So some of you might be wondering what is gluten? Where is gluten found? Gluten quite simply a protein found in grain, simple right? Well let’s see what http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-gluten.htm has to say about gluten:
Gluten is a composite formed from several different proteins. It is found most commonly in wheat and other related grains, such as barley and rye. Adding texture and a characteristic chewiness to baked goods, this ingredient is used in a wide variety of other foods as a thickener and binder, flavor enhancer, and protein supplement. Some people can develop an intolerance to these proteins, however; a gluten-free diet often helps to alleviate symptoms caused by this intolerance and prevents further damage to the body.
Pasted from <http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-gluten.htm>
Still think it’s simple? My first red flag popped up at read the part about gluten being a flavor enhancer, my thought was great I'm going to be eating bland foods for a while. The second was this will be easy it’s not like it’s the rest of my life, boy was I wrong on all counts.
So I started looking around to see how do I tell what has gluten in it can’t be that many things. Wheat, barley and rye can’t be that bad. Well that was until I seen a list like this
· Binder or binding
· Bulgur
· Cereal
· Cereal binders or cereal protein
· Couscous
· Duram (durum)
· Einkorn
· Farina
· Filler
· Flour
· Frumento
· Graham
· Gum base
· Hydrolyzed wheat protein
· Kamut
· Malt
· Manna
· Matzo
· Matzah
· Matzoh
· Modified food starch
· Modified starch
· Rusk
· Seitan
· Semolina
· Special edible starch
· Spelt
· Starch
· Thickener or thickening
· Triticale (a hybrid of wheat and rye)
· Wheat alternative
Pasted from <http://gluten.lovetoknow.com/Other_Names_for_Gluten>
Sad thing is that this is only the list for other names for wheat
I thought about finding a list with things containing gluten but I think it would be easier to find a list with all the foods that don’t contain gluten…might be smaller anyway. So can you see how this can get discouraging very fast?
