Gluten-Free Food 101

When leading a gluten-free lifestyle, it is important to discuss Gluten-Free Food Safety.

Let’s just get to it.  Skip the small talk.  Ready?

There are good grains, good starches, and safe additives and there are bad grains, bad starches, and unsafe additives.  That’s it.  There is no way around it.  Below is a simple, easy and readable list of what is ok for you and what is not ok for you.  Print it out, store it in your wallet, pocket, beach house, tree house, car, purse wherever.  Just keep it handy.  Laminate it!

Gluten-Free SAFE Flours, Grains, Legumes & Starches

(All flours and grains must be labeled gluten-free)

• Rice (wild, bran, sweet rice, brown rice, white rice, superfine rice, flour)
• Montina (Indian Rice Grass, flour)
• Amaranth
• Arrowroot
• Buckwheat
• Coconut
• Corn (cornmeal, corn bran, corn flour, cornstarch) (Aim for NON-GMO)
• Flax Seed
• Legumes, beans (black bean, chickpea, fava, peanut, pea, lentil flours)
• Mesquite
• Millet
• Oats: Certified gluten-free oats ONLY.  Purchase only oats labeled gluten-free.  Not all Celiacs can tolerate even gluten-free oats.  Use your judgment.  Gluten-free oats should not be introduced if Celiac symptoms are still active.
• Nut flours and nut meals
• Potato (flour, starch)
• Tapioca (pearls, flour, starch)
• Sweet Potato (flours, starch)
• Butternut Squash
• Sorghum (flour)
• Teff (flour)
• Yucca
• Quinoa (flour)
• Yam
• Seeds
• Banana flour
• Apple flour
• Xanthan gum
• Soy (flour, soybean)
• Tigernut Flour
• Cassava Flour (similar to Tapioca)

Generally Safe Gluten-Free Additives

• Baking Powder
• Aluminum Free Baking Powder
• Baking Soda
• Citric Acid
• Dextrin
• Hydrolyzed soy protein
• Maltodextrin
• Modified Food Starch (usually derived from corn, if wheat, it will state it on the package)
• Mono and diglycerides
• Monosodium glutamate (MSG) (check if outside the U.S.)
• Natural color and natural flavor
• Soy, Soy protein (tofu) – depends
• Soy Lecithin
• Vanilla, extract, artificial, natural
• Vinegar (not malt vinegar)
• Whey
• Caramel Coloring -Debatable.  Under 20PPM gluten.  Usually derived from corn, sometimes derived from gluten.  I avoid all products with caramel coloring, even the under 20PPM gluten-free foods and additives make my hair fall out plus an array of other symptoms.

TOXIC Unsafe Grains

Under no circumstance are these grains ever ok

• Wheat in all of its forms including Kamut, Semolina, Spelt, Triticale, and Dundrum
• Barley, including Malt
• Rye
• Oats-If contaminated and not certified gluten-free
• Ezekiel
• Wheat Starch

Adapted from The Ultimate Guide to Gluten-Free Living from the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University