Shirataki noodles are gluten free. They are also low calorie (40 calories for an 8 ounce serving) and  almost completely fiber. If you are not familiar with these ‘miracle noodles’, click here and/or here for general information. They are different in taste, texture, and aroma from  noodles that you may be familiar with, so it is probably a good idea to use recipes designed for use with them. Click here and/or here to view collections of recipes.

This product seems ideal for people who are trying to lose weight while maintaining your gluten free diet. For other weifht-loss suggestions, click on our “Gluten Free Weight Loss Diet” power page.

Be prepared for a challenge this Christmas, particularly if this is your first gluten free holiday season. You’ll be surrounded by family and friends that you have not seen since prior to your decision to go gluten free. Here are a few ideas that may help:

Feel free to use the term ‘allergy’, even though it is not technically correct. I usually say that I have a reaction to wheat, barley, and rye. That covers the matter without scaring people with the word ‘disease’. Besides, I don’t feel diseased. I just feel a guy who is on a rather strict diet but has absolutely no bad effects if I am faithful to my commitment to it. Even during the Christmas season!!!!

People sometimes ask me about my symptoms. I tell them what it does to my mental processes but seldom mention what it does to my gut and particularly my bowels. Rehearse your answer carefully. You’ll need it.

People will ask me whether they should try the gluten free diet. Answer: that’s a task for a physician or a dietician and in case this is not the time or place to talk about it. I do say that the gluten free diet has made a wonderfully positive difference in my life.

You may need to mention that the gluten free diet is one of the few diets where the goal  is total elimination. Most diets have a more modest goal: no one would endeavor to eliminates all calories from their diet — that would be extremely difficult and probably fatal.

Always carry “emergency rations” for use in cases where I can’t get a ‘safe’ meal. I don’t eat when I am too hungry. That is a temptation to relax your standards and eat questionable foods.

“My vote for the most important scientific revolution of all times would trace back 10,000 years to the Middle East, when people first noticed that new plants arise from seeds falling to ground from other plants….Once humans discovered the secret of seeds. the quickly learned to domesticate crops ultimately crossbreeding different plants to produce…wheat, rye, and barley…this advancement…came at a dear price: the emergence of an illness now known as celiac disease….” These are the opening sentences of an article from the Scientific American written by Dr. Alessio Fasano. It’s a fascinating article that covers the past, present, and future of our disease.

Celiac disease was described by Greek physicians in the 1st century A.D. They had no idea of the cause. It was not until 19th century before a British physician published his observations.

In 1888, Dr. Samuel Gee made the connection between diet and celiac disease but had no idea what dietary restrictions were needed.

In the 1920′s, Dr. Sydney Hass started treating celiac disease with a diet of bananas and rice. Click here to watch a video of an actual ‘banana baby’ speaking to a group of medical students. FYI, when I watched this video I vowed never to complain about the 2011 version of the gluten free diet.

Dr. Wilem Karle Dickey is credited with pinning down the connection between celiac disease and the consumption of wheat protein. His observations were later confirmed by the fact that symptoms of celiac disease practically disappeared during World War II when wheat was extremely rare in the Netherlands. The symptoms reappeared after the end of the war.

In the 1960′s, doctors began using biopsies to diagnose celiac disease. Fortunately, they discovered in the 80′s that the disease could be diagnosed with a single biopsy. Before that, three biopsies were required. There is another reason for rejoicing. Since I apparently must have celiac disease, it is good to be experiencing it in the 21st century.

Click here and/or here to read two more articles about the history of celiac disease. In researching this article, I discovered that celiac disease has a fascinating past, present, and future.

Gluten free living is both a diet and a lifestyle. Most of our actions are somehow related to our need to live gluten free. With this in mind, my time this week has been spent preparing a new power page “The Gluten Free Diet“.

Please check it out by using the tab at the top of the page or clicking on the link. You will be taken to what computer geeks call a ‘hub page’ and almost everyone else would call an ‘outline’ or ‘index’. There is so much information about our diet that it would be impossible to consolidate everything into a single article.

You’ll notice that some of the items in the outline are links to articles that may interest you. I am not attempting to write the articles in order and I am certainly not promising not to change the outline. What I am trying to do is make a power page that gives my visitors access to all the gluten free diet information that is available.

The Food and Drug Administration has requested input before define what foods can be labelled gluten free in the United States. Some of you have shared your thoughts with me to assist me in preparing a letter to the F.D.A. Here is a summary of what I believe you are saying. I’ll translate this into ‘legalese’ and submit everything before the October 2 deadline.

