From a celebration planners point-of-view, the spookiest thing about Halloween is that there are more than 27 million references to it on the google search engine. This is my 22nd effort to write about it. TMI (too  much information) makes our task more difficult.

However, since Halloween will be celebrated next week, I thought that I should say something. So I updated my best article on the subject. You may wish to check it out. I’ve also linked you the best suggestion I have ever read about how to fill a trick-or-treat bag. The article is about Easter baskets but the principle is exactly the same.

Morgan Freeman is not dead, despite the announcement that appeared on the internet on August 27.  The Facebook page titled “RIP Morgan Freeman” is still posted on internet and is still receiving comments from people who are learning for the first time about Freeman’s alleged demise. (I checked the site yesterday.)

Situations like this are a nightmare for people like me who strive to present accurate and useful information on the internet. It’s bewildering for people who rely on (or merely hope that they can rely on) that information.

Virtually everyone who has responded to this horrible incident have labelled it a cruel hoax. There is another possible explanation — it may have been an honest mistake that got that got totally out-of-control. Perhaps a Morgan Freeman fan believed (for some reason) that Morgan Freeman was dead. Instead of confirming this rumor, he or she ran to the computer and expressed frustration or anger. Suddenly, this preposterous story had a life of its own. The real problem: someone passed on information that he or she had not confirmed.

This happens in the gluten free world. People refuse to eat buckwheat because they are unaware that it is not a type of wheat. People refuse to use any type of vinegar because they are unaware that experts have concluded that distillation eliminates gluten. I could site hundreds of other examples.

The moral of this story: read ingredient labels DEFENSIVELY, study websites DEFENSIVELY, listen DEFENSIVELY, be wary when you make a decision to dine at a particular restaurant. In my case, it means to WRITE DEFENSIVELY and THINK CAREFULLY before I release my words on the internet.

Obviously, this is an editorial and these are my personal opinions.

Have a great week.

I salute Giant Foods for including this important reminder on their website even though I do not agree with it fully. I will quote the full statement and then comment on it.

“Following a strict gluten-free diet when not medically prescribed poses a significant risk for inadequate intake of folic acid, B vitamins, iron, calcium, vitamin D and fiber. Your physician can order testing to determine if you have celiac disease and need to follow a gluten-free diet. As with any health related condition, consult your physician first, prior to any dietary changes.”

I’ll repeat the statement including my opinions in parentheses: “Following a strict gluten-free diet when not medically prescribed poses a significant risk for inadequate intake of folic acid, B vitamins, iron, calcium, vitamin D and fiber. [These difficulties can be overcome with effort and study. Most diets are dangerous if a person simply jumps into them without guidance and/our professional advice.]

Your physician can order testing to determine if you have celiac disease and need to follow a gluten-free diet. [A diagnosis of  celiac disease  indicate that a life-long commitment to the gluten free diet is required. A negative test for celiac disease does no rule out the possibility that some form of the gluten free diet might be helpful for some period of time. Getting tested for celiac disease is an important first step, but the final decision is up to the individual.]

Obviously, these are my personal opinions. I’m publishing this on Sunday and am planning to post a different editorial each week. I’d love to reactions to these ideas. my e-mail address is gfceliac@gmail.com or leave a comment at the bottom of this page.

Yesterday,  September 18, Lady Gaga and her handlers announced that the entertainer had ‘switched’ to a gluten free diet. Click here to read the full text of the press release followed by one writer’s reaction to the announcement.

Here is part of his reaction:  “… I can’t stand the fact that gluten free has become a fad. I feel part of some lame pack of sheep. … when gluten was pretty much unknown outside the celiac world I never felt stupid or awkward.” The blogger includes several relevant comments and criticisms in his post. I disagree with blogger in one regard. We had *&%(./ we’d better ‘stand what is happening’ and do something to correct the situation. Problems like this are not going to go away. This is particularly important to me as a celiac and a journalist who writes about gluten free topics. Also, we need to consider the possibility that Lady Gaga is one of the millions of undiagnosed celiacs that are suffering needlessly in our society. I have a few questions:

• according to the press release, Lady Gaga states that she ‘switched’ to the gluten free diet. What was her diet prior to this transition?
• was any physician or other health professional involved in her decision ?
• what health care professional will monitor her gluten free diet?
• Lady Gaga states that her goal is to drop ten pounds. What will her diet be like after she has achieved that goal?

Dana Vollmer won the gold medal in women’s 100 meter butterfly stroke swimming at the London Olympics two days ago  (July 29, 2012 to be exact) and set a new world’s speed record in the process. Quite an an accomplishment for a person with gluten sensitivity or gluten allergy (the reports I’ve read do not agree), an egg allergy, and a heart condition so serious that her mom carried a portable defibrillator to some of her first swim meets. Thanks, Dana, for demonstrating that anyone can do anything if they have the courage, the perseverance, and the support needed to do so. I’ll probably write more about her. For now, read this article and/or this one to learn more about this gluten free champion. Remember that wheaties are not everybody’s breakfast of champions.

Traveling with children is an adventure, particularly when any or all members of the family live gluten free. Here are the titles of several articles with suggestions for increasing the chances of an adventure rather than a disaster:

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Better Batter, a manufacturer of gluten free flour and mixes, offers special discounts to families of autistic children as well as families on limited incomes. To get more information, families need to submit a simple application along with documentation of their situation.

This is the year of the gluten free staycation, a time when we take time to enjoy our home and our community. The conventional vacation usually requires a lot of planning time, a great deal of energy, and a financial burden that is very difficult these days.

Here are four articles by bloggers writing about their staycations. Since the titles are very similar, I’ll just suggest that you click here and/or here and/or here and/or here to get ideas about what your staycation might involve.

I was pleased to find this list on the website “Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures“. It’s called “Year of the Staycation: Hundreds of Ways to Enjoy Your City on a Budget” and a list of hundreds of articles about different areas and ways to enjoy them during a staycation.

When you’re planning your Fourth of July celebration, consider these factors:

1. The Budget. Unfortunately, this controls most of what we do these days. The key phrase partying on a budget is to emphasize naturally gluten free food.

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Domino’s Pizza is now marketing a pizza crust labeled “gluten free” but not recommended for celiacs or anyone else who follows a strict interpretation of the gluten free diet! Good grief! What happened? Three distinct groups are involved in this ‘hassle’.

♦ Here’s what the Domino’s website has to say:

◊ Domino’s always uses the term “gluten free crust” rather than “gluten free pizza”. Some peoples reporting on this situation apparently do not understand the difference between those terms.

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Gluten free restaurant meals and food products  are available in most parts of Alaska:

♦  ANCHORAGE / Ling and Louie’s Asian Bar and Grill / has a gluten free menu

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Have you ever eaten a meal that was totally gluten free? The only honest answer to that question is “I doubt it.”  There are no measurement devices able to detect the total absence of gluten. If anyone develops one, it will be a scientific curiosity rather than a useful tool. The experts agree that “free” in this case means “free enough to be safe”.

A  food is considered “gluten free” if it contains less than twenty parts-per-million. (FYI: One part-per-million is the equivalent of one inch in sixteen miles or one second in two years.) America’s Food and Drug Administration has not ruled on this subject but seems to be leaning in that direction.

In practical terms, our goal is to do everything we possibly can to reduce our intake of gluten but not to be overly concerned about the few specks of gluten we might be accidentally consuming.

Unfortunately, we need to use the term “gluten free” rather than a more accurate term like “gluten safe” simply because most of the people we are talking to will understand even less well than they do now. A more pressing problem is that the computer search engines tell us the most commonly-used terms, not necessarily the ones that are most accurate. Entering the term “gluten safe” will generate very few responses.

The way we use words affects how we view life, how we make decisions, and how people react to us. I am beginning a series that I am calling “Gluten Free Jargon” which I will publish every-other-day until I run out of terms that cause confusion. My next article will be about the word “gluten” which, believe it or not, means different things to different people.

Things are bad enough in a disaster situation. Living in an emergency shelter is hard enough, we don’t need the added complications of abandoning our gluten free diet. Today (April 15, 2012) the problem is tornadoes — who knows what we will face next week!

My wife and I have made the decision to lay in a supply of various types of gluten free pasta. We will mark the purchase date on each package, and eat the items in the order they were purchased. At all time, we will keep enough gluten free pasta on-hand to last at least a month.

Every family’s decision about disaster planning is unique. Here are some of the factors that led us to our decision:

• We both enjoy gluten free pasta, although my wife is able to use other types of pasta. It is very unlikely that anyone will be “caught” in our house by an unepected disaster would have a problem ‘surviving’ on gluten free pasta.
• Gluten free pasta is relatively inexpensive and we would be purchasing it anyway. Our decision simply means that we will be buying it sooner.
• Gluten free pasta has a long shelf-life especially if the packages are unopened and everything is kept dry.
• Pasta is reasonably in-expensive.
• Pasta is relatively easy to cook and the procedures for avoiding cross-contamination are fairly straight forward: prepare our gluten free pasta before cooking other pasta in the same water, use a freshly-cleaned colander.
• We live at a high enough altitude that there is no concern about flooding. Range fires will probably not occur. There is some possibility of being snowed-in. Power failures have never been a problem in our area.

