is ham gluten free? Just starting on the diet process and am struggling to read labels and figure out when a product does not need a gluten free label.

[Elizabeth M Blair]

gluten free meat, reading labels

[trents]

Welcome to the forum, Elizabeth!

Are you asking about whole ham or ham-based sliced lunch meat?

[trents]

Processed and "formed" meat products often use "meat glue" to bind pieces together in a certain shape convenient for packaging and use. This "meat glue" can cause problems for some celiacs as it is very similar to gluten:

 

[DonnaNM]

Hi Elizabeth, I have been gluten free for 18 months. As a high level Celiac (my antibody numbers were off the chart), ham is a challenging product.  I have been glutened by Costco ham, so we don't buy it anymore.  Sam's used to have labeled gluten-free ham, but I noticed they removed the "gluten-free" label.  As a result, I am extremely careful of any ham product. Smithville sliced ham agrees with me, and it is labeled gluten free. I hope this helps.

[Elizabeth M Blair]

Thank you Donna.  Your comment was most helpful.  am will look for Smithville sliced ham.  Such a learning curve with this.  I too had a high diagnosis from the blood test and will be having the endoscopy this coming week.  If the diagnosis is positive, I will try to get my insurance company to cover some sessions with a nutritionist to get help with food choices and reading labels.  But wanted to start the suggested diet as soon as the blood test results came in.  I much appreciate your response.

[DonnaNM]

34 minutes ago, Elizabeth M Blair said:

Thank you Donna.  Your comment was most helpful.  am will look for Smithville sliced ham.  Such a learning curve with this.  I too had a high diagnosis from the blood test and will be having the endoscopy this coming week.  If the diagnosis is positive, I will try to get my insurance company to cover some sessions with a nutritionist to get help with food choices and reading labels.  But wanted to start the suggested diet as soon as the blood test results came in.  I much appreciate your response.

You're welcome!  It's nice to have a place to share and learn about our Celiac disease.  All my best!

[trents]

2 hours ago, Elizabeth M Blair said:

Thank you Donna.  Your comment was most helpful.  am will look for Smithville sliced ham.  Such a learning curve with this.  I too had a high diagnosis from the blood test and will be having the endoscopy this coming week.  If the diagnosis is positive, I will try to get my insurance company to cover some sessions with a nutritionist to get help with food choices and reading labels.  But wanted to start the suggested diet as soon as the blood test results came in.  I much appreciate your response.

Elizabeth, have you already started eating gluten free yet? You should not begin eating gluten free until the endoscopy/biopsy is done or you risk invalidating the results. Healing of the small bowel villi begins as soon as you eliminate gluten. The endoscopy/biopsy's purpose is to check for damage to the small bowel villi caused by the immune system's inflammatory response to gluten in those with celiac disease.

[Elizabeth M Blair]

1 hour ago, trents said:

Elizabeth, have you already started eating gluten free yet? You should not begin eating gluten free until the endoscopy/biopsy is done or you risk invalidating the results. Healing of the small bowel villi begins as soon as you eliminate gluten. The endoscopy/biopsy's purpose is to check for damage to the small bowel villi caused by the immune system's inflammatory response to gluten in those with celiac disease.

Yes, I have been instructed to eat a slice of bread with gluten every day for two weeks before the upcoming endscopy.  I was given no other instructions. I had two different blood tests some years back with no sign of Celiac, despite the family  history, but my GP. never told me to eat gluten before the test and I had been avoiding gluten due to some symptoms. 

[trents]

The Mayo clinic recommends two slices of wheat bread (or the gluten equivalent) daily leading up to the biopsy but other medical authorities allow for less. But I realize that you also have to manage symptoms in the process. It has gotten better but there is still a lot of ignorance, particularly in the area of general practice medicine, about gluten disorders. We hear that same story about "I wasn't given instructions" over and over on this forum.

[Elizabeth M Blair]

Trents.  My primary care doctor did say eat one slice of wheat bread a day. She know nothing about the disease but looked it up somewhere.  Also I'm sure I'm eating other foods that contain gluten without knowing it as I am nowhere up to speed on reading labels with all of their mysterious items.  I upped the wheat slices tonight after reading your post and will be sure to eat two slices instead of one tomorrow.  This forum is so helpful!  Thank you Trents.

 

[Wheatwacked]

When the time comes, here is a list of foods to eat and avoid.  Products allowed/disallowed in the Gluten Contamination Elimination Diet

Ask for vitamin D plasma test B12 and homocysteine tests as they will give you and your doctor an indication of some probable vitamin deficiencies.  When you stop eating fortified foods you need to replace those nutrients.

[Elizabeth M Blair]

On 7/16/2023 at 2:36 PM, trents said:

Elizabeth, have you already started eating gluten free yet? You should not begin eating gluten free until the endoscopy/biopsy is done or you risk invalidating the results. Healing of the small bowel villi begins as soon as you eliminate gluten. The endoscopy/biopsy's purpose is to check for damage to the small bowel villi caused by the immune system's inflammatory response to gluten in those with celiac disease.

 

[Elizabeth M Blair]

No, before the test I followed the instructions and ate wheat bread for three days.  And the definite endoscopy found Celiac disease.  After that diagnosis I began a gluten free diet - some time in July.  I found a fabulous GI nutritionist and she not only gave me a lot of helpful information but I left her office feeling positive about the gluten-free diet!  I could not have been more surprised at this outcome.  The nuances are still challenging when following the diet but it's wonderful to have people here who can answer further questions and offer suggestions.  Thanks to all of you!

[Aaron2018]

Here are some of the gluten free hams I buy:

 https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fgrimmsfinefoods.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F06%2F11675_Grimms_Front_Honey-Maple-Ham-_800g.webp&tbnid=EGWfLVx8FMLG9M&vet=1&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fgrimmsfinefoods.com%2Fproducts%2Fhoney-maple-flavour-ham-half%2F&docid=OqkpNLNwgMYhKM&w=850&h=850&hl=en-US&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim%2Fm4%2F3

 

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gianttiger.com%2Fcdn%2Fshop%2Fproducts%2Fpreview_images_883993_f_249.webp%3Fv%3D1698334969&tbnid=Fsd2sj6RYdU-MM&vet=1&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gianttiger.com%2Fproducts%2Fgrimms-fine-foods-extra-lean-old-fashioned-ham-175-g&docid=2RndrGskZucIdM&w=2000&h=2000&itg=1&hl=en-US&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim%2Fm4%2F3

these 2 grimm’s hams are really good and they come in 2 different flavours plain ham and honey ham.

[Aaron2018]

There are lots of gluten free ham options from grimm’s so the 2 I gave links for are not the only ones from the company that are gluten free.

[Scott Adams]

This link might be helpful: