I don't see anything I would call low carb food there. I mean maybe "Ground Spices"....

Most of it I wouldn't even call food.

Understand that even in things that commonly have gluten, such as seasoning packets and soy sauce, you can sometimes find a brand or variant that doesn't. You just have to become an avid label reader and preferably, write the company that manufactures them. Some corps will respond with basically, 'read the label and it's your problem' (which is stupid since labels can say a lot of stuff that is unspecific and have multiple unlisted elements); some will be very helpful and give a whole list of what is vs. is-not gluten-free of their products.

My boyfriend is celiac. The problem is that most gluten-free foods are merely looking for a way to replace grains, so instead of using wheat they use rice and potato starch. Much gluten-free food is HIGHER carb than ordinary food. And, ironically, much low-carb food is HIGHER gluten than ordinary food. (I'm talking about chip/bread/tortilla/pasta-ish stuff here.) The two kinds of eating, if those sorts of foods are your preference, verge on incompatible.

However, as noted above, the vast majority of "real food" has no gluten and not many carbs either. It's mostly the "faked foods" or "processed food products" that are at issue there. Eat MEAT, VEGETABLES, FRUIT and some dairy and it's unlikely to be at issue.

PS Except molded cheeses like blue cheese have gluten.

PJ

If you want information about what foods do and do not contain gluten, go to Celiac sites. There are good ones out there, which have much more complete information than you are getting here.

Plenty of real foods, even low carb real foods, contain gluten. Look on a package of sausage and see whether it contains any of the ingredients mentioned. Many, if not most, sausages contain gluten. You would have to find a brand that does not. Applegate Farms and Boar's Head are good at labeling for this.

Going to buy some fish? Even in the fish counter, much of it has been frozen and then thawed to put in the counter to sell. And guess what most places do when they commercially freeze fish or shellfish. Dust it with a non-visible layer of flour to keep it from sticking together as much. This is especially true of shrimp. So either buy fresh and never frozen, or you have to beware. Trader Joe's seafood products are specifically not treated that way. But a regular grocery store? Forget it. And imitation crab, which is roundly believed to be fish actually contains significant wheat.

Blue cheese made in the U.S. does not contain rye. Made elsewhere, it may. Wine produced in the U.S. should be fine, but cheap wine produced elsewhere may not be, as it is often filtered with grains -- particularly wheat.

Also, Celiacs know that if you are buying food, Kraft and Conagra will always list ingredients such that if you know what you are looking for, you will be able to tell from the label whether the item contains wheat, rye, barley or oats, because they will tell you if the preservative in the can of tomatoes is sourced from something that is a common allergen or cannot be eaten by Celiacs.

Before being diagnosed with Celiac, I ate low carb years ago. I got a lot of gluten when I did too. Not in Frankenfoods or processed foods. I loved making stir fries. My husband and his brother would eat it over rice. I would eat it plain. That was soy sauce. I ate fish bought at the regular grocery store that had been processed. I ate barbeque, without worrying about the contents of the sauce, as long as it was low carb.

Conversely, rice, corn, potatoes, amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, cane sugar, honey, arrowroot, tapioca, millet, certified gluten free oats, sorghum flour or syrup, and teff are all whole, gluten free foods and not garbage, but they are all high in carbs. Most are higher in carbs than wheat, rye, barley or regular oats. In fact, what makes those things so great to bake with is the fact that the protein content is high -- the gluten, which gives the grains certain attributes that other grains do not have, making breads have air pockets and making them stonger and tough and stick together instead of crumbly. Because of the high percentage of protein, they have a lower carb content than these other, gluten free grains.

So no. Gluten free does not mean low carb, even a whole, non-frankenfoods based gluten free diet, does not mean low carb. And low carb does not mean gluten free. If you have to eat gluten free anyway, low carb may be easier for you than low fat, because you already live in a world of substitutions for most carby things like bread and pizza, if you want those things. But you still have to give up the others.

Huh... I worked in a seafood packing plant and we never did that. Must be something new. Seems to me it would make it stickier.

I buy never frozen fish (or no fish at all) and frozen shrimp in the shell, which I peel. I know the guy who grinds my sausage, and I watch it happen sometimes.

But I am not saying that you can't find gluten in some low carb "foods", I am saying that if you are low carb, it is not much of a stretch to go gluten free. I would say that if you are doing low carb, you should do it gluten free. Why not?

Exactly!!!

