People with celiac disease have been raving for some time about the Gardenburger brand Grilled Veggie Burgers. But Kelloggs has now reformulated this product to contain wheat, so it is no longer a gluten free product.

No doubt it is purely a coincidence that just a few weeks ago one of the largest competitors of Kelloggs, General Mills, announced that they have reformulated their famous Rice Chex product to be gluten free.

The message I am receiving from Kelloggs is go away. While the message I am receiving from General Mills is, hey, we know you are there.

This seems to be an ideal case for the free market to decide, if Kelloggs does not want my business I will not buy any of their products. None.

If General Mills wants to acknowledge my existence and the special diet I must follow, then they can have my business.

This is sometimes called voting with your wallet. May the giant food conglomerate that wishes to make food I can eat be the winner.

Technorati Tags: Kelloggs, General Mills, Gardenburger, gluten free, Morningstar Farms, free market, veggie burgers

General Mills has announced that they will be reformulating Rice Chex as a gluten-free cereal! I might go to my local supermarket and see if it is there yet. This is great news. As a wee lad I could eat Rice Chex until the box was empty, anytime. Today I would be using soy milk instead of moo cow, but I bet I would still enjoy this cereal.

I’ve also read in the press recently an article suggesting that Gluten Free is the new health craze, following in the footsteps of low carb and no carb fads. If so perhaps it is the health fad aspect that is getting big megafoodcorps to pay attention. If 1% of the population has celiac disease, and only 3% of those with celiac disease know about it, that leaves .03% of the population who are on a GF diet because of having a diagnosed case of celiac disease. This is a very, very small minority. So if diet fadsters with no medical requirement to avoid gluten want to help make it easier to find gluten free food, we say good! Have at it. Did you see this rice flour over here ?

Technorati Tags: Rice Chex, gluten free, gluten free cereal, celiac, celiac disease, gf breakfast cereal, general mills

Food For Life Baking Company of Corona, California is voluntarily recalling 2,241 cases of Spelt Bread (UPC# 07347200168) because they contain spelt grain which is known to be a hybrid of wheat.

You see under the newly revised food allergen labeling laws, any product that contains one of the leading food allergens must be labelled as containing that allergen. Food For Life Spelt bread contains Spelt, Spelt is a wheat hybrid, the package did not state that the product contains wheat. Ooops.

Technorati Tags: Spelt, Food For Life, FDA, Recall, celiac disease, gluten free, gluten free diet, wheat hybrid

This post is not about Crelm toothpaste.

There is a company named Enzymedica that sells, among other things, a product called Glutenease. In their literature describing this product they make some rather startling statements, let us examine one in particular, the context is a discussion of the usefulness or lack thereof of the gluten free diet as a means of treating celiac disease, which is also called gluten intolerance.

Glutenease by Enzymedica Marketing Statement
“Though effective in the short term, removing foods does not provide an ultimate solution. Once those foods are reintroduced to the diet, the symptoms return. ”

Now imagine a person who is drunk, or high, playing Russian Roulette, and then suddenly realizing it is not a very smart thing to do:

Russian Roullette Claim Using Similar Logic

“Though effective in the short term, putting the gun down does not provide an ultimate solution. Once the gun is reinserted in the mouth, the person could die”.

We do not recommend that people with celiac disease, which is sometimes called gluten intolerance, should play Russian Roulette with their health. You can see more discussion of this product here.

Technorati Tags: Gluten free, gluten free diet, deceptive marketing, celiac disease, celiac diet, woo, dangerous products, misleading advertising

I used a recipe based on “Chickpea Yeast Bread” on page 116 of The Best ever Wheat and Gluten-Free Baking Book, I substituted the Bob’s Red Mill mix for the 3 cups of various flours, and I used tofu instead of eggs.

Wet Ingredients:
5 ounces silken tofu
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 and 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon Vermont maple syrup

Dry Ingredients:
3 cups Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose GF Baking Flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
3 teaspoons xanthan gum
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 cup Better Than Milk Vegan Beverage Mix, Soy
1 package yeast

Mix dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, try to break up the brown sugar clumps.
Put the silken tofu, olive oil and 1/2 cup of the water in a blender and mix thoroughly.
Put the dry ingredients in your Zojirushi or other bread machine
Pour in the tofu/oil/water blend
Pour in the remaining cup of water
Push the quick cycle (or gluten free cycle) button
Then wait about 2 hours for your delightful bread-like loaf of gluten free bread. Loveses it!

Technorati Tags: Gluten Free Recipe, gluten free bread, gf bread, wheat free, celiac diet, gluten free food, Bob’s Red Mill, Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose GF Baking Flour, Zojirushi, bread maker, bread machine

Bottom Crust:
Combine 2 cups of teff flour with 1/2 cup cold water and 1/2 cup olive oil in a mixing bowl. Press this crumbly mixture into the bottom and sides of a 12″ pie plate. Some will be leftover. Quantities adapted from a Bob’s Red Mill recipe.

Filling:
Blend one 14oz package of silken tofu, 4 heaping teaspoons of brown sugar, 3 ripe to over-ripe bananas and a 1/4 cup of unsweetened soy milk with a teaspoon of cinnamon. Continue blending until it becomes a gelatinous mass. Pour into pie plate. Slice a fourth banana into 1/4″ high slices and press into pie filling.

