Gluten Free Resources

How often have you been told that buying the “giant, economy size” is best?  Well, of course, we don’t know how many times this has happened buy but I can safely say that many times it has been from a “marketing” source, (i.e. grocer, advertising).

Yes, sometimes buying big is better.  However, we all have experience when it wasn’t.  Perhaps, something spoiled or in some other way went to waste or became outdated.  My most recent experience happened at Thanksgiving time.  I needed to make myself some loaf bread for the big feast.  My loaf of choice is Pamela’s Products Bread Mix & Flour Blend.

From the beginning I have used a one- loaf size.  That is a single package net wt. 19 oz.  Of course this means you just emply the whole thing into the mixing bowl–no need to weight or otherwise weight the product.  Oil, eggs and water are required for preparation.  Most importantly, however, a single package of yeast is included.

You can almost take a guess at what happened to me the night before Thanksgiving.  Yep, the associate at the store had advised me that there was a larger package and more economical than the single recipe size that I had picked up and put in my shopping cart.   Naturally, saving money sounded good and the larger size sounded efficient.

I got home and right away I started to see what I did not like–1) measuring the dusty product as I proceeded to make a cloud of floury dust in my kitchen and 2) finding out that the little yeast packets do NOT come in the “large, economy size” which happens to be 4 lbs. in weight.

Okay, the dust might not be that big a deal, but NOT having one envelope of yeast is!

Fortunately, I like to cook and having yeast is fairly likely in my kitchen.

But I got to thinking about others who might unsuspectingly buy the larger size and not notice the almost undetectable print high up in the right hand corner of the package “Add your own yeast”.   This also is a big deal!

The “take away” from this post is to remind us all to  take a careful look at the products we are buying just to make sure they really are a good deal for us.

by Ginny Creager, PhD

Take a look at that title again:  “What We Have Here is a Failure to Educate”. 

 Can’t you just see Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke delivering that famous line,  “What we have here is a failure to communicate”.

Actually, that is where I see most of our country right now–in the failure to educate, that is.  Let me tell you this little story of why this even occurred to me.  Late this summer I got a message from a friend who is a registered dietician.  She was telling me that one of her married  friends, a registered nurse, had just found out along with her husband that he has celiac disease.    She was at a lost on what to do.

The nurse wanted more information on celiac disease.  Of course this means that if one of our primary health professionals herself  needs to know more about CD, then surely the general population could conceivable have the same problem.  Well that is exactly the case.  She wanted to know more about celiac disease and where to look and learn and so the question came to me. 

I did not search out the email answer which I sent, but I will tell you this about CD– I am sure the nurse was not aware of–and that most of the world does not know– the following four points:

     —  ”97% of people with celiac disease don’t know they have it!”.

     — “Symptoms include chronic diarrhea and/or constipation, abdominal bloating and pain, fatigue and irritability”.

     — “Doctors often fail to diagnose the disease in adults.  An average child visits eight pediatricians before being correctly diagnosed”.

     –”Undiagnosed celiac patients are at greater risk of seriouis illnesses like osteoporosis, anemia, infertility, and cancer”.

Source:  The University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center

All four statements above come from The University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center.   Check out even more on celiac disease at their website www.CeliacDisease.net

In other blog entries I will be providing sound and useful ideas for all of us in the friends of CD community or in the  patients of celiac disease and/or gluten intolerance community.  It will be up to each and every one of you to act on the information and “pass it forward” for our own good and that of our families.  

More and more, my hope is that you will soon agree with me that “what we have here is a failure to educate”.

More later.

by Ginny Creager, PhD

It needs to be more well-known that people who are gluten-intolerant ( involving wheat, barley or rye and their derivitatives or straight gluten) may also be more prone to other food sensitivities.  One of these problems is lactose intolerance.

 The really hard part, however, is when people do not  know they are BOTH gluten and dairy (lactose) intolerant.  The fact of the matter is that 97% of gluten-intolerant people do NOT know they are because they are unaware and undiagnosed.  Meanwhile, the lactose intolerance may simply be worsening with time.  The digestive battle is now confounded, as we say in research, when results or observances are muddled.  

