I recently received this letter from a newcomer to the gluten free diet.:

“…have been on the gluten free diet for only three weeks and am starting to feel much better. My problem is to figure out which products are gluten free and which are not. Products that are labelled “gluten free” [are not a problem] but what about products such as mayonnaise, peanut butter, etc. etc. Are there key words to look for? I find it a very confusing world.”

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I have a long list of gluten free New Year’s resolutions, some pertaining to my gluten free live style, many pertaining to this website, and more related to my personal life.

Click here for a great list of gluten free New Years resolutions. The problem is to make sure that your resolutions turn out to be something more than ‘To-Do” lists for the first couple of weeks of January. Most resolutions fail miserably. I want this year to be different. When I began researching this subject I had no idea that my thoughts would end up on this site. Anyway, here we go.

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Here’s some ideas about how to show hospitality to your gluten free guests this holiday season:

• If you are using computer search engines to plan your meal, use the terms ‘holiday’, ‘Christmas’, and ‘Thanksgiving’. As far as meal planning is concerned, you will get more relevant information but most of that information will apply to all holidays.
• Don’t cook the stuffing inside the turkey. That way, you don’t have to prepare dressing in a way that makes it gluten free.
• Use cornstarch instead of flour to thicken the gravy. Your gluten free guests will appreciate the gesture and your other guests will not know the difference.
• If you are cooking gluten free, don’t try to imitate wheat-based dishes. Find something  ‘different’. People like what they are used to eating. It is almost impossible to make wheat based food that tastes exactly like gluten free food. Don’t try. Focus on foods that provide little opportunity for comparison.
• Your gluten free guest will probably need reassurance. Keep in mind that your guest is not questioning your judgment or your level of concern.
• If you are serving gluten free snacks or appetizers, make them finger-food wherever possible. This lessens the chance that snacks will be contaminated by implements that have been used with wheat based food.
• Your gluten free guests will probably bring ‘emergency rations’ for use in situations where ‘safe’ food may be inaccessible. We all do that.
• Your gluten free guest may not eat a great deal. We have all been conditioned to avoid temptation by not coming to the dinner table excruciatingly hungry.
• Be assured that being ‘glutened’ is very uncomfortable but is not dangerous unless it happens repeatedly. We’ve all been there.

If this is your first gluten free Christmas, I wish you well. You will face challenges! Hopefully these ideas will help you meet them successfully.

Remember that many of the people at your holiday meal will be hearing about celiac disease and the gluten free diet for the first time. I like to stress that my celiac disease has absolutely no symptoms if I stay on the diet. Most people can “suspend” their diet for one meal. I have no intention of doing so.

Don’t swallow the myth that there is some magic bullet that will make this Christmas dinner exactly like last year’s dinner with all the gluten removed. The taste and texture of many foods is affected by the ingredients used. Eating gluten free food “takes some getting used to” but it is certainly possible. (FYI, this was not true when I was diagnosed 12 years ago.)

Emphasize that celiac disease is serious but not that serious. I’m thinking about my youngest granddaughter who has a severe allergy to peanuts. She always carries medication that will keep her alive until we get her to an Emergency Room.

Don’t surprise your host or hostess. They are already under enough stress.

Bring a dish to share. Some people will be curious enough to try it. Bring something unique and unusual. Don’t try to imitate gluten-containing food. People will make comparisons. The gluten based food will inevitably ‘win’ because it is what most people are used to. Incidentally, I did not say to bring something for yourself. That just increases the sense of isolation.

Don’t use the word ‘cross contamination’. It is really offensive to a fastidious host and does not really describe what you are talking about. ‘Cross contact’ is a much more useful term.

Don’t cheat. You will spoil or at least damage your holiday experience. Your relatives and friends will make assumptions about how to deal with you at the next family gathering. They need to see that Celiac Disease is an issue but not an unsolvable problem.

