Should Enriched gluten-free Flour Be The Next Battle?

[mommida]

In all honesty, I have been trying to fortify baked goods at home.  Swapping out some of the flour blend with almond flour or adding a Tablespoon of chia seeds into baked goods.  By adding 1 Tablespoon chia seed = another 60 calories, 2g of protein, 65mg of Calcium, 1 mg of iron, 41mg of Magnesium, and 80mg of Potassium.  You just have to watch the "tipping point" for recipes, when you screwed up the taste/texture.

 

Maybe we should start a thread,  "How do you make gluten free food healthier/ or vitamin fortified?"

 

I Hide kale in vegetable soup.  (kids asked what the green bits were, and weren't grossed out by the answer.  Will they eat kale by itself?  No way.  In soup? yes.

[mommida]

My kids and I will take that ice cream off your hands!

[LauraTX]

If anyone is looking for an enriched gluten-free flour, King Arthur Flour has their gluten-free flour blend and their gluten-free All Purpose Baking Mix (I use it like self rising flour), their page is here:  Open Original Shared Link  Click the product, then buy online, and "read the label".   Their bread mix is also enriched.  If you want things to change, the best way to vote is with your money.  However, it is each person's responsibility to take charge of their own health.  If they don't do that, forcing gluten-free food makers to enrich their product isn't going to save them.  

[Adalaide]

My kids and I will take that ice cream off your hands!

 

I very carefully make a dent in it at least every other day. I was doing really well and down to 3, but then a brand of ice cream local to where I grew up that they just recently started selling here went on sale. My hips can't take much more of these summer ice cream sales, but it certainly does my heart good. As a matter of fact, it's sounding good right now!

[dilettantesteph]

I tried to find something saying that fortified foods are better than vitamins, but I found the opposite from the Harvard school of public health.: Open Original Shared Link

[bartfull]

I don't worry about ice cream. It has CALCIUM! It's GOOD FOR US!      And I have a double dose of calcium every day!!

[mommida]

Now if we could just get doctors and nutritionist to read that article instead of going on a holier than thou tirade....

 

Enrichment of food/ water is highly debated.  vitamin b enrichment to prevent beriberi, iodine fortified salt to prevent goiter, (these 2 seem ok, right) but golden rice to prevent vitamin A deficiency to prevent blindness ~ genetically modified crops, fluoride in drinking water to prevent cavities.

 

But, living in the mid west ~people are vitamin D deficient from lack of sunshine.

[plumbago]

I tried to find something saying that fortified foods are better than vitamins, but I found the opposite from the Harvard school of public health.: Open Original Shared Link

They are talking about folic acid.

 

This is something I cited in an earlier post, by the way. I referred to a Harvard study.

 

From the article:

"Take a standard multivitamin every day, but stay away from heavily fortified foods that deliver a full day’s dose—or sometimes more—of folic acid"

 

What I'm about to say may not be a scientific statement as it is subjective, but that, to me, is hardly a pronouncement that all fortified foods are not as 'good' as supplements. It is rather, a warning to keep away from overly fortified foods. You would have to look on the back of individual fortified foods to see if it delivers a full day's dosage. Does a loaf of gluten bread deliver that much? I bet not. Generally, enriched grains and breads that were enriched as part of the 1942 Act are done so in pretty small amounts.

 

From the article you cite (and that I referred to earlier):

"Since 1998, folic acid has been added to most enriched bread flours, cornmeal, pasta, rice, and other grain products in the U.S. and Canada. This was done to help prevent spina bifida and anencephaly, two birth defects that are caused in part by too little folate in a mother’s body around the time her baby is conceived.This program has increased average folic acid intakes by about 100 micrograms a day (Open Original Shared Link) and has decreased the number of American children born with a neural tube defect by 25% to 50%. (Open Original Shared Link) The overall evidence from controlled trials shows that extra folic acid also helps protect against stroke (Open Original Shared Link), and many studies suggest it probably reduces the risk of heart disease, too."

 

What they are warning against are some foods.

 

"Some breakfast cereals, nutrition bars, and other fortified foods deliver up to 800 micrograms of folic acid, and that’s about double the recommended daily dose. The Institute of Medicine’s upper limit is 1,000 micrograms of folic acid from fortified foods a day."