You can’t figure out what is making you sick.  Some people isolate by trial and error or in desperation manage to isolate either wheat or dairy, but don’t realize it is both simultaneously.

Unfortunately, too many individuals have not noticed this strong correlation in themselves.  Even if they discover the gluten-intolerance, they don’t detect the milk problem. They continue eating the regular milks: whole, 2%, skim, and chocolate.  They continue “enjoying” cottage cheese, yogurt,  ice cream, whipped cream, puddings, all sorts of cheeses, blue cheese dressings and “delightful” cheesy or milky salad dressings and milk or cream-based soups like clam chowder.

If the person does not know they are both gluten-intolerant and lactose intolerant, they unknowingly and unsuspectingly consume many products containing milk such as pancakes, waffles, many breakfast cereals with cream or milk, cream pies and crust, pastries, cake and frosting, ice cream cones–all of which can often hit us with a double whammy of both wheat and cow dairy! 

What can be done here ?  What if you also require calcium?  Needing calcium in your diet  can easily become a concern for much of the population from toddlers to seniors.  Think of the women like me who have been told by their doctors to ensure and  increase their intake of calcium because of declining bone scan scores.  We don’t want  to facilitate the onset of  osteoporosis.

Young babies and children also need calcium and a lot of it comes from milk.  It is a must for those growing bodies.  Not knowing about gluten-intolerance can do harm to children evidenced by “their failure to thrive”.  I also know that these babies will by justifiably “fussy”.  Can you imagine when the parents find out that their child is both milk and gluten intolerant?

Again the question is what do you do in place of cow’s milk?  We already know what has to be done if someone is gluten-intolerant.  But what do you do when you or a child has to eliminate cow’s milk and all dairy?

Well, let me tell you some adults choose rice milk or soymilk,  but that may not be sufficiently nutritious.  How about almond milk?  That sounds good, until you find out that there is 0% calcium. 

What did I do?   I researched the various milks and choose powdered goat milk.  I can mix on an as-needed basis compared to the liquid form which is already constituted.  One can of liquid goat milk  will make your pumpkin pie at about $3-$4 per can in my town.  Meanwhile the Meyenberg powdered goat milk is $14.29 at the health food store in my town and makes 3 quarts as per label.

Let me tell you why I like this solution:  (per 1 cup)

–Calcium (30%)  —remember that almond “milk” has 0%

–Vitamin D3 (25%)

–Folic Acid (20%)

–Low Sodium

–No hormones  (Meyenberg labeling referring to their goats)

There are other reasons I like goat milk.  I can use it in cooked food from mashed potatoes, to pancakes, to shakes and soups.  But the best reason is that the goat milk molecules are SMALLER than those of cow milk. 

This smaller molecule  makes the digestion of goat milk possible without distress!  And isn’t this what we are looking for?

Enjoy your own “milk research” and discover what a change goat milk can make in your life

by Ginny Creager, PhD

It has been some time since I discovered and confirmed my need for a gluten-free diet.  I have read, researched, made presentations, consulted with medical professionals and listened to others with similar stories.  The hardest to hear are the stories of parents with children or grandparents with grandchilden who saw their family suffer so innocently prior to the caretaker’s discovery of the real problem.

Children can be really picky eaters except for pasta.  Let me tell you, kids LOVE noodles: elbow, spaghetti, stars, corkscrew,  penne, fusili, spirals, fideo and no doubt many others styles.  However, the best known are made of and labeled wheat, duram, and semonlina.  The problem is that regardless of those names, it is all gluten-containing wheat. 

Eventually, you will find yourself shopping the pasta aisle at the grocery store or health food store.  You will see some enticing products with other names. 

 Are they safe?

For example, “organic spelt spaghetti” or “100% whole grain kamut spaghetti”.  NO!  They are not.