Everything I have just said is personal opinion based on twelve years experience. You may wish to check out these three articles based on the experiences of others. Click here and/or here and/or here.

Yesterday I recommended several books and videos to celiac or gluten intolerant people to assist them with thriving during the holiday season. There are two sides to this coin, of course, so here are three articles recommended for persons who entertaining or hosting people who live gluten free:

♦Showing Hospitality to a Gluten Free Guest“. This article includes a short and easy-to-understand explanation of celiac disease and its implications for the affected person.

♦ “Dinner Guests with Dietary Issues” is another useful guide.

“Please Don’t Pass the Bread: a Dinner Host’s Guide to Gluten Free” gives lots of essential information about the gluten free diet.

I’ve been glutened before — haven’t we all — but this accident was unusual because it happened during a gluten free vendors faire. I’d had a busy morning and when I finally got to the event I made the all-to-common mistake of believing that gluten free food was good for me in any quantity. I forgot that each piece of food I ate contained trace amounts of gluten. This would not have mattered if I had been eating food in normal quantities. But I was trying to make up for having had a very small breakfast and not having the chance to eat again until dinner time. Those normally harmless parts-per-million added up to a major gluten reaction. I had to cancel the appointment I had made for the afternoon. Mistakes happen — the important thing is that we learn from our mistakes and from the misadventures that others share with us.

I recently looked at several listings of “best gluten free blogs”. I thought some of you might appreciate this information despite the fact my site is not featured on any of those lists. Since the titles of these lists are almost identical, I’ll simply suggest that you click here, here, here, here, or (if you want even more) here. In case you’re interested, the dictionary definition of a blog is “a web site on which an individual or a group of users record opinions, information. etc. on a regular basis.”

Here’s a list of gluten free restaurants, supermarkets, and food manufacturers that offer coupons or other money saving strategies. I will be publishing a list like this one every Monday, checking the information quarterly, and posting up-dates as appropriate.

Whole Foods publishes a bi-monthly magazine called “The Whole Deal” which includes many coupons. Many (but certainly not all) of the bargains offered are gluten free. This is a wonderful link because it updates itself automatically and will always connect you to the most updated coupons and bargains.

P.F. Chang’s has a great program called “The Warriors Club” that gives you a 10% discount on all meals.

Earth Fare Markets offers a great collection of coupons on their website. These are good in their store in NC, SC, GA, AL, TN, OH, and TN.

Erohwan Cereals offers a $1 off coupon.

Click for a $1 off coupon on products from French Meadow Bakery.

I’m republishing the information because discount and coupon information becomes out-of-date so quickly. I will be publishing a list like this one every Monday, checking the information at least once a quarter, and posting up-dates as appropriate. See you next Monday if not before.

I’ve written about three groups of people who follow the gluten free diet. I ‘thought up’ those three groups to get myself organized and help me in my work as a writer on gluten free topics. Thanks to your comments, I need to add two more more groups.

The first article discussed (1) medically diagnosed celiacs, (2) people who are gluten intolerant or gluten sensitive, and (3) people who elect to live gluten free.You may wish to reread the first article and then return here.

Group 4 consists of celiac’s spouses and their significant others. My wife is part of that group. Everything we cook at home is gluten free. She does purchase wheat-based bread and crackers, cold cereals, and a few snacks that I can’t share. Pizza is about the only subject on which we have had ‘words’. Normally, there are just the two of us at a meal, and we both reject the idea of making two separate pizzas.

Group 5 are persons with wheat allergies. People who live wheat free will have no problems with any of the recommendations on this site, and have additional options. I have decided not to write more about ‘wheat free’ issues. There is too much danger that a person who was attempting to live gluten free might misunderstand what I am saying. I did some research before making this decision, and I did come across a helpful article titled “wheat allergy vs. gluten allergy“.

The gluten free diet is sometimes recommended for persons with autism, sleep issues, muscle pain, and other physical problems. I am totally unqualified to discuss these issues. So, other than acknowledging that this group exists and is important, I will not be writing about it.