In reading your comments. I was most surprised by something that you did NOT say. The FDA seems to be determined to find a single number of parts-per-million of gluten that would determine what products would be allowed to be labeled ‘gluten free’. I disagree. We already have two national organizations that certify gluten free food. The Celiac Sprue Association requires < 5 parts per million and The Gluten Intolerance Group requires <10 ppm. I will recommend that these organizations be encouraged to continue their work and that the FDA set up a procedure for certifying foods containing <20 ppm. Thus, individuals have a choice.

Your comments to me suggested great concern over the problem of cross-contamination. The tests mentioned above can determine whether or not a specific sample is contaminated but can’t guarantee that the product is always safe. I will recommend to the FDA that they establish specific criteria for choosing which samples to test and how many samples must be tested.

Many of you were concerned about information (other than the labels mentioned above) should be included on a food package to make our choices easier and more accurate. This does not seem to be a major concern of the FDA, so I suggest that we approach this problem in a different way.

Many manufacturers are trying to recruit gluten free customers. Please e-mail me telling what you hope to see on packages. What information would make you more likely to purchase a gluten free product? I will organize your ideas into a survey, conduct that survey, and distribute it to manufacturers. Since I want to get this survey out as soon as possible, please send me your ideas before Thursday, October 6.

There are three different groups of people who follow the gluten free diet. The people in each group follow different versions of the gluten free diet. I created these groups in my mind to simplify my task of writing about gluten free topics.

GROUP 1: MEDICALLY DIAGNOSED CELIACS. Traditionally, the gluten free diet is a prescription for persons diagnosed with celiac disease, an auto-immune disease in which the body reacts to certain proteins found in wheat, barley, and rye. Celiac disease is incurable in the strict sense of the word, but sufferers become symptom-free as soon as their system becomes gluten free. Since celiac disease is incurable, the gluten free diet is a life-long commitment to a very strict diet

GROUP 2: THE GLUTEN INTOLERANT OR GLUTEN SENSITIVE. These two terms mean pretty-much the same thing. Both refer to people who do not exhibit the meet the criteria for celiac disease but do experience unpleasant symptoms when they consume gluten. These people need to avoid all gluten but may or may not need to do so for the rest of their lives.

GROUP 3: PEOPLE WHO ELECT TO BE GLUTEN FREE. This group of people have no adverse reactions to gluten but feel that avoiding gluten makes it easier for them to lose weight, increases their strength and vitality, gives them a more positive outlook on life, or makes them members of a highly attractive group of people. These people are able to pick and chose which parts of the gluten free diet they will follow.

Thanks to your comments, I realized that there were three additional groups of people who follow the gluten free diet. Click here to read about them.

Traditionally, the gluten free diet was a prescription for treating celiac disease, gluten intolerance, and gluten sensitivity (in other words, for the people in the first two groups.) Few, if any, people went on the gluten free diet voluntarily. The food was tasteless (at best), horribly expensive, and very difficult to find. Fortunately, things are getting much better.

Many people believe that the gluten free diet should be limited to celiacs, people who are gluten intolerant, or those who are gluten sensitive. Because my purpose is to provide information and NOT to give advice or make judgments, I will provide information about the gluten free diet to everyone who seeks it.

Please click here for a summary of all the information related to the gluten free diet. You can also visit this page by using the tab at the top of the page.

“There is a sizable, but still decided minority population that can benefit in terms of feeling better by excluding gluten, entirely or mostly, from their diets. There is a population–an order of magnitude smaller — for which it is vital to do so, and potentially even a matter of life and death. For everyone else, going gluten free is at best a fashion statement.”

First of all, this author is not claiming that our diet is a fad, he is just saying that some people are using it for the wrong reasons. I agree completely. He also points out that wheat is evolved in the past million years from a wild plant with seeds so small that our ancestors probably never noticed them or considered eating them. After centuries of cultivation, wheat developed into a plant with larger seeds and more gluten. Plants evolve faster than humans. Some of us are able to digest gluten, some of us are not.

Another article begins with the sentence “A gluten free diet is as trendy as the latest purse.” I disagree with that statement, but the important thing to consider what all this means to people like us whose health and wellness depend on the gluten free diet?

People like Oprah Winfrey and Gweneth Paltrow have gone on a short-term “gluten free detox”. At least they are acknowledging that gluten is a problem. They certainly got lots of publicity for their efforts, but was the detox helpful in any way? A detox is much different from my lifetime commitment to total abstinence from gluten.

I’ve read articles about people who are ‘cutting down’ on gluten. ‘Cutting down’ is not the same thing as ‘totally eliminating’. Is ‘cutting down’ helpful?