I bring this up because I made this same mistake.  I spent all my time satisfying myself with the labeling specifying ” organic”, “whole grain”,  “ancient grain”, “grown on Montana family farms” and the like.  All of this is very good, but I was evading the real question for me and you:  Is this product gluten-free?

I took my various products home from the health food store where the clerk had been helping me with my selection.  She knew my problem.  But it was not until I was getting ready to cook the products that I was looking for the preparation instructions and cooking time.  I found that and proceeded with the boiling water and started the timing. 

Meanwhile, I continued reading the product package information.  Ah-ha!  There it was.  One package said under ingredients:  “Organic Spelt (Wheat) Flour.  The other said, “Organic Whole Grain Kamut Wheat”.  That was all I needed to know for this meal.  It was not going to be for me.  The rest of family was surely going to  enjoy their “spaghetti” dinner while I hastily readied something else for myself.

Instead,  look for safe foods and go with the tried and true.  Rice (white and brown)  is a good alternative.  You KNOW it will be gluten-free.  One of my choices is a rice spaghetti which is labeled, “wheat-free, gluten-free, corn-free, soy-free, sodium-free, fat-free, cholesterol-free, no preservatives, no artificial colors, no artificial flavors”.  That seems to cover most of the world.

The moral of this story seems to be that

 (1) No matter how many times we shop, how many times we review what we can and can’t eat on a gluten-free diet, how many store owners and clerks try to help us out at the stores, the ultimate responsibility is our own.  We must be vigilant about label-reading especially with unfamiliar brands and products when we shop for the gluten-free diet. 

(2) The labeling must state gluten-free or be known to us to be gluten-free.

Now, think about making some delightful pasta product for yourself, or better yet for your children, grandchildren or family.  Somedays nothing quite hits the spot like pasta. Enjoy!

by Ginny Creager, PhD

Do you remember how wonderful wheat flour breads used to look and taste?  That was in your past when you were still innocently consuming regular wheat, rye or barley  flour.  Do you miss those  biscuits, muffins, Betty Crocker cake mixes, Jiffy corn bread, pie crust, crumb topping,  sage dressing, waffles, pancakes, yeast breads and rolls  and, of course, sandwich bread and buttered toast? 

That beautiful flour many of us ate was bleached and sifted to be light (rather than heavy) and fairly free of much fiber (unlike the whole grain products).  Now that we know we must stay gluten-free, some of us even have to check if a commercial product was produced in a wheat or gluten free facility.  Other times we need to check our restaurant orders with the wait staff  for actual ingredients like croutons, thickeners, coatings, and batters made with gluten or one of its derivitive.

The regular wheat flours and cake flours may produce light, fluffy birthday cakes and danish, but it is not just the treatment of the flour.  It is GLUTEN itself, which allows these flours to rise and form the crown on cupcakes and loaf breads and everything else baked and cooked with gluten which similarly puffs up.   In fact, some cooks ADD GLUTEN to their recipes just for this purpose.

Now for us who must maintain a GF lifestyle, we have to consider flour made of other grains and grain products.  The typical ones are corn and rice although potatoes (not a grain) can make suitable “flour” for baking.  In this case it might be potato flour or potato starch.  This is the reason flour “matters”. 

We can fill our pantry with many useful baking flours:  white rice, brown rice, almond (not a grain), oat flour, oat bran, quinoa, tapioca (not a grain), buckwheat,  arrowroot  (not a grain) and many others that work as flours.  With time, experience and preference, the GF cook will note that these flours do not product the same results, appearance or taste. 

Eventually, and much is trial and error,  and comments from the family to be  sure, we make decisions on personal and household preferences.  Let me give you an example.  This past weekend I wanted a crisp lemon cookie for dessert with fresh fruit.  Ok so far.  I modified an existing recipe to include my selection of flours:  almond meal, about one-fifth of the flour needed and the balance was potato starch.

