Jeopardy is a fun board game and a great way to learn basic information about the gluten free diet. The format, as you probably know, is for the leader to present a statement that could be the answer to a question. The participants score points by giving the original question. For example:

This national organization has the strictest criteria for certifying America  products gluten free.  [What is the Celiac Sprue Association?]

This gluten free grain-substitute is related to rhubarb. [What is buckwheat?]

This grain is frequently used in brewing gluten free beer. [What is sorghum?]

This process removes gluten from liquids

that would be gluten toxic. [What is distillation?]

This company produces eight varieties of the same cereal.

Six of these are considered gluten free.  [What is General Mills?]

Send me your suggestions. Perhaps we can turn this into a full-fledged party game and a way to communicate with our wheat-eating friends. add a comment to this or any article or send me an e-mail at pc5555@gmail.com.

My favorite Fathers Day gift was a simple  note announcing that all my children and grand children had been tested for celiac disease. No problems were uncovered, and I am happy about that. But the important thing is that celiac disease is now under control in our family. Looking back on the situation, I am fairly certain that my father suffered from undiagnosed celiac disease throughout his life. He deserved better.

On a lighter note, I’ll be having my Fathers Day dinner at The Outback Steakhouse.  Their gluten free menu is great, but what I enjoy most is that they have gift cards with photographs on them. There is an extra charge for that, of course. I’ll enjoy the meal, and and the climax of the evening will be bragging out my grandkids when I pay the bill using that very special card.

I was surprised to hear that The Gluten Free Pantry is no longer selling on-line. The website will continue to provide information and recipes, but people who wish to purchase gluten free mixes on-line can order from Drugstore.com, or Vitacost.com. In both cases, you will need to enter the search terms “gluten free” or “gluten free pantry”.

Thousands of restaurants promise gluten free options. How do we find the restaurant that’s best for us, particularly when we are away from home and unfamiliar with the local area ?

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Dispite the amazing progress made in the past few years, bread is one of the most expensive and least satisfying elements of our gluten free diet. I’ve been eating toast just about every morning for my entire life. I need ideas for cutting down!

Here are links to four articles filled with ideas for breakfasts. All the suggestions I’m linking you to to are gluten and most do not require bread. Unfortunately, I failed to find foods that met those criteria and could be prepared by a person (such as myself)  who is not fully awake — toast and cold cereal is much simpler if  less satisfying. Hopefully, you can modify some of those suggestions, do some of the preparation in the evening, and be ready to face the day ahead.

Since the titles of these four articles are virtually identical, I will simply invite you to click here and/or here and/or here and/or here to find the information you need.

Later this week, I’ll post an article about gluten free lunches that do not require bread.

The Gluten Intolerance Group certifies foods to be gluten free if they contain less than 10 parts-per-million wheat gluten. This makes much more food OK for people who follow the gluten free diet.

This certification focuses on the amount of gluten in the finished product so that foods containing oats and/or wheat starch can be approved if the product contains less than 10 ppm wheat gluten. The GIG website contains search engines that enable you to find what you are looking for.

This is the fourth article in a series that I’ve called “Gluten Free Strategy”. The long awaited decision about what constitutes gluten free food will not solve all the issues of gluten free living but it will make them somewhat easier to understand. There will be at least one more article — a summary of what we have said in this series of articles. I’ll also step out of my usual role by discussing for my gluten free future as well as my objectives as a writer on gluten free topics.

The terms ‘gluten free’ and ‘naturally gluten free’ do not mean the same thing:

The term ‘gluten free‘ was devised by physicians to treat people with celiac disease. Food is considered  ’gluten free’  if it contains no more than 20 parts per million of wheat gluten.  This definition is consistent with the definition of  ’sugar free’ (less than 5 miligrams per serving) and sodium free (also less than 5 miligrams per serving).

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Everything needed for successful gluten free living is available in abundance in Colorado:

The Celiac Sprue Association has published alist of gluten free restaurants throughout the state. The list is concise and convenient — you can even reorgnize the list so that all the restaurants in a specific area are side-by-side. For additional links and suggestions about ‘safe’ restaurant chains, click here.

Here is a list of Colorado restaurants that meet the strict certification requirements of the Gluten Free Certification Organization (GFCO). 

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Our website currently lists one hundred restaurant chains whose websites  promise options for people who live gluten free. Some of the chains make convincing claims about their ‘safety’, and others make statements that vague and occasionally ludicrous. I have included all these restaurants because my mission is to alert you to all your options — the decisions are up to you.

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Cinco de Mayo, a celebration of the America’s Mexican heritage, is a happy day for everyone, particularly since tequila and many tacos are gluten free. Watch these videos about gluten free tacos, gluten free enchiladas, and gluten free quesadillas.

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People who live gluten free need to understand the idea of parts-per-million. Some examples: One part per million is the equivalent of one inch in sixteen miles, one minute in two years, or one automobile in a line of cars stretching bumper-to-bumper from Cleveland to San Francisco.

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We are all waiting for the Food and Drug Administration’s announcement of America’s definition of “gluten fee”. Some of us are waiting eagerly and hopefully — some of us agree with the person who wrote that these rules “…about to make me and a lot of other people really sick.” I don’t agree with either group.

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Hopefully, the United States will soon have an official definition of ‘gluten free’. I say hopefully because the definition is already five years overdue! Anyway, a major point-of-contention in the new regulations is that food items that contain less than 20 ppm (parts-per-million) of toxic gluten can be labeled ‘gluten free’.

The 20 ppm number is unlikely to change. Each of us must decide for ourselves how this number affects our gluten free lifestyle. We have complained that the absence of a definition made our lifestyle difficult. Will the new definition improve the situation?