What does all this excitement mean to us? It means that more gluten free food will appear on our store shelves and on our restaurant menus. The taste will probably improve and the price will probably drop. But will all these items be labeled correctly?

The bad news is that our hosts and personnel in restaurants may become less concerned about cross-contamination. This precautions are totally unnecessary when serving someone perceived to be on a fad diet.

Another potential problem is that people who are having problems staying gluten free may give up and justify their behavior by saying “it’s only a fad”.

There are more questions than answers in this article. The gluten free diet is grounded in scientific facts, but there are issues that are matters of personal decision. I’ll write about these issues every Monday. Have a great week.

When I was diagnosed in 1999, the gluten free diet was the prescription used to control celiac disease. Since that time, there has been a dramatic change, brought on in part by the increased availability of gluten free food and the vastly improved taste and texture. When this website started in 2002, it was inconceivable that anyone would embrace the gluten free lifestyle if they had any viable option.

Earlier this month, I posted an article titled “Two Approaches to the Gluten Free Diet“, in which I stated that there are two groups of gluten free dieters;

• some people need the gluten free diet to control celiac disease (I am in that category).
• some people elect to follow the gluten free diet because it is popular, well-publicized, and allegedly helps with weight loss.

I have recently realized that is a third group:

• some people pick-and-choose, selecting  gluten free products when it is convenient to do so. These people argue that cutting down is better than doing nothing.

These people folks argue that reducing the amount of hard-to-digest is a great idea and that doing something is better than doing nothing. It is hard to disagree with this argument, but I think there is a danger here. They may be doing  just enough to mask symptoms and that is never a good idea. Obviously, that last sentence is strictly Paul’s Point-of-View and should be regarded as such. Here are some more of my thoughts:

All this makes no difference to me because I know that I am in the first group. I know that my function as the author of this website is to present information about what food is and is not gluten free. People are welcome to make any adjustments or changes that seems to fit their situations.

The thoughts expressed in this article came to me while I was working on our current survey about how we deal with persons who are considering adopting the gluten free lifestyle. I’ll be announcing the results in my newsletter this Thursday (6/23) and introducing July’s survey the following week (6/30). If you haven’t had a chance to be part of the Click here to take survey You will see nine comments that might be addressed to someone who is thinking about going gluten free and asking you to mark the comments you consider appropriate.

Traditionally, the gluten free diet has been considered the treatment for those with celiac disease. Now, our diet has a much broader following. The experts disagree. Where do you stand? To find out, I have prepared a survey that I urge you to complete. In my survey, I am imagining that a non-celiac friend is considering the gluten diet and is asking your opinion. I’ve listed nine possible responses and asked which ones you consider appropriate. I am attempting to find out what gluten free people actually do rather than what they say. I will tabulate the results at the end of the month. Please click here to complete the survey.

Since ‘My Plate’ was announced less than 48 hours ago, reactions are tentative and vague. Most of the comments I read suggest that this is not a new diet but rather improved teaching tool. And everyone agrees that a new teaching tool was desperately needed — American’s were simply not getting the message. The newly-announced diet says a great deal about the importance of whole grains, but does not require (or even suggest) that wheat must be the grain-of-choice. Perhaps it is significant that the White House chef chose demonstrate this new approach to dieting by preparing a meal using whole grain brown rice.

I’ll be writing much more about ‘My Plate’ in the very near future. I have successfully followed the gluten free diet for a decade. Now I need a diet and a lifestyle that is both gluten free and healthy in all other respects.

People living gluten free are searching for “healthy eating regimens that include all aspects of diet and nutrition and are appropriate for people living gluten free”. That was the main conclusion of the survey we conducted February, 2010. I agree completely, and my wife’s recent heart attack has given me the motivation to pursue this idea I began my research by getting some background information in an article published by the Virginia Department of Health. I found nothing in this article that precludes people from following a diet that is both gluten free and heart healthy. The American Heart Association  has established a set of goals which they call “The Simple Seven”. They are determine to change the ugly reality that only 1% of the population has optimal heart health. I recently took their “Life Assessment Check“, a computer-scored test that summarizes a person’s current heart health status and suggests appropriate changes. I’ll share the results with you in my next article.

If you can’t find this great guidebook locally, click on the graphic at the top of the article.

“The Food and Drug Association (FDA) is in the process of developing standards for foods labeled ‘gluten free’.” This sentence was copied from a post published in 2007. Most of the people reading this article literally can’t wait for them to finish that process.