Now before you tell me where I went wrong, I was trying to get a bit of ground nut in the cookie–therefore the almond meal.  I was trying to get a light, crisp cookie so the potato starch, which is plenty powdery, was my choice.  Well, and you may be ahead of me now, I chose poorly for the taste I wanted. 

My product was light and somewhat crisp, but even with the newly-opened pure lemon extract, my cookies tasted like potatoes and were a bit heavier than what I wanted.  The color was good and the lemon icing went well, but that taste!  This is to tell you that flour does matter.  Anyway,  they cooled a little after I took them out of the oven and slipped them onto the rack.  My husband  caught the aroma and could tell they were ready to try…so I took him a small dessert plate of cookies.  Guess what?

He liked them!

by Ginny Creager, PhD

Here we are a community of those interested in celiac disease and/or  gluten intolerance.  Some of us are unable to consume wheat or even have additional food allergies which complicate food planning, grocery shopping, eating out and entertaining.

So what happens in the middle of summer?  The new releases come out and among them a hit movie called “Julie and Julia”, a parallel-running story of  the young Judith Jones of the US and the  famous, but mature, cookbook author and celebrity chef Julia Child who studyed cooking in Paris. 

Eventually, in the story, there is no way to avoid those famous TV episodes and famous recipes.  There is that charming butter preparation, the lobster prepation mid-way and the duck at the end and so much else out of  The Art of Mastering French Cooking  plus wonderful scenes out of the lives of this never-acquainted and unlikely pair.

The best food scenes are the party scenes of  lovely entertaining of company and friends.  Now, normally after a movie, it is not too unusual to go out to a meal, often to an elegant dinner with wine.

No so for those of us with diagnosed allergies to various ingredients, the grains in spirits, seafoods and dairy.  Some readers already know that individuals who require gluten-free eating also suffer other food sensitivities; sometimes actual allergies.

For others,  please do not let this take you by surprise, but you may have other food problems besides gluten.   In fact, be looking for possible problems.  The common ones I have mentioned elsewhere in this blog include  milk,dairy, eggs, peanuts, soy and more as well as “hidden” wheat or gluten.  (Did you know that some foods which do not contain wheat, may have gluten itself added alone as one of the ingredients!  Obviously, when prepared, the food product is no longer gluten-free. 

Well back to the story about dining in many locations not being designed for the celiac and , so we must continue vigilence.  I really wasn’t craving a meal as it was fairly late for dinner and I was hungry for something sweet or salty and more like a snack.  Hate to ruin it for you, because unless you see a duck fly overhead, we probably don’t have a whole duck for Julia Child-style preparation in this whole county.

Still the sweet and salty had appeal.  How about one of my old time favorites?  That would be theatre-style buttered popcorn, but not the stuff from the concession stand.  Or how about a cold, creamy “ice cream”?  Okay there we go, my husband and I, to small store.

I pretty much knew the aisles so I went directly to what I was trying to find.  In my bag went the Popcorn, Indiana Original Movie Theatre Popcorn–love that one and I denied myself at the theatre so…sounded good to me.  The other item was an organic frozen treat, Turtle Mountain’s Purely Decadent non-dairy frozen dessert in my choice of Pomegranate Chip.  Even the picture spells delicious.  If you don’t think you like soy products (but can eat them) try this one.

As for me, I will let you decide which one my husband ate.  Okay, which one did I eat?  You decide.  Tell me in the blog which you guessed and how you decided. 

It was wonderful.

Good night!

by Ginny Creager, PhD

Have you ever watched non-celiac friends or family members enjoy (or devour)  huge,  juicy hamburgers while dining out together at the popular restaurants?  Can you say they didn’t look yummy good?  Can you say you really didn’t secretly miss such an American favorite?

What about the patty melts, the garden burgers, the sloppy joes, the egg salad sanwiches, or the club sandwiches or even croutons on the garden salad?  I miss all of that.

Now let me tell you how I solved the sliced bread problem for myself.  I live in a town of 15,000 population and we are ninety miles from the nearest sizable city.  That means we don’t have many choices beyond the chain restaurants and I am pretty sure the “Golden Arches” are not ready to listen to me.