Click here for a complete summary of the gluten free diet.

As you may know, the Food and Drug Administration has requested input to guide its efforts to define “gluten free”. I have drafted the comments I plan to submit and am asking your for suggestions. Judging from the responses I’ve read, “cross contamination” is our major concern. Therefore, I have revised the first item in my statement to reflect our concerns. ( sub-paragraph D of the first item). To read more about the government’s request for information or find out how to submit comments yourself, please click here.

If you have not already completed the survey, please read my draft response in the section below. After each part of my response I have placed a box for your reaction to what I have to say. I need your input no later than September 25 so that I can submit my statement before the deadline on October 2.

If all goes well, America will soon (whatever that means) have a definition of ‘gluten free’. For the umpteenth and hopefully final time, the Food and Drug Administration is asking for our input on the subject. I plan to submit a statement, based on twelve years of living gluten free and eight years writing on gluten free topics.

A draft copy of my thoughts appears below. After each of the three sections, there is a box for you to add your ideas. (This is the same technology that produces our monthly surveys). The deadline for comments is October 3, so I need to receive your thoughts no later than September 25. Before you reply, you may wish to read or reread an article on the subject that I wrote two years agp. If you wish to send your comments directly to the F.D.A., follow this link.

When you finish the survey, click on the button that says NEXT and your responses will be submitted.

Today I launched a new power-page “Gluten Free Halloween“. It is our next major holiday — at least diet-wise — and is a major concern of gluten free children and their parents as they return to school. There will almost certainly be a Halloween party at school and the child’s class will certainly be composed primarily of wheat-eaters. What can be done to make sure that everyone has a ‘safe’ and enjoyable experience?

Here’s a rather unconventional solution to the problem. There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of videos on YouTube concerned with how to decorate cupcakes. Little or nothing is said about what ingredients should be in the cake. A gluten free family make ‘safe’ cupcakes and then decorate them in such a unique and colorful way that no one will bother to think about whether or not they are gluten free.

Watching these videos will make a child happy to return to school and realize that his dietary restriction will not interfere with his being ‘the life of the party’.

Halloween cupcakes | rainbow cupcakes | pull-apart turtle cupcakes

cupcakes in ice cream  cones | mummy cupcakes

penguin cupcakes | pink flamingo cupcakes | cute monsters

This week I upgraded several of our “Power Pages”, the lists that consolidate the information we need in one place.

I added two restaurant chains to power page “Gluten Free Restaurant Meals“. Gluten free options at ‘Red Lobster’ and ‘Season 52′ our now more accessible to you.

I upgraded our “Gluten Free Bakeries” power page by adding establishments in Rhode Island, Oklahoma, and Colorado.

We now have three new options for gluten free grocery shopping because stores in Michigan, Minnesota, and Utah have been added to our “Gluten Free Supermarket Shopping” power page.

Earlier this month, I wrote about three different types of people who practice the gluten free diet.

♦ There are people who have made a lifelong commitment to total abstinence from gluten.

♦ Others who are ‘cutting down’ on gluten, engaging in periodic ‘cleanses’ or eliminating certain foods.

♦ People who are going gluten free because it seems to be ‘trendy’

I received comments from members of all three groups, many suggesting  that I have not done justice to their point-of-view. In the last paragraph, I said that “If anyone asks for advice, I’ll express my point-of-view to the best of my ability”. Until today, I have never explained how I feel or what group I belong to. I’ll try to correct that today.

FYI, I am a medically-diagnosed celiac. My diagnosis was accidental. My doctor was exploring various possibilities to explain my weight loss, chronic fatigue, and seemingly endless cycles of constipation and diarrhea. I was diagnosed in 1999 and my doctor admitted that he had had no experience with celiac disease. (I moved to Oregon about five years later, and my new family-practice stated that I was the first celiac she had ever met.)

