Abbey Dawn Williams - Gluten Free Diet: Essentials for Staying Healthy with Gluten Free Living and Gluten Free Weight Loss

At first glance it may look likeyou have to cut out a lot of foods. In reality, you just have to shift thingsaround a bit most of the time anyway. You will have to change the way you dosome things like shop and cook. You will have to learn how to read and understand labels.The most current research regarding celiac disease suggests that the safe levelof gluten in a finished product is about 200 parts per million (ppm), or 0.02%or less. However, it could even go as low as 20 parts per million, or 0.002%.These are the maximum levels of gluten that are considered safe for people withceliac disease. While food labels vary from country to country, in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has no set guidelines governing thelabeling of gluten free foods.

Currently, manufacturers are not required todisclose gluten containing ingredients on their labeling. Additionally, foodslabeled gluten free may not be entirely gluten free. The FDA currently allowstrace amounts of gluten in foods that are labeled gluten free. There areproposals on the table to improve the labeling of gluten free foods, but at thepublication of this book, no finalizations to this proposal have been made andno final decision is in sight. Trace amounts, per the FDM means that itallows a variance of a supposedly small, but undefined amount. However, themajority of manufacturers are adhering to the proposed regulations indicatingthat gluten free labeled products contain less than 20 ppm.

Another significant concern when purchasing foods labeledgluten free is cross contamination. Again, labeling for cross contamination isvery poor. When shopping for gluten free products, you must be careful becausesome grains, flours and seeds that are inherently gluten free but not labeledas such are actually contaminated with gluten. This could cause you to accidentallyingest gluten even though you are trying to maintain a gluten free diet. Cross contamination can occur at any stage of the processingand preparation of a food. For instance, a gluten free food that is goingthrough the manufacturing process may become contaminated with gluten if thatmachinery is also used to processed foods containing gluten.

But even your ownhome is not exempt. If you use a toaster for bread containing gluten, then youcan easily contaminate your gluten free bread if you put it in that sametoaster. It is very important to keep gluten free foods and foods containinggluten separate including storage, preparation and cooking. When you are shopping, read the ingredients list even if thefood is normally considered a gluten free food. Gluten can be found in avariety of ingredients such as modified food starch, vegetable proteins, barleyof wheat derivatives, malt flavoring and starch.