Special: Out Smart Sneaky Gluten

When someone is trying out a gluten-free diet for the first time, it is difficult to ensure success without a clear idea of what contains gluten, and what doesn't. Something that many people underestimate is how many store bought sauces contain gluten: barbecue sauce, soy sauce, worcestershire, and many salad dressings all can be potentially loaded with gluten without you thinking twice about it. Thankfully, over the years, I've come up with my own formula when buying anything, ANYTHING, from the store--read the ingredients. Read them very carefully. Mysterious ingredients such as "malt" or "modified food starch" or "hydrolyzed protein" could end up irritating your stomach (or intestines I guess?)  and make you feel really sick.

I still make mistakes to this day, despite four years of practice. Just a few months ago, I picked up a box of Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs cereal. All looked fine on the ingredients list, mostly just corn and sugar and crap like that. I then passed the box to my friend so she could take the second read. All looked fine. We bought them. At home, I was crouched on the floor, my hand deep inside the cereal box which hadn't even left the grocery bag yet. I was gabbing away, munching away, and so pleased to have found a new treat I could eat. I picked up the box again, and I began casually reading it again. I was distracted by the cartoon drawings on the back on the box, but then I saw it: WHEAT STARCH!! The very last ingredient was wheat starch, it even started on a new line after the 40 or so other ingredients. I was horrified. That night, and for 3 days after I felt really sick...ya know, the 'gluten poisoning' as I call it. Lesson learned for now I guess.

And about a year before this, I bought "Three Peppercorn Hummus" from Save-On Foods. I didn't even read the label, because, well it's fricken hummus! What could possibly go wrong. I ate some... I learned my lesson again. There was wheat flour right in there. Yes, wheat flour. This was the "Western Family" brand mind you, I wasn't expected the best hummus I've ever tasted, but adding wheat flour seemed so unnecessary.