It sounds ridiculous, but you’d be surprised how often wheat makes its way into vague ingredients such as “spices” (or less vague but seemingly benign ones like tamari, for example, or malt, or yeast), often unlabeled as containing wheat, barley, or rye.
If you have Celiac disease, you figure this stuff out over time. I’m glad to see bacon labeled as “gluten free” - it means I can trust it. Packaged bacon might have a seasoning or glaze applied to it. It’s so easy to get burned by stupid labeling (e.g., “ingredients: pork, salt, spices”).
If a terrifyingly minuscule amount of something could give you violent shits and debilitating migraines (an amount the size of a grain of sand will do it), you’d be cautious and suspicious of labelling as well.
At that point idk how you could actually eat anything from a grocery store since everything there is likely processed in a facility that handles wheat. In fact, i would say meat products and farm to table produce are probably the only items at a grocery store that haven’t come into contact with some sort of allergen.
Yes, exactly. And forget about restaurants (unless they specifically cater to gluten-free [and even then, you’re playing roulette]).
And yes, 100%, unprocessed fruits, veggies, eggs, dairy, and meat products from the perimeter of the grocery store are the safest. Cooking most things from scratch is the best strategy.
Even then, again, sometimes meats are pre-seasoned or brined. Ya gotta be careful and diligent.
Look, eating a mostly from-scratch “Paleo” or “Weston A. Price” diet is objectively the best way to go for everybody, Celiac or not, vegan or carnivore. Nobody disagrees that unprocessed farm foods are better than factory food snacks. Alas, cooking every damned meal every day when you have a career and other obligations is tough. Processed foods do find their way in.
You do the best you can, and diligently read every label, building a list of the “good guy” brands. (For what it’s worth, Siete and Primal Kitchen are fucking godsends. Goddamn we love Siete).
Again, been burned before. Adding “gluten free” isn’t as stupid as it sounds.
Been burned by the adhesive on paper straws. Been burned by instant coffee (flavorings, apparently). Been burned by “plain” hashed brown potatoes (spoiler alert - they weren’t so plain, because of cross-contamination in the packaging facility - they didn’t clean their conveyor belts between product runs. That took some legwork to figure out). Been burned by fucking apple sauce (malt; and also, why?!).
Imagine living in a world wherein all food products might have at least a little bit of rat poison in it. You’d start really appreciating anything intentionally labeled “rat poison free,” even if it’s something that “shouldn’t” need it (like “plain” bacon).
It sounds ridiculous, but you’d be surprised how often wheat makes its way into vague ingredients such as “spices” (or less vague but seemingly benign ones like tamari, for example, or malt, or yeast), often unlabeled as containing wheat, barley, or rye.
If you have Celiac disease, you figure this stuff out over time. I’m glad to see bacon labeled as “gluten free” - it means I can trust it. Packaged bacon might have a seasoning or glaze applied to it. It’s so easy to get burned by stupid labeling (e.g., “ingredients: pork, salt, spices”).
If a terrifyingly minuscule amount of something could give you violent shits and debilitating migraines (an amount the size of a grain of sand will do it), you’d be cautious and suspicious of labelling as well.
At that point idk how you could actually eat anything from a grocery store since everything there is likely processed in a facility that handles wheat. In fact, i would say meat products and farm to table produce are probably the only items at a grocery store that haven’t come into contact with some sort of allergen.
Yes, exactly. And forget about restaurants (unless they specifically cater to gluten-free [and even then, you’re playing roulette]).
And yes, 100%, unprocessed fruits, veggies, eggs, dairy, and meat products from the perimeter of the grocery store are the safest. Cooking most things from scratch is the best strategy.
Even then, again, sometimes meats are pre-seasoned or brined. Ya gotta be careful and diligent.
Look, eating a mostly from-scratch “Paleo” or “Weston A. Price” diet is objectively the best way to go for everybody, Celiac or not, vegan or carnivore. Nobody disagrees that unprocessed farm foods are better than factory food snacks. Alas, cooking every damned meal every day when you have a career and other obligations is tough. Processed foods do find their way in.
You do the best you can, and diligently read every label, building a list of the “good guy” brands. (For what it’s worth, Siete and Primal Kitchen are fucking godsends. Goddamn we love Siete).
Now that is a dentist that gets around!
‘Plain raw bacon’ is the kind that doesn’t have spices.
Again, been burned before. Adding “gluten free” isn’t as stupid as it sounds.
Been burned by the adhesive on paper straws. Been burned by instant coffee (flavorings, apparently). Been burned by “plain” hashed brown potatoes (spoiler alert - they weren’t so plain, because of cross-contamination in the packaging facility - they didn’t clean their conveyor belts between product runs. That took some legwork to figure out). Been burned by fucking apple sauce (malt; and also, why?!).
Imagine living in a world wherein all food products might have at least a little bit of rat poison in it. You’d start really appreciating anything intentionally labeled “rat poison free,” even if it’s something that “shouldn’t” need it (like “plain” bacon).
Right. Imagine. Wild.
Edit: I joke. American food safety standards are better than that. Not impressively better. But technically better.
‘plain raw bacon’ is almost always not actually raw.