in NY/VT who make wonderful packaged brick cheeses. He told me that they had conducted tests, and very specifically any of their cheddars that was aged for 90 days or longer (which is all of tem) was GLUTEN FREE AND LACTOSE FREE, because the enzymes that make the cheese also break down lactose, and by 90 days there will be zero lactose content in their cheeses. While this will depend on specific enzymes, the rule of thumb is that any hard cheese (including parmesan and romano, in my experience) will have the same absence of lactose. This of course would not apply to any cheese made with bread crumb cultures, i.e. blue cheeses, but I've never heard of them being found as hard cheeses.

In theory my villae have long since come back...or totally failed to. Dunno, as a practical matter I have to treat dairy the same way. Incredible number of non-dairy "ice cream" products now in the stores, even if the taste isn't traditional some are pretty good as "frozen desserts". A company called "Daiya" makes a wide number of non-dairy gluten free frozen foods (including pizzas and fruit pies) that are worth looking for.

"4. Coffee"
I'm a heavy coffee drinker. NEVER heard of anyone having a celiac type reaction to coffee. Now, coffee can motivate the bowels, especially in the morning, but not in any abnormal way. You will find that if you are drinking INSTANT COFFEE, some companies process that on dedicated equipment, while others process it on equipment that is used to make powdered drinks that DO CONTAIN WHEAT. And apparently there's significant cross-contamination. So, Nescafe Instant apparently is safe, Folger's is not. Check with the maker for your specific coffee. I've always figured, if the company can't figure out how to simply steam clean their own production equipment, they just might not understand how to keep things clean, and I really don't need to buy anything from them.

Whole-bean coffee should never be a problem, and I've yet to hear of ground coffee being a problem--just the instant.

Cross-contamination could turn anything including fresh fish or beef into a "problem". A deli that slices pastrami on the same counter where they cut part a pastrami on rye SANDWICH could be a problem. But that's the cross-contamination, not the food.

"There are now 3 brands of boxed broth that do not list yeast as an ingredient." And wasn't I "DAMN IT NOT AGAIN?!" surprised the first time I found out GLUTEN is actually used to give the umami flavor in many prepared broths and soups. If you go to Outback, where they are generally very gluten aware, they'll even warn you that you can't have the steamed mixed vegetables. Why? Because, they're steamed with broth, not just steam, and the broth contains...gluten.

It sounds like you really might want to consider seeing a good allergist, and having them do panels for a number of other sensitivities. I hate needles, but you've got more than a wheat/gluten problem there.

Lyfan -- Thank you for your detailed response.  I'm so tired of the fear that is circulated on gluten-fee sites.  It's bad enough to have celiac disease -- adding unnecessary fears is burdensome and adds to the perception that a gluten-free diet is just a fad.  I'm glad that you pointed out that gluten may not be the issue if persons are reacting to non-gluten foods.

About ten years ago, a friend of mine mentioned the way that "all these nut jobs" were going crazy and blaming gluten for all their ills, when gluten-free diets became a big fad. I said sure, there was no doubt a lot of crazy people were coming out of the woods, but the great thing about that, is that it made a much bigger commercial market for gluten-free products!

Considering that 15? years ago there were about six doctors on the planet who really had some grasp of celiac, literally, and there's still no real understanding of the larger issues, it is not surprising that there's some confusion for everyone. Aluminum cookware, plastic can linings, vapors from toilets flushing, mercury that (no longer) is in vaccinations...And did you hear, a new NIH funded survey has found that EVERYONE who has drunk more than fifty gallons of water in their lifetime, has died? Surely, it must be toxic. (Sigh.)

If only they'd stop buying $1000 football tickets and spend the money on something really stupid, like basic medical research.