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Yeast is gluten free, but yeast extract is occasionally made with barley malt which makes it off-limits to us!.

I wrote about yeast last summer and updated my article in response to a request from a member of America’s Gluten Free Community.
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Corn is subject to cross-contamination but is otherwise safe for use by people who live gluten free. This subject is a bit confusing because the terms ‘gluten’ and ‘corn gluten’ do not mean the same thing. This article explains the problem more fully. Which ever definition you accept, you’ll probably agree that the most important definition is the one used by the Food and Drug Administration and by virtually every expert in the field of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity. (Read points 6 and 7 carefully.)

There are other issues to consider:

♦ Remember to read every ingredients label carefully. A package using the word ‘corn’ in the title may contain toxic ingredients.

♦ Corn may cross-contaminated. To be absolutely safe, look for products that are labeled ‘gluten free’.

♦ You may have a reaction to corn that has nothing to do with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity.

Wheat is by far the most-used grain in the Americcan diet. Much of what we know about food and nutrition is based on the assumption that wheat will always be the grain-of-choice. We must now use different and unfamiliar grains. Here is some information that will help with the transition.

♦ Which grains are gluten free? amaranth / buckwheat / brown rice / corn / millet / oats /quinoa / sorham / teff / <wheat>

(I have arranged the lists that follow atarting with the item that has the least amount to the highest amount. I have included wheat in each list for comparison.)

♦ Calorie count for gluten free grains. buckwheat /  corn & oats  / <wheat> / quinoa / teff / brown rice / sorgum / amaranth / millet

♦ Fat count of gluten free grains. <wheat> &  teff / brown rice / buckwheat & sorghum / corn & millet / quinoa / oats / amaranth

♦ Sodium content of gluten free grains. buckwheat & oats / <wheat> / millet / sorghum / brown rice / quinoa / teff / amaranth / corn

♦ Carbohydrates in gluten free grains.  oats and millet and buckwheat  / quinoa / buckwheat / corn / amaranth / <wheast> / teff /brown rice

♦ Fiber in gluten free grains. brown rice / quinoa / corn and sorghum / buckwheat and millet and oats / amaranth / <wheat> / teff

♦ Protein in gluten free grains.  corn / quinoa and millet and sorghum / buckwheat / teff / oats / amaranth / <wheat>

At least 91 restaurant chains promise gluten free service! Their names are listed on my power page “Gluten Free Restaurant Choices” with convenient links to them. (Find the page by looking in the sidebar.) These are not recommendations — my mission is to give you alternatives that will help you make your own decisions.

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Domino’s allegedly gluten free pizza was recently subjected to laboratory testing. You probably recall the uproar that ensued when Domino’s announced that they had developed a gluten free pizza crust but that — because of cross-contamination issues — pizzas made with these crusts were not recommended  for celiacs or persons with severe gluten intolerance.

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This is an updated list of events and expositions that serve America’s gluten free community by providing classes, workshops, samples of gluten free food, and opportunity to talk with others who live gluten free. Each entry includes the date, the city in which the event occurs which is also a link to the website that will provide more information.

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Your St. Patrick’s Day celebration will revolve around  people, food, and beer.

Corn beef is almost always gluten free. To be absolutely certain, check out this article which lists the brands that promise ‘safe’ products on their website.

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People who live gluten free can adapt relatively easily to the Paleolithic diet, since both diets excludes wheat, barley, and rye. The paleolithic diet also prohibits milk, refined sugar, refined salt, and all other items that were not part of our diet before settled down and “invented” agriculture.

These recipes are all gluten free even those words may not be included in the title.

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A member of our church has decided to “go gluten free” during Lent. I told her that I had been gluten free for 12 years and never thought about celiac disease and Lenten observance in the same breath. She had some health concerns that might indicate a need remain to live gluten free for the rest of her life, so I reminded her that it would difficult to get accurate results after being on the diet for forty days. I wished her ‘good luck’ and let it go at that.

I thought more about this later. I don’t really think of the gluten free diet as “giving something up”. For me, the diet is a blessing. The absence of pain is powerful motivation. It’s better now, since the food is no longer tasteless (at best), hard to find, and incredibly expensive.

I don’t think of the gluten free diet as a temporary way to develop self-discipline — it’s a lifelong commitment. People can deal with almost anything for 40 days.

I’m looking forward to talking to this person after Easter. She’s given me some interesting things to think about concerning the gluten free diet and the appropriate observance of Lent.

Google now offers two ways to search for gluten free restaurant meals and other essentials of gluten free living.

♦  The traditional way  is called “Google Search” and appropriately enough involves entries like “gluten free pizza restaurants New Jersey”.

♦ The newer method , called “Google Maps”, requires the same type of entry,  but the results are placed on a map that pinpoints the exact location of potential restaurants, bakeries or whatever you have specified.

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Which supermarkets are best for people who live gluten free?  A  supermarket is almost always  less expensive than a health store or any other specialty store. Also, supermarkets are keenly in competition with each other and usually provide ‘special deals’ of one sort or another every week. Many supermarkets publish shopping lists or other information for people who require gluten free.

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Virtually every elementary classroom has a Valentines party. There are many uncer- tainties in the life of a child, but every gluten free child and every parent knows that this is a good time to send a treat to scho0l. When preparing a ‘treat’, I think it is best to send something truly different, not one of the standard goodies doctored up to be gluten free. For example, you could send gluten free cookies that imitate traditional Oreo. But children will compare your cookies to the wheat-based ones and many of them will decide that they prefer “the real thing”. However, if you prepare these banana split cupcakes, the kids will probably enjoy them — they taste great and there is nothing to compare them to.

Here’s a list of gluten free candies that might be helpful in planning your gluten free Valentines celebration.