I understand the government’s problem here. They are working under several constraints:

♦ The terms themselves.

→  ‘Gluten free’ should mean the total absence of gluten. The experts agree that everyone can tolerate minute quantities of gluten. The finest instruments can’t detect the total absence of gluten. To complicate matters, we’re only talking about the gluten in wheat, barley, and rye. The glutens in corn, rice, and other grains are absolutely OK.

→ The terms ‘gluten free’ and  ‘wheat free’ don’t mean the same thing. For example: wheat free beer is readily available. Barley is the culprit here. Many cereals are wheat free but are contain malt flavoring which is made from barley.

→ The term ‘cross contamination’ is unfortunate. ‘Contamination” implies that something is unclean or unsanitary. In the gluten free world, it simply means that otherwise gluten free food has come into contact with food that we can’t handle. For example: potatoes are a vegetables and therefore naturally gluten free. They are unacceptable if they cooked in a deep fat fryer that has also been used for cooking breaded onion rings.

We are stuck with these terms. They are part of our vocabulary. They are the words that people will use as when we are searching the internet.

I will continue this article tomorrow. There are still more hassles involved in making our personal decisions about gluten free living and in writing an official and legally enforceable definition. I will also include my personal definition in my weekly newsletter. If you’re interested in my newsletter, check out the first box in the sidebar at the right.

No!!!!! Gluten free foods contain just as many calories, carbs, sugar, and fats as wheat based food. This article from The Wall Street Journal does a great job of debunking the myth that the gluten free diet is a panacea for people who go gluten free for the sole purpose of shedding pounds. (I suggest that you read and possibly copy this article as soon as possible. My experience is that The Wall Street Journal does keep its articles posted on-line very long.)

The Wall Street Journal is not suggesting that celiacs can’t lose weight on the gluten free diet. There are certainly foods that are both gluten free and helpful in losing weight. A person living gluten free must identify those foods that are both “safe” and low in calories (or fat or carbohydrates or sugar) but there is no need for non-celiacs to place that extra burden on themselves.

My Power Page “The Gluten Free Weight Loss Diet” summarizes all the information I have about losing weight while maintaining a gluten free diet. You can also get information by scrolling down to the bottom of this page (past the advertisements) and click on the red tag that says lose weight gluten free. Clicking on that tag will take you to a page giving brief excerpts from my articles on this subject. Click to read the entire article.

Living gluten free often results in misunderstandings and confusion. Sometimes it may lead to family conflict just as it did in the situation that led to this e-mail I recently received:

“The family members or friends who REFUSE to comply due to whatever reason (ignorance, stupidity, apathy, unloving), should be given all necessary information about Celiac Disease in writing along with a brief explanation of how sick you get if you eat gluten products. If they seem to understand, good. But if they don’t, then meet with them one-on-one to more fully describe how VERY sick you get and exactly what happens to you, plus add the possible effects of malnutrition, cancer….whatever gets their attention. If they still won’t comply, tell them you are very sorry that you cannot attend future dinners, parties, events, holidays at their home due to their non-compliance. Then just don’t go there to eat. It should only take one time before they get it. O the other hand, you could just eat first and not eat any of the food and do not enter the kitchen. My mother-in-law refuses to comply so we do not eat at her house ever and when she comes into our house with food, we just hand it back to her and ask her to leave. If she leaves food in the house that she has brought for us to eat, we throw it down the garbage disposal. Some people are only able to think of themselves no matter what you tell them.”

My personal reaction to this is the writer is responsible for his or her diet (unless there are some very special circumstances that are not mentioned in this letter). The people involved in this conflict have a double-edged problem — curing the physical wounds caused by celiac disease and the emotional wounds caused this family dispute. I pray for them in both situations. I was rather lucky: the two principle cooks our family (my wife and daughter-in-law) watched me fall apart from celiac disease and will never allow me to cheat. My symptoms are serious enough that I will never cheat intentionally. In some respects, having serious celiac symptoms is a blessing.

I’d love to publish your ideas about this subject and/or accounts where the gluten free diet has resulted in serious conflicts. E-mail me at gfceliac@gmail.com or leave a comment at the end of this article.

The Savvy Celiac, one of my favorite celiac friendly blogs, recently coined the term Gluten Free Entitlement, thus assigning a name to a problem that I have been experiencing since my diagnosis. I can’t shake the idea that gluten free food is good for me IN ANY QUANTITY. It is OK for me to gorge on food, as long as I am pigging out on gluten free food.

