5 Things You are Doing Wrong with Your Gluten Free Diet

The first thing that comes to your mind when someone says “I am Gluten Free” is oh! Can’t eat wheat. In real terms it means no wheat, rye, oats and barley. Also “NO CROSS Contamination” of these grains.

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I have a lot of clients who call me and say I am on a gluten free diet then how come my TTG levels aren’t going down.

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The things you might be doing wrong in your gluten free diet are as follows:

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• Gluten Free Kitchen and Utensils: If you are gluten free and live in a joint family set up, it very tough to be away from cross contamination. As the utensils used are common and the staff that cooks uses dusters/sponges that might be common. I would recommend that you should get a new set of equipment that is used to cook gluten free food that should be washed separately in a pantry. Though you might use the same kitchen/stove.

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• Gluten Free Flour: I know you are buying organic bajra, jawar, cornmeal, amaranth and all the other gluten free grains to make roti and other food items. The reality did you check where these grains are milled? Is it a common facility where other grains are milled? It only takes 10gms to get cross contaminated. Even the milling should be an exclusive facility.

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• Gluten Free Baked Goods: The list of bakeries that do gluten free cakes, breads and cookies is very long. And they all say we washed are utensils, used clean towels, have a separate day and so on. Reality it is impossible to remove 10 gms of Maida from a dough hook, sieve and other equipment. Even more did you know what brand of gluten free flour was used to make the end product? Was that manufactured in an exclusive facility? The yeast used to make the bread is that gluten free? Most fresh yeast culture has wheat in it.

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This might shock you if dough is kneading by hands as it is in most cases where bread/cookies are made the nails might have wheat flour in it.

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• Naturally Gluten Free Products: I’ll give you an example you go to a Chinese Restaurant and order stir fried vegetables and grilled fish in oyster sauce. Stop Stop the oyster sauce has soya sauce in it and guess what that has it has wheat in it. Stir fried vegetables have soya sauce and vinegar (which vinegar is it? synthetic vinegar ( has wheat it.) now is the meal gluten free? answer is no and you just messed up your clean gut. I would like to point out it is hard to eat in India as the awareness is less and the attitude towards gluten is very casual.

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Just yesterday we were at our regular restaurant and my son ordered the same dish Salmon Steak with vegetables and jacket potatoes and during the meal he was complaining of a stomach ache and I was super sacred. Must have got cross contaminated. Remember it will happen once in a while. Just go back drink lots of water and avoid eating out for a month or so. The gut needs to flush out it out and heal again.

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• Package Food: This is the biggest risk as a lot of countries like ours don’t have strict food safety laws. The market is full of items labelled “Gluten Free” the ingredients in most packages might be gluten free but a lot of them have a little gluten. Hey that doesn’t work example cornflour might have Maida or packed masala’s have hing. Pizza made of buckwheat might have a bit of wheat. Fried Chicken will have wheat panko instead of gluten free panko.

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I’ll close by saying your health is your own responsibility and being “Gluten Free” for someone with Celiac or Intolerance to wheat is a serious commitment. If you are a parent it’s a fulltime job till your child is 18 years old and can handle the occasional cross contamination.