Celiac.com 05/04/2009 - Nowadays every type of food you can desire is available in a convenient form, ready to be popped into a microwave or an oven. This demand for convenience has caused grain consumption to escalate. If you think you don’t eat that much grain (and gluten), think again: much of the gluten that you consume is hidden - you don’t even know you're eating it!

For example:
  • Food Manufactures add “vital gluten” (gluten that is specifically processed from high-gluten-contained wheat) to wheat flour to give it more binding power.
  • Gluten is used in the manufacturing of virtually all boxed, packaged and tinned processed foods to create textures that are more palatable to our taste buds, and are used as binders, thickeners and coatings.
  • Gluten is even used to make many commercial glues such as those used on envelopes and stamps.
  • Even if you were consuming the same amount of grains today as you did last year or 10 years ago, you would be ingesting more gluten. That’s because bio-engineers continually work to improve gluten and make it a larger and more potent part of edible grain. It is estimated that today’s wheat contains nearly 90 per cent more gluten than wheat did from a century ago.
To get an idea of how much hidden gluten you might be consuming, take a walk down the aisles in your supermarket and stop to read the labels. You’ll find wheat, barley and / or rye in products like:
  • Barbecue sauce
  • Biscuits and cakes
  • Breaded fish, chicken and seafood
  • Bread - even potato bread and rice bread
  • Cereal
  • Couscous
  • Crackers
  • Potato crisps
  • Most frozen dinners
  • Pies and Pasties
  • Rice Mixes
  • Sauce and gravies
  • Some ice creams
  • Some salad dressings
  • Some soy sauces
  • Teriyaki sauce
  • Tinned and dried soups
  • And many, many more items!

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