That idea is wrong for at least two different reasons: If I consume too many calories, I will gain weight. The absence of gluten is essential, of course, but I need to think about calories, vitamins and minerals, roughage, and other things. If I’m feeling bad because I attended a party where I could not eat the birthday cake, it is not OK for me to go home and consume four gluten free glazed doughnuts to make myself feel better.

The second reason to banish the idea of Gluten Free Entitlement is that all food that is not gluten free contains trace amounts of gluten. One safe cupcake is great — a dozen of them might contain enough gluten to cause a reaction.

In a way, I am being too hard myself and on at least some of you. My feelings of Gluten Free Entitlement go back ten years to those dark days following my diagnosis. My prayer was for a meal that did not make me sick, was different from the last several meals that I had eaten, and didn’t taste too much like cardboard. Those days are gone, and my point-of-view needs to change with the times. I think that giving this problem a name — gluten free entitlement — will help me.

Many of us face the challenge of living gluten free and controlling calories. Here are several links that might help meet that challenge:

• I’m not sure how RecipeZaar defines “low calorie”, but they have over 6000 recipes indexed as both “gluten free” and “low calorie”.

• Read this review of the lower calorie doughnuts from Kinnikinnck. Note that these doughnuts are described as “lower calorie” instead of “low calorie”.

• You may wish to check out this recipe for gluten free low calorie poppy seed cakes, and/or this recipe  for ““fruity rice cakes”.

The six cookbooks shown in the carousel below all include the “calorie count” for each of their recipes. This should help any cook who is attempting to meat the dual challenge of eating gluten free and counting calories. Click on the book cover for more information or to purchase them from Amazon.com.

Three distinct groups of people follow the gluten free diet:

• People who have been diagnosed with celiac sprue. This is a hereditary auto-immune disease that causes the body to react to gluten as if it were a poison. There is no cure for celiac disease and the only prescription is a lifelong adherence to the gluten free diet. The disease causes damage that is observable in a biopsy of the intestines. The sufferer may or may not have obvious symptoms. Many celiacs are asymptomatic. They were diagnosed because close blood relatives have celiac disease and warned family members of the need to be tested.

• People who experience painful symptoms generally described as gluten intolerance, gluten sensitivity, or gluten allergy. People in this category need to understand fully that they may have celiac disease and that it difficult and painful to diagnose a person who has already begun the gluten free diet. People in this category face an interesting dilemna: some of them assume that they have celiac disease and make a life-long commitment to the gluten free diet. Others assume that all they need to do is to eliminate enough gluten from their diet to control the symptoms.

• People who feel healthier, more energetic, and happier when  they live gluten free. These people’s choice to go gluten free is totally voluntary and can be changed at will. Many people in the first two categories regard these people as food faddists who downgrade the importance of the gluten free diet. We must all agree that they increase that they increase the number of gluten free products available.

This article is different from most of what I have written  in that it reflects my thoughts and observations. I have not linked you any “experts”. I’m anxious to know how you react to these ideas and will certainly publish your reactions to them. Leave a “reply” at the end of this article or e-mail me at gfceliac@gmail.com.

What does the term "gluten free" mean? This question is not as straight-forward as it sounds. The competing definitions are all expressed in parts-per-million (ppm), so I had better start by defining that term: one part-per-million is the equivalent of 1 penny in $10,000 or 1 minute in 2 years. Have a look at this article if you need more examples before we proceed.

The World Health Organization defines a gluten free product contain no more than 20 ppm of gluten. Our Food and Drug Administration uses the same definition at least tentatively; the new regulations have not yet become official. I suggest that you read both the articles I have linked you to. There is much more to each definition.

These definitions are not based on medical evidence that it is OK to consume products with 20 ppm gluten. As our Food and Drug Administration explains it, "current analytic technology can reliably and consistently detect gluten in wheat, rye, and barley at 20 ppm".

Both our national gluten intolerance support groups have stricter standards. To be certified "gluten free" by the Gluten Intolerance Group, a product must contain more than 10 ppm of gluten. The Celiac Sprue Association requires no more than 5 ppm for its "seal of recognition".

Which number is best? Lower is better than higher of course, but there are trade offs. By lowering the number, we decrease the variety of foods that can be declared "gluten free" and almost certainly increase the cost and inconvenience of the gluten free diet.

I recall hearing a speaker once who challenged us with the question : "have you ever eaten a totally gluten free meal?" He  finally convinced us that the only appropriate answer is "I don’t know" since there is no scientific way to verify the total absense of gluten. At best, gluten free means "free from danger".

There you are — armed with at least some of the facts that you need to make decisions. Good luck.

Published 1/25/09