 

From The Ups and Downs of Folic Acid Fortification:

Open Original Shared Link

 

"The bottom line? Unless you’re pregnant or lactating or have a recognized folate deficiency, the recommended daily intake of folic acid is 400 mcg per day — the amount found in a typical multivitamin. According to Dr. Walter Willett, Chairman of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, “the added folic acid from food fortification is on average 100 to 200 mcg per day, but this varies widely, depending on food choice.” The tolerable upper intake level (UL) — the maximum safe amount — of folic acid from fortified foods and supplements is 1,000 mcg per day. With all the fortified foods on the market, you may exceed that limit, especially if you’re already taking a daily multivitamin containing 400 mcg of folic acid. So it’s a good idea to check the nutrition labels of cereal and grain products to find out how much you’re getting from fortified foods. (For some examples of fortified foods and their folic acid content, see "Open Original Shared Link.")"

 

They add at the end of the original article you cited:

 

"We will continue to monitor the evidence as it emerges, particularly from long term studies, to fine tune guidance about the optimal intakes of folic acid, vitaminB12, and other nutrients."

 

(Again, Vitamin B12 is not really part of our conversation, although it works in conjunction with folate.)

 

The article you cite worries about cancer and folic acid fortification/supplementation. It was written in 2008. In class, we are learning, also, that folate can help prevent pancreatic cancer. To me, I do not know enough to make a cancer judgment either way, and neither I suspect does Harvard. You could make a counter argument (non Celiacs could): given the amount of fortification, you do not need to supplement - with the obvious exceptions, such as women who are thinking of becoming pregnant.

[plumbago]

Yellow rice and its GMO nonstop promises are hype, whereas the victories from fortification are provable and real.

[Adalaide]

One of the things that I specifically cited to my husband as a reason we will never move into Salt Lake county, even though I would prefer to live there for the culture is the water. Here in Utah County the water is not fluoridated, it is in Salt Lake county. We could move another 15-20 minutes drive north, but no more than that. I already refuse to drink tap water (for taste reasons, it tastes like a mouthful of pool water), but for economical reasons I cook with it.

 

I've suffered with severe dietary restrictions that encompassed wide ranges of fruits and vegetables and included cutting out most packaged foods. During this time I was very careful to be tested for any deficiencies that may come up. I was also very aware that because I was on a restricted diet, first by going gluten free and removing all of those enriched products from my diet, then by removing so many otherwise healthy foods that I needed to carefully balance what I was eating. The only thing I ever came up deficient in was folic acid, and that was because I was forced to cut out basically every food it naturally occurs in. (Which I normally super love.) Eventually tests showed that my borderline anemia had crossed over, again probably because of all the greens I had to cut out. Now that I am ever so slowly adding these foods back in I suspect I may be able to remove my supplement after another year or so. During all this time, I haven't been eating enriched products. Simply a balanced diet. If celiac does anything for us, it should above all teach us to take responsibility for our health and not expect others to take that responsibility for us. While a law protecting the health of 1% of the population from others is good, one protecting us from our own willful ignorance and laziness is kind of stupid. IMO

 

 

I don't worry about ice cream. It has CALCIUM! It's GOOD FOR US!      And I have a double dose of calcium every day!!

 

I tell myself this with every bowl. Even the chocolate with marshmallow swirls and nuts. I wonder if it counts double if we sit in the sun to eat it so we can "harvest" our vitamin D for the day? Triple if we sit in the sun naked?

[plumbago]

While a law protecting the health of 1% of the population from others is good, one protecting us from our own willful ignorance and laziness is kind of stupid.

 

I wonder where the moderator is on that one.

 

Actually I don't mind my ideas being called stupid that much. I'm pretty much all for free expression. What I do object to is having the conversation interrupted by a moderator, demanding scientific proof here and ther of select commenters only, while not demanding it of others, and also permitting ideas to be called stupid. Either enforce the rules for everyone or no one, is kind of how I see it.

 

BTW, can I see a copy of these rules? Thank you very much.

 

Plumbago

[GF Lover]

As stated, this is her opinion AND is not directed at any one person.

 

Board Rules: https://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/index.php?app=forums&module=extras&section=boardrules

 

Moderators are not the Board Police.  

 

Colleen

[Adalaide]

I'm sorry you feel my statement was an attack on your idea. It wasn't. While in general an online forum is a bad place to discuss things like politics, I'm going to break this protocol just a little for a moment. This statement is in keeping with my general political views about the government meddling in our daily lives and has nothing at all to do with you personally and just happens to also apply to this idea. In keeping with the forum rules (which if my memory serves me correctly we are all supposed to read and agree to when we sign up here?) I followed my statements with "IMO" specifically to point out that my statements were in fact a matter of opinion and nothing more to avoid any confusion. The remainder of what I shared was my experiences, which I was hoping would show that I've dealt with not only celiac but additional restrictions and was still able to appropriately deal with my nutrition without government interference. I'm not really sure why it is you feel attacked, but you weren't.