I did a quick analysis of the restaurants and decided on a short list of the small ”home town” types.  Everyone of them serves burgers and other typical sandwiches.  Then I determined which ones were actually managed by the owners right there on the premises.  That really cut my list down fast. 

The very next time we went to my “target” restaurant, and after eating and paying for my umteenth salad,  I stopped and talked to the owner about my GF reqirements.  I must have been very skillful in my explanation because her reaction was, “Why don’ t you bring some (bread) in the next time”?  That’s all the invitation I needed.

The next time my husband wanted to go out to dinner I had made my plan.  I knew I wanted a patty melt with french fries and a green salad which, of course, was on the menu.  At home my refrigerator always has at least three types of  bread .  Among them are white rice, brown rice, tapioca, GF yeast and GF Italian sandwich style breads plus a wonderful loaf I bake myself.

I choose the Italian sandwich.  Two frozen slices went into a plastic zip bag and into my purse.  At the restaurant I put my order in with the wait person and then discreetly passed her the bag with the sliced bread (marked GF).  At the same time I told her, “Teresa knows that I am bringing my own bread”.  That was it!   She knew she had permission to deviate from the menu this way.  She left to turn in the order as I mentally enjoyed the picture of that freshly grilled delight.

Well, it doesn’t take much imagination for you to realize that I feasted on a freshly-prepared grilled hamburger patty, onions and cheese tucked inside hot grilled buttered bread– with all the trimmings, fries and a cold, crisp green salad. 

I really enjoyed my hamburger platter in GF safety.  Finally!

Note:  If you are extraordinarily intolerant beware of the restaurant toaster which will have gluten bread crumbs.  Modify this idea for your own needs.

by Ginny Creager, PhD

Once those who start eating the gluten-free way decide they must add variety to their diet and maybe avoid some of the cost of store-bought items, they will need recipes.

Probably the most often  need is for real bread.  Most of us experiment or use various authors to give us tested recipes for making batches of ready-to-go GF flours we can keep handy in our kitchen for quick breads and loaf breads for toast and sandwiches.

That usually leads to the observation that breads often call for xanthan gum or guar gum or both.  Besides the cost, what is different?

Xanthan Gum  is more expensive and  used as an all-purpose thickener in sauces and gravies.  A better use for me, however, is in bread recipes to help my baked products hold together and to give a less grainy texture.  You will come to find the importance of a smoother texture after you have been baking for a while and you will learn to decide where you want this characteristic. 

Xanthan gum is the gluten replacement we use in baking.  Batter actually thicken more the longer we beat it and if we are not careful,  the result will be dough.  (I couldn’t believe what I had done, but the sticky, elastic mix turned into a tasty finished product  anyway).

Try these proportions in your baking:

     Cake — 1/4   teaspoon  to 1 cup flour (GF)

     Bread  –  1 teaspoon to 1 cup flour (GF)

     Pizza Dough –  2 teaspoons to 1 cup flour (GF)

Guar Gum   is less expensive than zanthan gum.  It has eight (8) times the thickening power of cornstarch so decide when this is desireable.  It also is an excellent thickener in gravies, soups,  sauces and salad dressings.  Its reputation is as a good binder for your baked goods.  Even though it is a good thickener for cornstarch, guar gum can yield thinner batters and doughs than xanthan gum.  For my use, this poses a problem for loaf breads and cookie batter.

You can experiement with the same proportions above.   I found, for example,  that xanthan gum may need to be slightly lessened when potato starch is used in comparison to corn and gluten-free rice flour mistures. You will also find a difference between using white rice flour or brown rice flour in your product.  Have a good time!

In another post I will be talking about various flours and their combinations for shelf-ready baking use.

by Ginny Creager, PhD

Some doctors recommend eliminating  (cow) dairy when first beginning a gluten-free diet. 

