hey first post here, sorry if this question has been queried before.
I’m just wondering what anyone here does about flavouring there meals with, especially meats and stews. I’ve been gluten free for almost five years now and my sensitivity to CC or codex amounts is extremely high, for the majority of my celiac journey I’ve only used a good organic sea salt to season food with.
I’ve never ate out or had even gluten free processed foods until recently and I’ve done really well, but, as many of you can sympathise even this way of Eating is really healthy and nutritious, without flavour it does get mundane to the extreme.
Recently I got the food checker app from Celiac UK, and with that felt confident in expanding my diet just to include maybe a few processed snacks and spices into my main stables to keep them interesting. Problem is I tried two things - Nando’s packet spices - one which contained dextrose which I suspect to be a culprit, and Cadbury Twirls which are listed on the app and cadburys website as gluten free. But I’ve reacted to both! What gives? Does anyone else just eat a plain unprocessed diet? Are there any single spices you trust and can recommend to season my meats and soups with? Even certified GF stock cubes make me sick either from dextrose or awful Xantham Gum.
cheers to anyone who reads and can reply.This diet is so lonely and tiresome
Be well.
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Rebelliotto
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Through trial and error I’ve found that most supermarket herbs and spices are safe for me.
However I usually only buy the single ingredient ones - such as dried parsley, cumin, chives, paprika etc. Making my own combinations keeps my food flavoursome.
thanks for your reply. I only used to use single spices. Tesco used to be safe for me but they recently started making a spice with barley so I’m sure they’re spices have CC now. I’ve never tried Aldi but asdas spices often contains sesame seed traces which I’m intolerant too. Maybe I’ll try Aldi out. The only spices I want to use are white pepper thyme and garlic and onion granules
Can you tell me which spices have Barley. I use a lot, chinese 5 spice in particular, I had no idea they were anything other than pure spices and although I have never reacted, I am worried that they could still be harmful. I rely on herbs and spices to make my diet taste better, its so difficult otherwise.
You state that Tesco used to be safe for you but they recently started making a spice with barley, can you please let us all know which spices they are?
I would think that a lot of us use spices to try to make our restricted diets a bit more tasty.
Thanks
Hi there, I get all herbs & spices from tastesensationltd.com - allergens clearly stated, & accredited. If you have a steamer, the water in the bottom becomes good veg stock to use next day.
It would be great if there was a pinned post for Gluten Free Guerrillas so members can post their best recipes & a moderator could add it on to the pinned post so it doesn't get buried. There's probably great recipes & cooking tips buried in the depths.
that would be great about a pinned recipe post I agree! And thanks for providing that website I’ll be sure to see if they work for me. So bored of plain food but it’s the only way I feel good
That's a shame, so it could really do with one of us who's got the time & feels up to it to contact healthunlocked to get moderator status. Other groups have several moderators doing moderatory things like pinned posts.
All I can say is I've bought from tastesensationltd.com 3 times, get about a years supply as they have larger quantities but works out cheaper than supermarkets, & never had a gluten reaction. Each product's got reassuring info:
For Allergens: See ingredients in UPPER CASE and Bold.
Coeliacs: Yes. (or no)
manufactured in compliance with Salsa Food Safety standards and conforms to all current UK Food Regulations
I occasionally use stock cubes from Italy, but only when I make ragù (bolognese). Otherwise, I only use olive oil, salt, pepper, origano most of the times, sometimes chilli pepper and other herbs and, of course, garlic and onion (one or the other, depending on the dish, never the two together). I don’t think my food is bland.
Coeliac UK need shutting down in my books as they promote foods that make individuals with coeliac ill. Similar to you, I have to avoid all processed foods and the so-called safe ingredients like fructose, glucose, dextrose, etc. These are not safe. I used to be ok with codex, then I wasn't, and for a long time I got gaslighted by Coeliac UK on the safety of these items. I believe trusting gluten free food and CUK has kept me ill and caused untold damage to my body. I view that as a criminal action by Coeliac UK, in that they supress research to the contrary, and are doing harm by telling individuals it must be something else, and that leads to many unneccesary, and at times invasive/risky, medical tests/interventions. If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. If you have coeliac, and a food gives you coeliac symptoms, it is gluten that is causing it. None of us should be having any gluten whatsover.
Rant over - in terms of blandness I cook with fresh all the time. Fresh garlic, fresh chillis, ginger, black pepper, sea salt. Long slow cooking of meat (if you are not vegetarian/vegan), builds the flavour. Addition of celery and onions builds up the flavour further.
Savoury flavour comes from Umami - one of the five basic tastes, so perhaps opt for addition of ingredients that bring that into a dish.
You may have to also look at going back to basics and making your own stocks, but a batch can be frozen into individual servings for use.
There are a few links on here of recommendation of 'safe' spice brands, and I will see if I can hunt back on that as it was left on one of my older posts. I personally avoid all spices that are not fresh, apart from black pepper, out of concern, but a safe brand would be cheaper in the longrun.
Sweet foods - I made my own, to varying degrees of success. Dove Farm Freee range seems ok, but I can't tolerate their white flour so have to get creative with buckwheat or gram. Safe cocoa powder is a big issue, and if anyone is aware of one, please shout.
