Jump to content
  • Welcome to Celiac.com!

    You have found your celiac tribe! Join us and ask questions in our forum, share your story, and connect with others.




  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A1):



    Celiac.com Sponsor (A1-M):


  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Our Content
    eNewsletter
    Donate

Help With Food Lists And Databases


canebreak

Recommended Posts

canebreak Newbie

I have been diagnosed for a year. For 6 to 9 months I pretty much survived on foods labeled gluten-free at the expensive places. Also, I ate fresh meats, veges, etc. I am basically healed and back to running levels that I attained before being diagnosed.

But now I am older and wiser and I know I am missing out on some good mainstream stuff. My question is simple. How good are the food databases subscriptions like Clan Thompson and Gluten Guard? I have a demo of Gluten Guard and I must say I am a little disappointed with the demo. For Example, it says Sweet Baby Rays contains gluten.

What is the concensus on these services? Should I subscribe to one or just get satallite radio instead? Do you trust them and which is the best? I am urgently needing to cut down the time I spend worrying about food. I have a cold and I spent probably a couple of hours over the holidays looking up mucinex, cough syrup, antibiotics, etc. There is more to life. Any advice is helpful. Also, do you recommed desk top or palm.


Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):



Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):



kathy1 Contributor

I am also thinking about purchasing the Clan Thompson material and would be interested to hear what everyone here thinks about it.

  • 1 month later...
glutenboy Newbie

I purchased Gluten Guard last week and thought I'd share my experience so far. I also purchased a PocketPC (Dell Axmin) and the SDIO bar code scanner at the same time. Please bear in mind that I'm a computer geek and a bit of gadget nut, so I might be willing to put more effort into these things than some people.

The Axim:

- Nice screen, 640x480 vs the 320x240 that some PocketPC's come with

- has CF and SDIO slots that can be used simultaneously

- has 256 meg "static" ram where GG can be installed, so I haven't needed a Compact Flash card yet

- comes with Windows Mobile 5.0, includes Word Mobile or something like that

SDIO Bar Code Scanner

- this is the exact one supported by GG

- install software, plug it in, generally just works - except with GG. More on that below

Gluten Guard

I purchased GG from celiac.com, because I like supporting people who provide free resources like this web site. That does add a small complication to the support process, becuase if you email the GG people directly they say to email Scott first, and then he forwards the question on to them, and then they reply. But, the one question I've had so far did get answered, though it took a little longer than it might have if I bought from the GG people directly.

GG has a simple interface - if you have a scanner, you hit scan (with the stylus), aim it at the product, and it reads it. If you don't have a scanner, you bring up a software keypad and enter the UPC code with the stylus. Either way, once entered it searches the database for a match. If there is one it gives you green, yellow, or red; if not, it tells you. Found or not, you can enter a note.

For yellow or red items, you can ask for details on why the product gets that status. This is nice because you can make a judgement call, especially for the yellow items, on whether or not to buy the product. As they say, it's not 100% accurate. So by looking at the exact reasoning you can make an informed decision. It can also educate you about ingredients that you may not know contain gluten (yellow or caramel coloring, for example).

It's definitely not 100% accurate though. One example is disodium X, where X could be guanylate, inosinate, or Wheat Germamido. From what I can tell both from internet searches and a gluten-free soup can label, the first two are OK and the third contains gluten. GG flags anything that contains any disodium though - erring on the side of caution. I guess that's better than saying gluten is OK, but it underscores that this is really a tool to help you make decisions - not the definitive resource that we might hope for.

About the bar code problem I alluded to: I cannot get the bar code scanner to work with GG. It works great with other PocketPC apps, but when I use it with GG it always comes up with one of two products, even when the number being scanned is a valid product in the database. Windows Mobile5 and the 640x480 resolution are not listed as supported by GG though, so this could be a case where GG needs to be updated for the latest OS. I have not yet contacted GG about this, so it could be something else too. I can't complain too much about this because I knowingly bought something aside from the exact supported configuration. If you really need the bar code scanner to work, I'd buy the exact supported configuration on GG's web site.

Another downside to GG - the product database seems pretty small. I'd guess that I got less than 1 in 5 hits for items I was scanning for purchase. And I don't mean silly things like pastas, breads, or cookies. I mean processed foods and soups that may or may not contain gluten, where a product like GG would be really handy. So it really is more of a helpful tool than a replacement for complete awareness of what ingredients you can and cannot eat.

And that really brings up the question - is it worth it? Since there are so many foods that won't be in the database, you'll need to know your ingredients and call companies anyway. If you get in the habit of doing that, should you spend the $80-120 for a partial solution? Especially when the new labelling regulations help identify gluten? That's a decision that only you can make.