Athletes who live gluten free fall into two categories. Last week I wrote about people who live gluten free AND do not let this interfere with their goal of becoming championship athletes

Today I will write about a second group: people who did not have (or at least did not recognize that they had) symptoms of gluten sensitivity or celiac disease. However, they believed that the gluten free diet would give them more speed, stamina, or whatever it took to excel in their particular sport.

There is certainly overlap between the two groups. Some people in the first group must suspect that the gluten free was giving them much more than relief from their symptoms. The second group, like any other group, contains undiagnosed celiac. Many people in that group became better athletes simply because they felt better.

Perhaps the most important distinction is that people who identify with the first group have a lifetime commitment to a rather strict definition of the gluten free diet. Members of the second group follow the diet only to the extent that it helps them excel athletically.

The best discussion I’ve seen about these issues is in a two-part article titled “Is There a Performance Benefit” posted at Gluten Free Fitness (dot com). Click here to read the second part of the article.

Many award-winning athletes live gluten free. These award winners fall into two (or perhaps three) categories:

♦ People with gluten intolerance, gluten sensitivity, or celiac disease who have not allowed their ‘situation’ to interfere with their successful athletic careers. (Let’s call this group The Gluten Free Champions)

♦ People who believe that a gluten free diet gives them an ‘extra boost’ — greater strength or speed or whatever is key to success in their sport. (Let’s call them the Gluten Free Diet Fanatics)

♦ Undiagnosed celiacs (and remember that most people with  gluten issues are not aware of them) who perform better simply because they are feeling better. (Frankly, I’m not sure what to call this group. I presume that most of them would identify with the second group)

Here are articles about five celiacs or people with gluten intolerance who have triumphed as athletes. I have listed them in alphabetical order:

• Kelly Baker, a female body builder who lives with celiac disease and can’t tolerate soy, nuts, or eggs.
• Kim Bouldin, a marathon runner
• Drew Beers, quarterback with New Orleans Saints
• Martin Fagan, world champion marathon runner
• James Stark, Green Bay Packer running back

“So, how is the gluten-free athlete able to get all the nutrients they need? Easy! They can get them the same way all the other athletes get theirs – thru carbs- eat whole grains and enriched gluten-free carbohydrate choices such as brown rice, quinoa, millet, buckwheat, wild rice, etc. For protein, choose naked, low fat meats such as poultry or eggs. Then get a nice balance of fruit and vegetables, along with healthy fats such as olive oil, fish, nuts and seeds” Thank you, Dr Schar, for a straight answer to this vital question.

Next week, I will write about the second group of athletes — the ones I call “The Gluten Free Diet Fanatics”.

People who live gluten free face some unique challenges. I’ve been happily married since before the internet existed and I can’t imagine anything more difficult than explaining my diet and lifestyle in a dating relationship. Gluten free singles need solutions.

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One person’s answer to the question “Why is gluten free food so expensive?“:  “It is greed, plain and simple. It costs more because they want to charge more. They charge more because they can … people will pay more for it and some people have no choice.”

The Gluten Free Guy’s response: We have choices about what foods we buy, where we purchase them, and how we prepare them. The best way to deal with greedy merchants is to avoid patronizing them.

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One reader’s question:  Why does Canada not consider oats a problem? Is it because of different growing/storage practices?

Paul’s comment: Oats are definitely a problem, but the official Canadian definition of gluten free specifies that it is a problem with a solution. Most exports agree that the problem is not the gluten in oats but that the fact that they are usually grown, harvested, and processed in close proximity to wheat, barley, or rye. Oats are considered “certified” if they have been grown and processed in such a way that adding them product does not cause the product to have more than the prescribed number of parts-per-million of  gluten.

The United States does not, as yet, have an official definition of “gluten” but our Food and Drug Administration seems to be going in that direction.

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This is the first in a series of articles that I am calling “Questions and Comments”.  I am using the word ‘comment’ rather than ‘answer’ because these articles will bring up question where there is not total agreement as to a single correct answer. I welcome your comment on my comment or about the  place of oats in the gluten free diet. E-mail me at gfceliac.com@gmail.com. I will publish “Questions and Comments” every Friday.