Top Crust:
With any remaining bottom crust mixture, add 1/2 cup brown rice flour, 1/2 cup buckwheat or sorghum flour, 1/4 cup teff flour, 3 heaping teaspoons of brown sugar, and just enough water to form small balls as you mix it all up. Drop this as crumbs onto the pie filling. If needed make some more so that none or very little of the banana pie filling can be seen.

Bake in a 425 degree oven, check in 35 minutes. Should be done in 45 minutes or less. Remove when the top crust looks darker.

Because of all the tofu this pie is unusually high in protein, and bananas are good for you too. Some people might want more sugar, but not me. Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Gluten Free Recipe, gluten free diet, bananas, vegan recipe, banana pie

Perhaps the best feature of this new website is the Celiac-related news. It is categorized, mixed, blended and served in your choice of several ways -as just headlines in the left and right sidebars, or in more detail if you use the navigation links.

There is also a big long section of GF recipes, and links to a few GF food items.

The site designer (c’est moi) hopes to build a community of people with celiac disease, and people on a GF diet for other reasons, like autism, are certainly welcome too. There is still time for you to be among the very first people to create an account at All About Celiac. Really, visit http://allaboutceliac.org/ today! It’s all free, of course.

Technorati Tags: celiac, gluten free, celiac disease, gluten free diet, gf, autism, gluten free recipe, GF videos

Gluten Free Live (GlutenFreeLive.com) offers gluten-free bread, bread mixes, buns, cereal, cookies, crackers and more. There is a section of this online store for gluten free and dairy free foods, as well as an area with gluten free milk substitutes in both dry and liquid form. Vegetarians who are eating gluten free will find an area just for them, and the gluten free pasta aisle is sure to be a favorite for everyone on a GF diet.Gluten Free Live uses advanced methods to find and filter online food sources so that you don’t have to wander through a web shop full of food you can not eat.

The founder of Gluten Free Live (GlutenFreeLive.com)is himself a vegetarian with celiac disease, so the site is backed up by years of personal experience eating a GF diet and designing web applications. At Gluten Free Live we want to help you be gluten-free.The book department at Gluten Free Live offers pre-configured lists of books about autism and celiac disease, as well as gluten free cookbooks. There are virtual store aisles with GF snacks, energy bars, fruit bars and our top-selling gluten free pretzels. There is also a section with gluten free meals that are ready to eat or require a minimum of preparation.

Busy cooks can find bread mixes, all kinds of gluten free flour, gluten free pizza shells, and gluten free pancake mix.Because many people on a gluten free diet rely on rice as a staple, the store (GlutenFreeLive.com) also features rice cookers, and rounding out the kitchen wares is a selection of bread machines. Gluten Free Live also offers pages with free gluten-free recipes and the latest news about celiac disease and autism. By partnering with Amazon the site is able to offer free super-saver shipping on many orders that total $25 or more. Gluten Free Live is now open for business. Shop now, shop often.

Technorati Tags: Gluten free food, gf shopping, celiac disease, gluten free shopping

Dry Ingredients:

2 cups brown rice flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup potato flour
1/2 cup whole millet, cracked in a coffee grinder
2.5 tsp xanthan gum
1.5 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients:

3 “eggs” worth of Ener-G egg replacer (or real eggs if you like)
1.5 cups warm water
2 tsp rice vinegar
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil (or equivalent butter or margarine)
1 tbsp blackstrap molasses
3 tbsp sugar
1 packet yeast

Blend the dry ingredients. In another non-metallic bowl mix the liquids and egg replacer, then heat the mix in a microwave for 20 seconds, or long enough to make it feel warm to your finger. Then add the yeast to the liquids, stir gently, and let it stand for 5 minutes or until you see foam from the yeast working.

Put the dry ingredients in your bread machine, and pour the wet ingredients in on top. Run a quick or gluten-free cycle. Or if not using a bread machine mix the ingredients and let it stand to rise for 1/2 hour. Then bake in the oven at 350F or 180C or gas mark 4 until brown. Enjoy!

My first useful loaf of bread in a few years did not rise very much in our bread machine, but it sure was delicious. I loved it!

Technorati Tags: Gluten-free recipe, GF recipe, gluten free bread, celiac disease, GF diet

You should be aware that Erewhon makes a number of different breakfast cereals, please be certain that the product you buy has the words Gluten Free displayed prominently on the package (if you have celiac disease). Most breakfast cereals contain barley malt flavoring, and since barley is one of the grains that people with celiac disease must avoid, that eliminates the vast majority of breakfast cereals from the gluten-free diet. In some cases malt flavoring is derived from non-barley sources like corn, which should be safe for people with celiac disease.

I like this cereal, it reminds me of another similar looking product that is known for sounds it creates in milk. I use soy milk with my breakfast cereal because I’m vegan as well as having celiac disease. You can buy this cereal at our celiac friendly food shopping site, The GF Store.

Technorati Tags: GF food, GF breakfast cereal, gluten free cereal, gf diet, celiac disease, coeliac, gf shopping, Erewhon, Crispy Brown Rice Cereal, Gluten Free, Organic