What is Gluten?

The GIFT program from BABBITTS cooking classes, consulting, group classes and consulting can have you loving living gluten free. Personalized cooking classes with gluten free recipes that work can help to normalize your life! For whatever reason, you now have to live gluten free. What do you do now? The first step is to know what gluten is.

Gluten is a protein that is found in most grains. Most commonly it is found in wheat, rye, barley, spelt and kamut. Oats can be a problem for some people as they can be produced in the same facilities as other grains and can be contaminated. Thus, products that contain wheat, wheat germ, wheat grass, wheat germ oil, rye, barley, spelt, kamut, triticale, graham flour, farina, couscous, bulgur, semolina and oats (unless they are gluten free certified meaning that they are not produced in a facility that produces gluten containing grains) are not safe. Oats, oat bran and oat fiber may contain gluten and malt is not safe either. Whoopers malted milk balls are out, so are twizzlers…I learned these the hard way.

It would be wonderful if it was just that simple. However, these grains can be in many processed products. Here is where you have to be very careful in reading labels. The bright spot is that the USDA requires that the top 8 allergen foods be identified in labels, that is wheat, soy, dairy, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, fish and shellfish. You might have noticed that wheat is identified, not gluten. knowing what other gluten products is very important as they are not just wheat. For example, some vanillas are a problem, soup stocks and broths, Pringle potato chips, some chocolate chips, some candy and the list goes on.

Gluten is a protein. It is the protein that makes pizza dough chewy and wonderful. It gives bread it texture, holds it together and helps it rise. It is also what thickens most sauces and soups. Wheat flour is in so many foods. Though this sounds wonderful to most cooks and pizza lovers, some of our bodies do not handle the protein well and it will make us sick. The damage can be serious.