Mexican Food, I Though It Was Safe?

[Gemini]

The dip sounds like it would be gluten-free but there's no way to tell unless you ask or see all the ingredients.

If the restaurant fried the chips, they might have been fried in contaminated oil.

Restaurants do not add flour to chips to keep them from sticking.

Also, with the shredded cheese, using flour to prevent clumping is now pretty much a celiac urban legend. If you look at labels, you'll see that pretty much every cheese uses cellulose to cut down on clumping. Cellulose is gluten-free. If they did use flour, at least in the U.S. the wheat would HAVE to be listed in the ingredients.

richard

You know, Richard, you have posted many things that are 100% true and prove to me you are another one who has taken the time to really learn this disease and all the urban legends out there which exist about what is gluten-free and what is not. Many of the Celiac publications talk about all the things mentioned here by people and it amazes me what people believe without checking out the source.

I have noticed that many manufacturers now use xanthan gum for a thickener and cellulose as an anti-clumping agent. Because of it's expense, if a company is going to all the trouble to use xanthan gum as a thickening agent, you can bet the rest of it will be gluten-free. I think they are catching on to the large population of non-wheat eaters....which is great for us.

Another urban myth is the "hidden gluten" ingredients. One of the gluten-free magazines ran an article which pretty much stated this was not true. Now because of all the labeling laws, manufacturers would have to include on the label if wheat were in the product. If you stick with healthy processed foods, the ones without a thousand ingredients on the label, it's pretty easy to figure out what's gluten-free and what isn't. A simple call to the manufacturer will solve the mystery also.

I find Mexican food to be the easiest to order out. I am also lucky to have a great Mexican restaurant near to me which has a separate gluten-free menu. Their chips are freshly made and cooked in a dedicated fryer. However, many Mexican foods are gluten-free naturally and I have found it to be pretty easy to order out and not get sick.

As most Mexican food is not deep fried to begin with, the chip worry is not as prevalent as one might think....unless it's a mainstream restaurant which also serves some Mexican food and may cook something in oil used to fry french fries that are coated with something wheaty. Not all restaurants are create equal.

This is the type of information that should be made mainstream when someone is diagnosed as it's what many get hung up on and then get discouraged with the diet.

[kbtoyssni]

Also, with the shredded cheese, using flour to prevent clumping is now pretty much a celiac urban legend. If you look at labels, you'll see that pretty much every cheese uses cellulose to cut down on clumping. Cellulose is gluten-free. If they did use flour, at least in the U.S. the wheat would HAVE to be listed in the ingredients.

I was actually at Don Pablos restaurant a few months ago, and they use wheat flour to prevent clumping. I, too, thought it was somewhat of an urban legend, but I guess not! I've never seen any grated cheese at the store contain flour and never heard of another restaurant doing this, either.

[kbtoyssni]

Every one I've ever checked on does NOT put wheat in the chips. Some do fry them in oil that's contaminated, but that's a different story. Now please help us out with the names of the Mexican restaurants you've found that adds wheat flour to chips. That would be a comment that would actually be useful.

I think I have run into restaurants that use wheat flour to prevent their corn tortillas from sticking, though. Can't think of any names off the top, though.

I've also run into corn chips fried in contaminated oil, but never ones that have wheat added.

[Katsby]

I haven't been able to eat Mexican food though I've tried several times. Even when I knew everything was gluten free I felt sick. Could it be the seasoning? Maybe you are sensitive to something else? Maybe it's just the spices.