I'm glad to hear you are able to do that and that your company didn't put things on the seafood before freezing. Many do.

Since most people don't have access to a friend who makes their sausage, here's a link to a random Jimmy Dean I clicked on. Sounded like an average one available in most groceries, without a bunch of special flavors. It contains MSG. MSG is gluten. Low carbers might opt to eat this. A Celiac could not.

http://www.jimmydean.com/siteconten...ld-country.aspx

MSG isn't gluten containing in the US.

Here's a list of ingredients to watch out for: http://www.celiac.com/articles/182/...ents/Page1.html

MSG has this note:
1) If this ingredient is made in North America it is likely to be gluten-free.


Good heavens, what sausages need MSG added? They must be lousy sausages if they do. Costco and Trader Joe's have sausages without fillers or weird ingredients, except I think nitrate which they can't get around by law in the US.

I posted that same link on the first page (along with the list, since someone couldn't read it from the link). Just because your food is assembled in N.A. doesn't mean the ingredients are from here. Unless it is a trusted maker, like Kraft or Conagra, or you have confirmed with the company that the product is gluten free, if it says MSG, you shouldn't be eating it.

As for nitrates, I know you can buy fresh sausage without it at Whole Foods. Maybe it's just packaged stuff, but I would think that Applegate Farms would not contain nitrate either. Haven't looked to tell you the truth.

If it is manufactured in the US it is covered by US laws.

I agree that MSG is something to avoid, for other reasons, but it isn't necessarily going to contain gluten. Yes, check with the manufacturer if you're not sure.

I think packaged sausages have the nitrates. Probably stuff in the butcher case that are made on site don't.

MSG is monosodium glutamate which might make the less informed think it is gluten. I agree that some people need to avoid gluten, it's a real problem.

But I do worry about the level of magical thinking that has crept into the issue. People who won't eat food that was cooked in pots that might have once held some gluten product, are believing that magical essences of gluten somehow infuse the metal of the pot. That's just too spooky.

And that seems to be a fairly common style of thinking in the celiac world view. Maybe it's just the more vocal part.

I didn't either until I went to my local grocer and made friends with the butcher.

I just now got back from a one hour trip to three butchers in three towns. All three would make me sausage to my order, and two said that they would make fresh, no preservatives bacon. I was really looking for locally made jerky without sugar, and I would have to order that from one of them several weeks ahead. I decided to get the bacon and keep some cooked in the fridge.

Point being, two of these butchers are on my way to the SuperWalmart. The third is only a few miles out of the way. I can't get that sausage at Walmart for any price, but I can buy it at a fair price from my friends and neighbors.

Well, I can understand the paranoia when you're stricken with horrible results every time you get even a tiny amount of gluten. Sometimes it is hard to understand where it is coming from.

I don't think anyone who hasn't dealt with it isn't likely to be sympathetic to the issue. I also think a well-cleaned pan shouldn't present an issue but if I were suffering horribly I'd probably be just as crazy those who are replacing all their pans and stuff.

If you could point me to the U.S. law the requires that MSG not be made from wheat or that it be made from a particular substance, I'd be interested in seeing it. Food law is generally contained in the Code of Federal Regulations, and the CFR contains no such regulation. It merely says that MSG is considered to be safe, what foods it may be used in, and when it must be listed on a label. While there may be industry standards in the U.S. that MSG not be made from wheat, it does not appear to be required by law. Furthermore, even if it were required that MSG manufactured in the U.S. be made from a particular substance (or not from another), without a law prohibiting use of foreign MSG or use of MSG sourced from certain substances, there is no law prohibiting use of MSG sourced from wheat.

Thus, products manufactuered in the U.S. from MSG sourced elsewhere (or from the U.S. for that matter) appear to have zero laws governing the source of MSG.

I am sympathetic. I have similar problems with other substances. I get asthema from someone smoking in the car ahead of me on the interstate. But my sympathy includes wanting them to find the actual problem. If sympathy doesn't include that, it is poor sympathy.

I just know that at least some of those who imagine gluten in every surface are actually suffering from something else. If they keep thinking it is magical gluten, they will never look for the other problems.

Some may be specks on improperly washed pans, but some might be other allergies, undiagnosed illnesses, or toxins from other sources. If you have to look for gluten on washed surfaces, you might want to look at other things too.

Or perhaps to those of us who are more informed, we know that MSG has traditionally been made from wheat and beets.