Well, what a difference 24 hours makes. Yesterday I tried to take the high road and think the best rather than jumping to any negative evaluations regarding advertisers. My goal was to clear up a common misconception that I ran into frequently, but frankly, didn’t understand where it was coming from. A quick on-line search seemed to validate the fact that the misleading information was solely coming from laypersons and not the manufacturer of this sprouted bread, but today brought different information.
A patient sent me an email telling me that she had been consuming Ezekiel bread due to a recommendation from several other gluten sensitive friends (the friends were not patients of mine). She had been suffering stomach pain and was starting to wonder about the validity of her friends’ recommendations when she read yesterday’s blog post. She sent me the exact information from the bread’s packaging which she took to understand was fine for her on a gluten-free diet. This is what it says:
“While sprouting promotes the digestibility of grains through enzymatic activity, this product contains naturally occurring gluten found in whole grains, such as wheat. For gluten free products please visit our website.”
My patient’s confusion stemmed from the comment “naturally occurring gluten”. Her friends had told her: “It is not processed, so it is good to eat.”
“Naturally occurring” - of course it's naturally occurring. Do we harvest wheat and then INJECT it with gluten? It's a protein in the grain; it couldn't be anything BUT naturally occurring!
And the next sentence really explains it: It basically says that if you want something that IS gluten-free visit our website… Why? Because the thing you just bought ISN'T!!!
From my perspective, I don’t find it confusing. But I’m a doctor who specializes in this area. My patient is highly intelligent and she didn’t understand it. Plus many other patients have had the same confusion. Between words like “digestibility”, “enzymatic” and “naturally occurring gluten” all in one sentence, it’s no wonder.
My recommendation is that if the food is starchy and contains any types of grains, don’t consume it unless it says “gluten-free” on the label. Spread the word!
To your good health,
Dr Vikki Petersen
Founder of HealthNOW Medical Center
Author of The Gluten Effect
www.healthnowmedical.com
Friday, April 03, 2009
Gluten-free Diet Confusion: I Take it Back – Ezekiel bread’s label IS misleading!
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5 comments:
Did she say if she read the ingredient list?
One thing that is NOT misleading is the ingredient list. Even if someone thought that sprouted whole wheat was GF in this product, they only need to read the second ingredient in the list...Organic Malted Barley.
https://www.foodforlife.com/procart_catalog/index.cfm?ProductID=33&do=detail
INGREDIENTS: Organic Sprouted Whole Wheat, Filtered Water, Organic Malted Barley, Organic Sprouted Whole Millet, Organic Sprouted Whole Barley, Organic Sprouted Whole Lentils, Organic Sprouted Whole Soybeans, Organic Sprouted Whole Spelt, Fresh Yeast, Sea Salt.
Reading the ingredient list is imperative to remaining gluten free. Until the FDA passes Phase II of the FALCPA law, the words "Gluten Free" could be meaningless. Currently in the US there are no standards as to what gluten free really is. The proposed limit is 20 parts per million.
Al
Oops, guess I can't count - it's the 3rd ingredient. :-)
Sorry 'bout that...
Al
Bread from spelt flour is also confusing. It is not unusual for people starting out on a GF diet to be told they can have spelt. I met one woman who was so happy to have found a bread that her daughter liked. Only problem, it was spelt.
Vita Spelt says this "As of January 1, 2006 the FDA is classifying spelt in the wheat family.
To follow this new ruling, all of products are going to have the word "wheat" on the package even though they don't contain any. Every product we carry is made from 100% Pure Spelt." http://www.purityfoods.com/
I think that is a very confusing statement.
Anne
Thanks for the comment Anne and I completely agree about the confusion. Spelt is a glutinous grain. Too often patients relay to others that they can't have wheat when they discover they're gluten sensitive. We are big education proponents here at the clinic and we encourage patients to commit to memory the list of grains they can't eat so they will instantly recognize them on ingredient lists.
To your good health,
Dr Vikki Petersen
hi nice post
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