My function as a writer is to relay information,  NOT to give advice. This is important legally since I have no academic or medical credentials, but it is also my belief. A person’s diet is a matter of personal choice!

One of the few  ‘facts’ in the gluten free world is that it is extremely difficult to medically diagnose celiac disease if a person is already living gluten free. How important is this? That is a personal decision.

If someone asked me if I had read any scientific evidence to suggest that living gluten free makes it easier to lose weight, I would tell them ‘no’. Of  course, people who are very conscientious about what they eat do better in every way than people who eat everything they can get their hands on.

Is cross-contamination an issue in the gluten free world? Of course! My intention  is to be very careful at home where I have virtually-total control, to do my best when dining out, and — after taking all reasonable precautions — to relax and enjoy my food.

The Food and Drug Administration is once again considering the issue of labeling gluten free food. We are invited to submit our comments this month or during the month of December. Here is a link to the FDA website with information about how to submit a comment.

I plan to submit two sets if comments to the FDA — one being my personal opinions and the other giving my point-of-view as a writer on gluten free topics. I’ll make my submissions in mid-September, thus giving me a month to get my thoughts in order. I have two major concerns:

The FDA is recommending that a product must contain less than 20 parts-per-million gluten in order to be labeled ‘gluten free’. Where did that number come from? The information from the FDA suggests that lower concentrations of gluten can’t be measured accurately, and yet we know that the Gluten Free Certification Organization (GFCO) requires that the product contain less than 10 ppm and the Celiac Sprue Association carries this a step further by only certifying products with less than 5 ppm gluten.

Is this number based on any scientific evidence as to the amount of gluten that a celiac can tolerate? I know that I have never read any such evidence. The 20 ppm figures seems to be for the convenience of the testing organizations.

My second concern is that their is no mention of the word “oats” in the FDA material. Actually, this can be fixed by changing a few words in the guidelines, since products that contain non-certified oats will almost certain exceed the 20 ppm limit. I presume (but don’t actually know) that companies who qualify would be free to label their products “oat free”.

I’d be privileged to publish your thoughts on this matter. Your ideas may help other members of America’ gluten free community make up their mind, thus making their comments more valuable to the FDA and to all who will be reading gluten free labels in the future.

Here are three links to coupons that will cut the costs of your gluten free lifestyle:

TGI Friday. This coupon entitles you to a $5 discount when your table runs up a bill of $15 or more. The expiration date is 10/31/11.

French Meadow Bakery. $1 off on any purchase.

Crunchmaster Crackers. This is one of my favorite snack foods. $1 off on any purchase.

How do we deal with people who go gluten free for reasons that have nothing to do with diagnosed celiac disease or gluten intolerance? There are God-knows-how-many people out there who experiment with our way of life because they believe it helps them lose weight or in an effort to emulate Oprah Winfrey, Gwyneth Paltrow, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, or even Celsea Clinton.

When I was diagnosed with celiac diet in 1999, the gluten free diet was definitely not a fad simply because too few people had heard about it. Besides, the food was so expensive and tasted so much like cardboard that nobody stayed on the diet for the wrong reasons. I’m glad things have changed.

As you can see, I’m expressing personal opinions tonight in the first of a series of articles I’m calling “Food for Thought”. I’ll publish these editorials every Monday. I’m eager to read your reaction.

Every diet is dangerous if not properly supervised. I think it is possible for people to supervise their own diet through reading, talking with experts who have experienced the diet, and by attending support groups. People who do any of these things will learn
• that the gluten free diet is not a magic formula for losing weight,
• that the diet is not easy to follow (even though the food tastes much better than it tasted ten years ago),
• and that there is a tremendous difference between a short term ‘gluten free cleanse’, or ‘cutting down on their intake of gluten free food’, and the life-long commitment to total abstinence that is traditionally the major concept underlying gluten free living.