I use a brand of cocunut sugar which is very safe - The Groovy Food Company. Again, not the cheapest, but I have wondered about standard sugar I've bought and no mainstream manufacturer can reply with honesty.
As Cooper27 states - pesto good. Not sure if you can eat dairy products, but you can do a lot with cheese/milk/cream to bring depth to a dish.
I get what you mean though about the quick-fix flavour options like stock pots and oxo cubes. One oxo cube is a game changer. Salt & Vinegar crisps are also something I miss massively. I'm tried to make my own hand cooked crisps and flavour with sea salt and apple cider vinegar which was actually not a bad experiment.
I think ultimately the cost of living like this, particularly at the moment, is crazy. Food shopping when you are on the very sensitive end of the gluten spectrum is harsh.
Back with the rant - we need a better representative body that would take a lot of the burden of stress off this situation for us.
I agree with your ref CUK. It is a business with a vested interest in accrediting products as GF, and manufacturers pay a steep annual fee to use the crossed grain symbol. It is not fit for purpose. Like you, I cannot tolerate Codex wheat starch, which according to them is safe. I am wary of maltodextrin, often made from wheat but does not currently need to be labelled as such.
It's the lack of transparency that gets my goat, and their failure to acknowledge and validate those who can't tolerate any ppms/codex. They gaslight and imply other illnesses, which shunts people back to their GP/gastros and leads to unneccessary tests, etc. I liken it to Munchausen by Proxy - they would rather someone submit to hospital treatments/tests to save their profits, and not even flinch with the slightest guilt in doing so. They also waste a lot of research money on areas of research that their members/coeliacs do not benefit from directly, and ignore the areas that are crying out for research, mainly re-conducting the research on codex safety, ppm tolerance, and blanket testing of GF products to see if they meet even codex requirement. I genuinely dislike that organisation, and they entirely roadblock all progress. They're like a cult.
As in many things, it is a case of follow the money. They are lacking in many areas, but they probably have a huge marketing budget to keep them in the public eye. This of course has to be serviced with more cash. I prefer the Australian system which uses the lowest detectable level of gluten as a standard. And by that token, Codex is illegal in Oz. This would be safer for all in my view. What CUK seldom mention either, is that the 10ppm limit they impose is actually cumulative, adding up over time to far more than 10ppm.
Their classic line of you can have as much GF food as you want gets me everytime. What the actual 'research' shows in that MOST (not all) people with coeliac can consume up to 10-50mg per day, and no more. Other research, that CUK ignore, is more up-to-date research showing that damage, as you state, is cumulative over time with codex consumption. The original research cohort for the research the CUK misframe was only around 40 people. Tiny number, if you consider all with differing levels of damage and gluten tolerance.
I tend to just stick to sea salt and in summer grow my own herbs. Supermarket single herb and spices usually ok, like black and white pepper, rosemary, parsley, and turmeric, coriander, cumin etc usually ok if you like curry flavour.
I always check the Allergen labelling to make sure ok. As well as gluten I have to be careful of other allergy to certain spices and histamine sensitivity.
I mostly cook from scratch and avoid gluten free processed foods. The other ingredients don’t always agree like gums, emulsifiers etc.
I can’t tolerate Cadburychocolate - not gluten cross contamination risk as that’s a different reaction for me. But it’s the E numbers and emulsifiers that are gut irritants. As well as processed milk and whey/lactose.
Dextrose is an interesting one as it can be from wheat. Technically gluten free according to Codex but for sensitive people and those with a wheat allergy can still cause problems if sensitive.
There was a review study done not that long ago and it looked at a handful of countries (Ireland was included but not UK), and products labelled gluten free ( such as breads, pasta etc.) and naturally gluten free whole foods such as rice. It tested for gluten contamination and whether the products were within the 20 parts per million allowed for the label gluten free.The findings showed that most products labelled gluten free and even naturally gluten free contain gluten but in the low levels allowed.
The point is when it comes to a gluten free diet one size does not fit all (meaning individual sensitivity threshold varies considerably from one coeliac/ gluten/wheat intolerant to another) and to be gluten free truly it’s best to cook from scratch with whole foods.
There’s so many other additives in gluten free foods that can be sensitive to as well.
that’s why I stopped using Tesco spices as I noticed it in store they had started making that spice and it contained barley. They haven’t got back to me whether their other singles spices are made in the same facility as that one but I suspect they are. Alls I use now is Maldon Sea Salt I don’t even trust Tesco’s own pepper. Where do you buy your white and black pepper from?
It is very likely that they use the same facilities for other products. It would not be cost effective to have all the set up, labelling, etc. Very annoying that they haven't come back to you on that question. Their specifications will have that level of detail, with the origins of every single ingredient. It is likely that the minions who answer complaints/questions will not have access to that level of detail, but the technical team will. In my opinion, they should pass on all technical queries, but rarely do because they are under pressure to get responses out. This of course is why most of them are unsatisfactory. When in that role, I was always happy to answer technical questions.
Yes, and the same for sea salt crystals. We had posh salt and pepper grinders for a wedding present nearly 50 years ago. They have never been used for anything else and are in daily use.
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Just diagnosed
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