Easter, like every holiday, can be celebrated gluten free with a little bit of advance preparation. Of course, almost everything we do needs a bit of planning, but these articles will make it easier:

♦ The simplest way to side step the whole gluten free Easter basket issue is to fill the basket with non-edible items. This article is called “Fifty Ways to Fill an Easter Basket“ will tell you how. Keep a copy of this article and save a few of the non-edible items you bought for Easter — they’ll come in handy on Trick-or-Treat night in October.

♦ The title of this article speaks for itself: “A Fuss-Free, Gluten-Free Easter Dinner: a memorable meal with a gluten-free dairy-free twist“.

♦ Easter and other holidays frequently involve traveling and dining in homes that are not gluten free. This article is from “The Savvy Celiac”, one of my favorite websites, and with very minor revisions, is useful whenever people who live gluten free are traveling.  The article is titled “Easter Weekend Doesn’t Have to be a Gluten Free Nightmare“. The important ideas in this chapter apply to any weekend — with adequate planning, no weekend visit needs to be a nightmare.

My thanks to the 2300+ people who subscribe to our weekly newsletter. The newsletter was plagued by some nasty technical problems for the past three weeks, but was published successfully last Thursday. That newsletter was cluttered and hard to read because I was trying to address all the articles that have been posted since this fiasco began. Things will be better next Thursday and better yet in the very near future.

An article posted on the internet has two audience and the writer must satisfy both of them:

• The computers from the search engines scan the articles several times each day. If they are dissatisfied and confused (yes, computers get dissatisfied and confused) they bury the offending article at the bottom of a stack of hundreds or thousands of articles.

• When that happens, the human readers will probably never find them and they may see titles that are confusing or irrelevant. The function of our newsletter is to help you zero in on the information you need. Google, the biggest of search engines, indexes 53 million articles under the title ‘gluten free’. Our newsletter is a major tool finding the information you need. The task is not easy, but it is doable.

I encourage you to sign up for our newsletter using the widget in the write sidebar. There is no cost and you are welcome to unsubscribe if your computer inbox become impossibly overcrowded.

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We are still collecting information about which breakfast cereals are most popular with members of America’s gluten free community. Votes will be counted this Monday, so please respond today if you have not already done so. Completing the survey below should take no more than ten minutes.  Be sure to scroll down the page to see all your options. When you finish the survey, you will be able to vote without ever leaving this page.

These restaurants serve serve gluten free travelers and visitors in the state of Vermont. Unless otherwise stated, the link will give you access to the restaurant as well as to its gluten free menu.

♦ BATTLEBORO / Cai’s Dim Sum Teahouse and Catering / 802.579.9088

♦ BATTLEBORO / Fireworks Restaurant / 802.24.2073 / site states that gluten free pasta and pizza are available but gives no specific information

♦ BRANDON / Robert’s Cafe Provence / 802.247.9997

♦ BURLINGTON / Leunig’s Bistro and Cafe / 802.863.3759 click here for the gluten free menu.

♦ LYNDONVILLE / Juniper Restaurant / 802.626/8310

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Here are links to gluten free bakeries in Florida:

Cape Canaveral / The Bald Strawberry / 321.868.7100 / the kitchen is dedicated gluten free and is also dairy free.

Hollywood / Belly Hugs / 954.322.8291 / dedicated gluten free and casein free.

Miami Beach / Bite / 305.538.2483 / gluten free and dairy free.

Tampa / Gluten Free Goodies / 813.477.4347 / dedicated gluten free.

Tampa / Viitals / 813.443.4567 / gluten free cafe and bakery.

For information about bakeries in other states, click here.

These Denver restaurants post gluten free menus on their websites. Give them a try, enjoy your meal, and support America’s gluten free community by sharing your thoughts with us by adding a comment to this article:

730 SOUTH BAR AND GRILL posts gluten free menus for brunch, lunch, and dinner.

ABRUSCI’S posts both a gluten free dinner menu and a gluten free take out menu.

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Here are some ideas for Superbowl Sunday — which is not officially a holiday but certainly a day for gluten free food and fellowship. Since this most of this eating and drinking will take place in groups that include both people who live gluten free as well as wheat-eaters.

I wrote on this subject earlier this month and also the beginning of 2010 and 2011. I checked all the links and made the  necessary updates so that they will be helpful this year. I suggest you check them out if you will be host or a guest at a superbowl party

My recent post called “Battling Gluten Free Food Costs” generated three very thoughtful comments. As I always do, I attached the comments to the article that inspired them, but it seems to me that these inputs deserve close attention. I am reproducing the comments here and providing my reactions to them. I will use a green type font to emphasize the fact that they are personal opinions rather than facts.

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