There will always be a group of pseudo-celiacs who ignore what I said in the last paragraph. I wish them well, and thank them for increasing public awareness of the gluten free diet and creating a demand for more and better ‘safe’ products. If any of them ask for advice, I’ll express my point-of-view to the best of my ability.

During this month’s survey, people living gluten free expressed 89% confidence in that were certified gluten free by either the Celiac Sprue Association (CSA) or the Gluten Free Certification Organization (GFCO). a project of the Gluten Intolerance Group.
85% of these people felt confidence when purchasing a product labeled “produced in a gluten free facility” felt comfortable eating food items from a box labeled “gluten free”.

This data underscores the importance of GFCO and CSA certification. There was less than 1% difference between the two organizations despite that fact that CSA has a stricter standard (5 parts-per-million compared to 10 parts-per-million for the GFCO.)

This question should have been asked on the survey. How do we feel about the manufacturers of products we purchase? Do we feel better purchasing from national companies that have armies of lawyers making sure that no false promises are being made? How about firms that produce only gluten free products and are very dependent on our good will?

As you may know, this site conducts a survey each month to give us all a better idea of what people who live gluten free actually do. I’ll announce August’s survey on Thursday, both here and in my weekly newsletter.

People who live gluten free have the time and the skills to cook. Home cooked food is invariably better than “convenience food”. It tastes better, it is less expensive, it is healthier. We all know that, but we also know that our time is precious, our skills may be limited, and many of us are cooking for one.

The book “Gluten Free in Five Minutes” has solutions to all these issues. Everything is cooked in the microwave. All directions are clear and simple. There are instructions for preparing a single bagel, one sourdough roll, or a chocolate cake for two. All the ingredients are available in any grocery store. Obviously, I recommend this book! Click on the graphic at the top of the page to order it from Amazon. It is available as a paperback book or as a kindle book.

Attitude is everything in living gluten free. Last Wednesday I talked about three other attitudes. I made the mistake of titling the article “gluten free in the new economy” and it is certainly true that attitude is the essential ingredient of getting our nation’s current financial and political predicament in order. Attitude is always essential. I will write about one more attitude next Wednesday.

“If I went off the gluten free diet and kept my mouth shut, could I join the military with celiac disease?” I found no really ‘official’ answers to that question, but I do have a strong personal response based on three years in the Army and 22 years overseas as a civilian employee of the defense department.

Obviously, a person can do anything if they successfully “keep their mouth mouth”. But if the military discovers that a person has lied about things that are already in their civlian medical records, that person is in big trouble.

Millions of Americans are suffering from as-yet-undiagnosed gluten intolerance intolerance or celiac disease. It stands to reason that there are thousands of these people in the military. Some of them are serving on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan. No one in the military is concerned about supplying them with gluten free food. No one is thinking about preventing cross-contamination. The person who made this comment at least has identified his problem.

I can’t think of many things worse than having a gluten reaction while patrolling the front lines in combat or being in a barracks and unable to get away from the military post to get a respite from a gluten toxic diet.

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REMINDER: There is still time to participate in our July survey. How do you react to the ‘clues’  found on many food packages. Click here to take this five-minute survey.

Try these three trivia questions. You can on the gluten free lifestyle without any of this information, but quizzes like this can be fun. I put an advertisement between the last question and the answers to make this more interesting. For a real challenge, try to find an answer to each of these questions on the internet.

♦ QUESTION 1: Where can you purchase gluten food in Antarctica?

♦ QUESTION 2: Is zebra meat gluten free? What about elephant meat? What about porcupines or squirrels?

♦ QUESTION 3: Which if any of these products are gluten free? What do all of them have in common? bulgar, dinkle, farro, semolina, and triticale.

Answer #1.  One of  the camps in the Australian section of Antarctica that has small grocery store where scientists and tourists can buy food.

Answer #2. This is a trick question. All meat is gluten free unless it has come into contact with gluten-toxic materials.

Answer #3. They are all types of wheat and are therefore all gluten-toxic.