The same doctors may have differing reasons for making such a request, but one thing is for certain  both milk and wheat appear on lists of food allergies.  In fact  only eight categories of food represent 90 percent of food allergies.  Here is the list:

.   milk

.   eggs

.    fish

.   shellfish (crustacean)

.   wheat

.   tree nuts

.   peanuts

.   soybeans

From my experience and from working with the public, I can understand how hard giving up wheat actually is for the gluten intolerant and for the celiac.   TWO of these categories I know is more than doubly hard  for either adults or children, especially when school and/or work are concerned. 

In this article, let’s look into the milk substitution problem and let’s include yogurt.  

Milk Substitutions

First is simply milk as a drink or as an ingredient which can be handled in the following manner for a 1 cup portion:

1   cup regular or vanilla soy milk

1   cup rice milk + 1 egg yolk*

1   cup water + 1 egg yolk*

1   cup coconut milk

1   cup  fruit juice  (my sister uses orange juice and I use prune juice , but something clear like apple juice suffices)

*Note:  egg yolk is an addition here if you can eat eggs because as my doctor told me, ”Remember, eggs are NOT dairy, they come from chickens not cows.”

Yogurt Substitutions 

1   cup soy yogurt

1   cup soy sour cream (adds extra richness, extra  thickness)

1   cup applesauce 

1   cup fruit puree

1   cup goat yogurt** (plain or vanilla)

** If you are trying to avoid cow products, a goat product may be a good substitute.  Read below to see why I can use.

In my home I use plain goat milk yogurt by Redwood Hill Farm.  Their package plainly states: Gluten-Free, No GMOs, Kosher Certified and so is a perfectly good substitute for my use.  I know that the goat milk molecule is smaller than the one of cow milk and I can therefore tolerate this product with no problem and with my doctor’s approval.

This information should get you started with some possibilities for your own needs and knowing that this particular yogurt contains active live cultures (s. thermophilus, l. bulgaricus, l. acidophilus and bifidus) becomes an extra bonus.  This makes for my happy digestion. 

As always, check with your doctor or nutritionist for the choices which are best for you.  

 Enjoy your new options!

by Ginny Creager, PhD

Sometimes people with Celiac Disease or Gluten Intolerance just want a good, rich cookie–fast. 

That might be because the store bought type are not always satisfying or available.  It might be because bakeries don’t often carry or cater to the gluten-free diet. It might be that every cookie offered to us at banquets, friends’ homes, meetings or for refreshments are not intended for the gluten-free diet.  Too often  the food servers or hosts don’t know how to answer our questions on the refreshments they are offering.   Privately, we know that eating such a morsel when we have suspicions could turn out to be risky. 

Add to that the thought and mess of making your own cookies.  That can be tedious,  time-consuming and make your kitchen pretty hot.  That led me to devise a tasty,  ”safe” (no-flour), and quick (8 minutes to bake)  cookie that my family and I would actually like .   

 Arizona Peanut Butter Cookies are so named because when I worked out this recipe it was again115 degrees here in Arizona.  Many summers we will get 100 degree days 100 days in a row!  That means I put a premium on fast baking on days like this.  I am also lucky enough to have an oven that can convert to convection cooking (usually at a decreased heat setting of 25 degrees for my particular oven).

Let’s get started:

Arizona Peanut Butter Cookies

Makes 36 small cookies

1 cup peanut butter (I like chunky style with a small amount of almond butter in place of an equal amount of peanut butter)

1 cup sugar ( I use natural cane sugar–not white)

1 large egg — beat slightly

Sliced almonds (optional)

Bake in 350 degree oven for 8 minutes. 

Directions — By hand mix the peanut butter and sugar together until smooth and dough holds together.  By hand, blend in the egg until evenly distributed and glossy.   Drop by teaspoonful onto a non-stick cooking sprayed cookie sheet or one covered with parchment paper which you have sprayed.  (Optionally, press sliced almonds on end into the top of each cookie mound)

Since these cookies contain no flour at all, there is no chance of gluten in the dough to spoil the treats. 

 Enjoy!