I've been trying to be gluten free for three months now, (since I found out I had Celiac Disease) but keep making mistakes about ingredients, so I am still trying to heal. I finally rearranged my pantry and fridge, calling each 800 number for foods I was unsure of, due to gluten being hidden in "natural flavorings). A couple of things I am still unsure of: soy...is it all bad, or just soy souce with malt? Caramel? What about colas or coffe drinks flavored with caramel? And vinegar....does only malt vinegar have gluten? Does the bottle need to say distilled? This is a whole new lifestyle and it's very time consuming to cook everything from scratch. Any help will surely be appreciated!

Welcome to the Forum!!! Now, take a deep breath.

It is my understanding that in the US (hope that's where you are), anything containing any of the 8 top allergens must be labeled accordingly. That means that something containing "natural flavoring" must state that it contains wheat, if it does. That being said, here in the states, natural flavoring and caramel (such as in Coke) is SUPPOSED to be gluten-free. But anything suspect, I would make a phone call on.

As far as soy- many people simply cannot tolerate it, especially during the healing process. You may want to look into that if you feel it is preventing you from getting better. Soy doesn't bother me at all, so I eat it. The problem with regular soy sauce it that is contains wheat... but you can find wheat free (usually called Tamari).

It gets easier!!!

Lizzard gave you some good advise already.

Here are a couple of links that I think will be helpful.

http://www.celiac.org/downloads/Quick%20St...NAL%2010_06.pdf


http://www.glutenfreeindy.com/foodlists/in...donothidegluten

Soy is not gluten related.
Most soy sauces do contain wheat, but LaChoy is gluten free and San-J Wheat Free Tamari.
Caramel and Vinegar are now considered safe (although some super sensitive people do react to grain based products. Distillation is said to remove the offending proteins from the vinegar and alcohol.)
Seven-up, Pepsi, Coke and their variations are all gluten free.

In the beginning, I put a green sticky dots on those products that I verified as gluten free, so I did not have to over burden my brain remembering things that I checked on. It really helped alot. My sticky green dots also doubled from my family members to know that a product was safe for me and they are not to "double-dip" with their gluteny knife in my peanut butter.

The diet is very time consuming, but it will soon become second nature. You can learn a tremendous amount from here. Glad to have you amongst us.

Here is a list of companies that won't hide any gluten (wheat, rye, barley, malt, or oats) in any of its ingredients. If it contains a gluten ingredient, it will be clearly listed. (i.e., don't have to worry about starches, flavorings, etc.)

http://www.glutenfreeindy.com/foodlists/index.htm

Hum, yeah, I stole the list from happygirl. It's a pay it forward kinda thing.

There is no stealing, my dear. If so, I "stole" it from others as well. Its just a great resource!!!! All great resources are fair game!

Also, a note on the vinegar/alcohol/etc, issue. Many of them are not derived from a gluten containing grain in the first place. They may be made from corn, potato, etc.