10 Everyday Ingredients with Hidden Gluten
Published on www.ndtvfood.com
Being Gluten Free doesn’t mean you just eat gluten free food, it also means you stay away from cross contamination to any gluten and you avoid foods that have hidden gluten in them.
In real terms it means you eat packed goods that are manufactured in a 100% gluten free facility and avoid food that is processed alongside gluten. It takes only 10gms of wheat for a Celiac person to react.
Some of products with hidden gluten are as follows:
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Oats: Oats in its natural form are gluten free but almost all oats are processed in a wheat processing unit. If you have Celiac Disease all oats should be avoided.
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Tomato Ketchup: The first question in your mind how does tomato ketchup have gluten in it ? Well the answer is it has vinegar and artificial/ distilled vinegar has gluten. Tomato Ketchup made with natural vinegar is such as apple or corn.
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Baking Powder: So you go to a bakery and order a “Gluten Free Cake” across the counter and they’ll say yes it’s 100 % gluten free do you know that “Baking Powder” could have gluten it. Baking Powder is a mix of baking soda and cream of tartar. But in commercial use they add corn starch or flour to make the texture smooth.
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Corn Starch: Corn Starch is the starch derived from maize or wheat. It can be adulted with flour too.
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Malt: Malt is germinated cereal grain. It is found in the following:
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Soy Sauce: It is a condiment made from fermented paste of boiled soy bean and has malt added to it.
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Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup
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Chocolates like Mars, 5-Star have malt in them
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Gram Flour/ Besan: Gram Flour is made from ground chickpeas. The commercial packets are adulted with maida to give it smoothness.
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Masala: Most ready to use Masala’s have hing in them. Hing is asafoetida and that is gluten.
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Yeast: Fresh Yeast contains gluten. The culture used in yeast normally contains gluten. Check your type of yeast before you buy your bread.
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Cheese: It’s natural form cheese is gluten free but a lot of processed cheese contains gluten in order to process it.
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Sausages: This is the toughest you would never think sausages contain gluten. Yes! They do the castings used to cover sausages contain gluten in them.
Question is how do I avoid hidden gluten? Best option is to grind the whole spices and besan yourself. This is very simple as all spices are available in the grain form.
Items like baking powder, cornstarch, oats , yeast buy products only from a 100% Gluten Free Facility.
Items like Tomato Ketchup, Soy Sauce, Chocolate Syrup, Beer, Cheese, Sausages the gluten free versions are easily available.
Knowledge of Gluten Free Food is your best friend and it comes only from reading and understanding the real meaning of “Gluten Free”.
This sums it all up “An investment in Knowledge always pays the best interest” Benjamin Franklin