Overall I do like having a small computer that can take shopping. I'll probably give the Clan software a try too, after my credit cards digest this purchase. Since Windows Mobile can run Word, I think I can also get the Delphi lists in there easily. There is also some cooking/recipe software for PocketPC, and that would be nice while shopping. So a PocketPC looks to be a very helpful shopping tool, with or without GG.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Celiac.com:
    Donate

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A17):
    Celiac.com Sponsor (A17):





    Celiac.com Sponsors (A17-M):




  • Recent Activity

    1. - Jay Heying replied to Jay Heying's topic in Gluten-Free Foods, Products, Shopping & Medications
      6

      Celiac friendly probiotics

    2. - Florence Lillian replied to Jay Heying's topic in Gluten-Free Foods, Products, Shopping & Medications
      6

      Celiac friendly probiotics

    3. - slkrav posted a topic in Introduce Yourself / Share Stuff
      0

      Gluten free beer ?

    4. - cristiana replied to Colleen H's topic in Gluten-Free Foods, Products, Shopping & Medications
      16

      Ibuprofen

    5. - Mari replied to KathyR37's topic in Coping with Celiac Disease
      5

      New here


  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):



  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      131,885
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748

    KateFC
    Newest Member
    KateFC
    Joined

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):


  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      121.4k
    • Total Posts
      1m

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):





  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):



  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • Jay Heying
      Thank you so much for the advice!! I will try to make a batch this weekend. Have a great weekend,
    • Florence Lillian
      In response to your questions regarding probiotics.  I have had Celiac for 40 years.  Stomach issues: digestion, IBS to chronic constipation, bloat after eating anything.  I was unable to eat a healthy variety of foods, tried probiotics supplements - some made me worse, others made no difference.  After reading about people with Crones, IBS, etc, who made their own probiotics I started making Milk Kefir: not water Kefir. There are 10 probiotics in milk KEFIR. After 3 weeks I was able to eat more, no gas, no IBS.  If you have a computer just ask for videos on making milk Kefir. I branched out and make my own Kombucha for even more probiotics. I do not make my yogurt because there are only about four probiotics in that. I started this when I was 82 and I still make my own Kefir and Kombucha. My stomach issues were fixed with the Milk Kefir alone. If you decide to try making it, make certain you order MILK GRAINS. The finished product tastes a bit like Buttermilk. I hope this helps in your journey to good health.
    • slkrav
      Help me out here. Lauren Dam gluten-free beer from Spain is listed as gluten free. Yet its made from Barley Malt. I thought barley and any form had gluten. Anybody have any more information about it?
    • cristiana
      Ferritin levels.  And see what your hemoglobin looks like too, that will tell you if you are anemic?  You can have 'low normal' levels that will not be flagged by blood tests.  I had 'low normal' levels, my lab reading was. c12, just over what was considered normal, but I had small benign lesion on my tongue, and sometimes a sore mouth, and a consultant maxillofacial ordered an iron infusion for me as he felt my levels were too low and if he  raised them to 40, it would help.   Because you are not feeling 100% it might be worth looking at your levels, then discussing with your doctor if they are low normal.  But I stress, don't supplement iron without your levels being monitored, too much is dangerous.
    • Mari
      Hi Katht -  I sympathize with your struggles in following a gluten-free diet and lifestyle. I found out that I had Celiac Disease a few months before I turned 70. I just turned 89 and it has taken me almost 20 years to attain a fairly normal intestinal  function. I also lost a lot of weight, down to 100 lb. down from about 140 lb. What Trents wrote you was very true for me. I am still elimination foods from my diet. One person suggested you keep a food diary and that is a good idea but it is probably best just to do an elimination diet. There are several ne and maybe one for celiacs. I used one for a while and started with plain rice and zucchini and then added back other foods to see if I reacted or not. That helped a great deal but what I did not realise that it would only very small amounts of some foods to cause inflammation in my intestine. Within the last few years I have stopped eating any trace amounts of hot peppers, corn and soy(mostly in supplements) and nuts, (the corn in Tylenol was giving me stomach aches and the nuts were causing foot pains). Starting an elimination diet with white rice is better than brown rice that has some natural toxins. In addition it is very important to drink sufficient plain water. You can find out how much to drink for your height and weight online. I do have difficulty drinking 48 ounces of water but just recently have found an electrolyte supplement that helps me stay well hydrated, Adding the water and electrolytes may reduce muscle cramps and gag spams you wrote about. . Also buy some anti-gluten enzyme capsules to take with meals. I use GliadinX advertised here. These are a lot of things to do at one time as they reflect my 20 years of experience. I hope you do what you can manage to do over time. Good luck and take care.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

NOTICE: This site places This site places cookies on your device (Cookie settings). on your device. Continued use is acceptance of our Terms of Use, and Privacy Policy.