My sweet celiac and youngest, Izzy

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Read The Fine Print...

One thing many mom's of children with food allergies and people WITH food allergies learn to do very well and very quickly is read food labels.  But do you really know what you are reading?  For instance, did you know that things that read Autolyzed Yeast Extract and Modified Food Starch can both contain traces of wheat?  Yep they sure can....and there is nothing other than research or knowledge, or flat out a bad experience that would let you know that just by reading the label

Also, with the Gluten Free diet becoming a "trend setter" in the news and on more labels, it's getting more attention.  This is usually a good thing to raise awareness of things people don't even think about normally.  I mean, eveyone knows what having a peanut allergy if like these days and it can be a very good thing to raise awareness for all these life threatening allergies our children and other adults have but Gluten seems to be a puzzling thing.  People look at you as if they have no idea what you are talking about.  Oh, you mean seasoning can have Gluten in it?  Pudding, Candy, Chocolate, and so on.....No it's not just your everyday bread, crackers and pasta so the new awareness is a positive for the most part.  BUT there are also dangers to this new awareness.  For instance, many of the new pizza places like Dominos and Maggio's are advertising a Gluten Free Pizza Crust.  Great, that's awesome.  Glad to have another product in the community like this that naturally raises awareness but have you ever read the fine print on their commericals or adds?  They make their Gfree crust in the same kitchen as the other regular glutenous crust and put it in the same oven and on the same pans.  So their fine print states that if you have an allergy, verses living a gfree lifestyle/diet, you should NOT eat their gfree pizza.  To me, it means it truly isn't Gfree and doesn't help our lifestyle at all because Isabelle can get sick from standing in a facility that has flour in the air, much less something that has touched a pan that has had regular pizza crust on it.  So please, for those with celiac's or the more severe form of Gluten intolerance, stay away.

And whatever you do, READ THE FINE PRINT. 

1 comment:

  1. Your point is right on! My kitchen is nut and dairy free, but we eat less gluten, but we are not anaphylactic to gluten. So, even though my recipes can be gluten free, I won't let my wheat allergic friends eat my cooking.

    I am afraid that I will forget good cross contact segregation and allow wheat to touch non-wheat food!

    Thanks for sharing. I hope you and your family are healthy and well.

    ReplyDelete