Gluten Free and Cruising

[Soontobecruiser]

He turned out to be just fine and we laugh about it now.

[scottyt]

my wife is a diabetic so at some time in the future i will have some problems too.

the funny part is she is going to school to become a pastry chef, who will specialize in low/no sugar food

[hellosailor]

The chief baker for Whole Foods found out not too long ago that he was a celiac, and that's why Whole Foods now has their own gluten-free bakery operations. (Some nice products, but often spoiled in distribution and storage.)

[seabreeze_97]

It is so frustrating to me that, especially in the U.S., companies advertise one thing, but on the back label, state something else. My girlfriend has a very similar issue in having a wheat allergy, and, as they say, if it has wheat, it has gluten, but it may have gluten, and not necessarily have wheat. So often, the label will show in big eye-catching letters, "Gluten, or wheat-free!" However, look for the fine print on the back of the package, and it'll say it's processed in a facility that handles any one or several of the offending products. Why even make a product that claims to be safe, only to contaminate it on the production line...and risk potentially fatal reactions? The little profit that comes from that Ooops purchase can't be worth the lawsuits and bad press that would follow. Never more true is another saying, "Let the buyer beware."

[wind_magic]

Back to what I mentioned about milling your own flour from grain - one of the comments I read somewhere was that you have to worry about grains like oats being cross contaminated with wheat that was grown the year before in the same field because you get volunteer wheat plants that end up being harvested with the oats. That isn't a problem if you mill your own grain because you can easily sort out the wheat seeds from other seeds like rice, amaranth, oats, etc. I can see it being a problem in an automated factory that just grinds things up, but for a human being wheat seeds are obviously out of place if you just look at the grain as you are milling it. Wheat seeds don't look like anything else.

[nailbunnySPU]

Definitely check out quinoa. With quinoa, IMHO, there's no reason for rice. Except maybe pudding.

[sailingdog]

This was a new experience for me, dealing with gluten and food issues...since one of my good friends has celiac disease.

A lot of the stuff I take for granted would nuke him. When we were delivering his sailboat last spring, we were fortunate to find a small market that had a huge gluten-free section about five minutes from where we had the boat. This was a real eye-opener for both him and me. Fortunately, awareness of celiac disease and related food-borne problems is better, and there are now alternatives for many traditionally gluten-laden foods. Rice-based pastas are a good example. While some of these aren't quite up to the flavorful standards of what they're replacing, they provide a reasonable alternative at least.

My favorite moment from the delivery last spring was when Mary was making lunch the first day, chicken salad IIRC. Unbeknowst to John, we had bought some gluten free sandwich wraps. She offered him a wrap for lunch, and he tried explaining he couldn't eat it... then we explained, that he was wrong... it was safe for him to eat—since we had bought him some gluten free wraps, so that he wouldn't be forced into making his own meals when we were having sandwiches or wraps... I think that if he had had to make his own separate meals, it would have created some distance between all of us on that delivery.

[hellosailor]

Quinoa ("kee-noir") looks and tastes a lot like birdseed (millet) to a lot of us. the red quinoa tastes somewhat better, but...like tofu, you'd never really rush out to buy it unless you planned to add some other flavor.

Kasha, aka "buckwheat", which is not related to wheat at all, provides another good alternative. A lot of the "gluten free" products are sold to the yuppy audience that has imaginary allergies and priced accordingly.
For instance, gluten free noodles, $4/lb. But if you buy Thai rice noodles in an oriental supermarket, they are at most $2/2lbs, 1/4 of the price.

But thank god for the hypochondriacs, they've made a market large enough to allow mainstream gluten-free foods for those of us who really physically need them.

The trick to rice noodles of any kind is NEVER TO BOIL THEM. Boil the water, kill the flame, let the noodles steep in it until they are soft. And once they are soft, they rapidly go to mush, so you have to keep an eye on them. Boiling water mushes them way too quickly, and on a boat you also save a significant amount of fuel by letting them steep in the boiled water, instead of keeping them on a boil.

[motovationcycles]

I have Celiac disease. It took over ten years of testing for everything fom MS, Cancer, Crohnes disease and many others before they figured it out. I have traveled to many places in the islands. It seems most places know more about Celiac than the USA. Fresh chicken , fish and fruits and veggies are always available. I was surprised the first time I went to Bermuda the grocery stores had more Gluten free items , than I have ever seen in the Washington DC metro area. With Trader Joes and other places opening up it has become much easier. Check out Celiac Disease Foundation for more info. We hope to be leaving in several year to go cruising and I don't worry about where to get food. Canned Tuna is alway available in a pinch.

[hellosailor]

Dan-
Watch out for the canned tuna, most of it is canned in some kind of "broth" and often chicken or vegetable broth is made with gluten (to thicken the feel of it) or with SOY SAUCE that has been made with wheat.
Trader Joes can be a wonderful place, they even have a gluten free "menu" list for the products in the store. Highlighting the gluten-free orange juice and apple juice...a sure sign that someone is catering to that larger market.
But I give 'em credit, their gluten-free buns and breads are fresher and taste better than the ones in Whole Foods. Which has it's own gf bakery, after their corporate baker discovered his own celiac problem!