Coupons help shoppers (gluten free and otherwise) save lots of money. Unfortunately, I am not aware of  any sets of coupons that include only gluten free items. You’ll have to browse through a number of lists and select the coupon you need.

In the process, you’ll also find coupons that will be important for the wheat-eaters in your household as well as useful non-food items or naturally gluten free  food that will appeal to everyone. That is the good news.

The bad news is that the stores that send these coupons want you to be on their mailing list. If you sign  up for all the newsletters that you need, you will absolutely swamp your mailbox and not be able to find anything.

The good news is that I have found a solution to that problem. Go to google of Yahoo and set up an e-mail address that you will only use for newsletters or other mailings that you intend to scan for coupons, recipes,  or other ‘bargains’. Scan the content of this e-mail box when and only when you are in the inclination  to do so. Be sure to avoid directing   really important and timely information to that address. Delete the content of your special e-mail account whenever you want to.

I recently googled the key words +”gluten free diet” and +”weight loss” and read all the ten articles listed on the first page. I noticed that:

• no one advocated going on a gluten free diet for the sole purpose of losing weight.
• no one suggested that it was easier (or harder) to lose weight while adhering to a gluten free diet. As one author put it, the only important thing is to “…adhere to a high-protein, low glycemic-load, nutrient dense diet”.
• none of the writers advocated going on a non-supervised diet, either a gluten free diet or a more traditional weight-loss diet.

Today I completed the Life Assessment Check published by the American Heart Association. My wife suffered cardiac arrest earlier this month. I’m happy to report that she is progressing well and I want to do everything possible to prolong life an goo health for both of us.

I was totally disappointed with my results on the test! That’s an understatement!!!!! The simple truth is that I did not understand many of questions and did not know how to answer the rest.Why? One of the reasons was that for the past decade I have been focused on gluten free living and ignoring all other aspects of healthy eating. It’s time for me to change that situationand share what I have learned with my friends. The American Heart Association lists these “Seven Simple Goals”:

1. don’t smoke (since this item does not directly involve the ingestion of food, I will not include it in my series of articles)

2. maintain a healthy weight (please see my power page ‘‘The Gluten Free Weight Loss Diet’)

3. engage in regular physical activity (since this goal does not directly involve ingesting food, I will not write about it in this series of articles.)

4. eat a healthy diet (this entire website is devoted to the topic of eating a healthy diet. I’ll discuss that in the final article of this series. That article is scheduled for publication on May 13.)

5. manage blood pressure. (I plan to publish an article on this subject on April 30).

6. take charge of cholesterol (I’ll deal with this topic on May 7)

7. keep blood sugars at healthy levels. (I’ve scheduled this topic for May 10.)

These goals are “simple” in the sense that they can be stated in short phrases. On the other hand, they are very difficult in that they involve accessing a great deal of information and making very significant behavior changes. Read this article to learn more about this problem.
The American Heart Association acknowledges this issue. They state that short steps are important. They recommend starting by making “one change today” and progressing at an appropriate pace. They acknowledge that the changes do not need to made in specific order.

The Food and Drug Administration has been directed to develop standards for manufacturers who wish to label their products ‘gluten free’. They have had this mandate since 2004 and — guess what!!! — we are still waiting! During that time, the demand for gluten free food has multiplied, the quality of the food has increased, and there is a flurry of information and misinformation. Consumers like you and I are confused, and there is an ever-growing need “to give notice to manufacturers (especially those who are jumping into this hot market to make money…) that making foodstuffs labeled ‘gluten free’ comes with a great deal of responsibility.”

I am proud to announce that this website is one sponsor of an event designed to get gluten free labeling back on the front burner at the Food and Drug Administration. On May 4, 2011, we will be baking and decorating (and most-of-all publicizing) the world’s largest gluten free cake. Click here to learn more about this exciting project. The project’s website is titled “It’s a Big Deal!”. It certainly is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!