We learned to be gluten free in Dubai, we learned to be gluten free in a place where there was no bread available to buy in the shops (at that time), hardly any biscuits or crackers or cereals available at all, and what WAS available (back then) was gluten free, gluten free as in as close to 0 gluten as you can get, in european terms, ‘naturally gluten free’. The sucky thing is, many countries now produce gluten free foods using wheat starch. Yeah, I know, makes zero sense. Wheat = gluten, so why the hell are you putting it in my gluten free food? I don’t care how hydrolysed and processed it is, to me its still gluten, and you know what, it IS! Its STILL gluten, just happens to be below 20 ppm. But think about it… if its 15 ppm, and you eat it every day, and then eat crackers and bread and pasta and a few other things then holy CRAP are you really eating gluten free at all?

In our case the choice is made easy, because our celiac kiddo reacts to wheat starch, she reacts to traces, she reacts to things that are not as close to 0 gluten as you can get, and why shouldn’t she? She has CELIAC!? All those people who eat the pretend gluten free foods and feel great, I wonder how they would feel if they ate only 0 gluten free food….?

Anyway, back to why they put this gluten free wheat starch in food. Heres the deal. Gluten means GLUE in latin, and thats how it works, when you bake or cook with gluten, gluten is what binds things together, the glue that makes your bread not fall apart (like a gluten free bread might..). Wheat, is CHEAP. So for manufacturers it makes sense to use GLUTEN in our gluten free foods, because the alternatives are far more expensive. But who is paying the price… really? Will research in a few years come far enough to ban wheat starch in gluten free foods? I hope so!

Please note, there is wheat starch and there is gluten free wheat starch, so if you are a celiac wheat starch eater, make sure you ONLY eat the one that is labelled as gluten free, its not 0 gluten, but it is at least below 20ppm. 

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