Few Questions About Certain Foods?

[JaniceS]

So I've recently started a gluten-free diet while awaiting the results of my biopsy (flat mucosa was found) and learned somethings that I never knew. For one, I didn't realize that soy sauce had wheat in it. I have a gluten-intolerant friend and she eats soy sauce and white rice as a snack a lot! When I told her soy sauce had wheat in it she was shocked. She said she's never had a negative reaction to soy sauce. I'm also a big soy sauce person (I cook with it, a lot) and love to dip my sushi in soy sauce. So, knowing that even if you don't have a reaction, people with celiac can still have damage from eating foods with gluten, I am saying goodbye to my Kikoman soy sauce and am looking for a good replacement. At the store I checked out ingrediants of La Choy and San-J soy sauces. Personally I dislike La Choy, but has anyone tried the San-J soy sauce? Or can anyone suggest a good gluten-free soy sauce?

Another question I have is about oatmeal. I am reading lots of different things about how oats effect people with celiac, and that there is debate on whether or not oats contain gluten. Can anyone comment on how oats effect them? Should I try to eat some and see how they sit with me or just avoid it? I am a little confused because couldn't it still effect you but just not give you any noticable side effects?

And one last question (sorry I have so many!) about blue cheese. Oh man I love this stuff, but when ordering from Outbacks' gluten-free menu on Father's Day I saw that my beloved Blue Cheese Wedge salad said AVOID BLUE CHEESE DRESSING. I checked my blue cheese dressing at home and it didn't seem to have any ingrediants that had gluten in them. However, after a google search I read that some people say to avoid blue cheese because the culture to start veined cheeses was started on bread and therefore contaminates the blue cheese itself. Could anyone shed some more light on this too?

I am quickly learning that going gluten free means I am having to drop a lot of my favorite foods and find new replacements for them, but if I don't have to drop it, I would like to try and keep some of them. So any help is welcomed. This site has already been so helpful! Thanks!

[kareng]

Here's a list of some safe foods that people question. Blue cheese is on it. Once upon a time, the blue part was grown on wheat then added to the milk part. Most companies don't do that anymore. Even if they did, the blue mold eats the wheat up and changes it to blue mold.

https://www.celiac.com/articles/181/1/Safe-Gluten-Free-Food-List-Safe-Ingredients/Page1.html

Oats: https://www.celiac.com/categories/Celiac-Disease-and-Oats%3A-Are-They-Gluten%252dFree%3F/

Up at the top it says Celiac Disease Info. Click it & you will see that alot of questions are answered there.

I'm going to add to this. Be right back.

[sb2178]

So, in terms of oats, nobody recommends them immediately. I would wait at least until you have fully normal (negative) bloodwork. There are different modes of thought about time, ranging from 6 months to 2 years, before trying them. Everyone seems to agree on the not more than 50 g daily rule of thumb.

I reacted to them quite obviously the first few times (tried after 7 months gluten-free and receiving normal bloodwork). I can handle small amounts on occasion, but if I eat them for breakfast daily for 3 days, I'll develop obvious fat malabsorption. After I finish the bag I have, I probably won't buy another.

[tea-and-crumpets]

I am a big fan of the San-J tamari. We buy several bottles at a time because we go through it so quickly. I did not like La Choy. The taste was just not good to me.

They also have dipping sauces that are pretty good. I found the best price on it at Whole Foods, surprisingly. I need to see if I can buy it in bulk.

Also, make sure you are buying the wheat-free tamari!

I would avoid oatmeal and when you do bring it back in, only use gluten free oats. Because of the way oats are grown and shipped, using the same fields and equipment as wheat, they're completely contaminated unless specially grown.

[sa1937]

I currently have San-J Tamari Sauce (wheat-free) and it's good. Before diagnosis I was a huge fan of Kikkoman soy sauce. While I haven't seen it yet in stores around here, Open Original Shared Link has come out with a gluten-free version.

[JaniceS]

Ahh, thank you all for answering so quickly! Prevented me from making that bowl of oatmeal (so glad I checked first!) and probably saving a lot of hassle. I am glad to hear that blue cheese is on the safe list (I do love snacking on my blue cheese - Celery and Carrots + Blue Cheese Dressing = absolutely lovely!) and that someone has tried the San-J tamari and approves of it. The nearest Whole Foods is about an hour away, so I'll probably just buy one at first and then buy in bulk if I can.

It is sad to hear about the oats - but I'd rather not eat them than have the negative experiences I've been trying to stop. Oats and risk "disruption" or my oh-so-tasty Gluten-Free chocolate muffin? I think the choice is pretty simple! Maybe I'll try oats again in a year or so, but probably take the suggestion to buy gluten-free oats just to avoid any contamination and certainly will keep it to 50g a day and probably then (if I can tolerate oats) only on occasion.

I am so thankful for this site, it is making going gluten-free less difficult. Everyone is so friendly too!

Ohh, and just saw the post about Kikkoman's gluten-free soy sauce, I'll start looking for it in the store to. So happy that it seems there are lots of options out there!

[kareng]

Ahh, thank you all for answering so quickly! Prevented me from making that bowl of oatmeal (so glad I checked first!) and probably saving a lot of hassle. I am glad to hear that blue cheese is on the safe list (I do love snacking on my blue cheese - Celery and Carrots + Blue Cheese Dressing = absolutely lovely!) and that someone has tried the San-J tamari and approves of it. The nearest Whole Foods is about an hour away, so I'll probably just buy one at first and then buy in bulk if I can.

It is sad to hear about the oats - but I'd rather not eat them than have the negative experiences I've been trying to stop. Oats and risk "disruption" or my oh-so-tasty Gluten-Free chocolate muffin? I think the choice is pretty simple! Maybe I'll try oats again in a year or so, but probably take the suggestion to buy gluten-free oats just to avoid any contamination and certainly will keep it to 50g a day and probably then (if I can tolerate oats) only on occasion.

I am so thankful for this site, it is making going gluten-free less difficult. Everyone is so friendly too!

Ohh, and just saw the post about Kikkoman's gluten-free soy sauce, I'll start looking for it in the store to. So happy that it seems there are lots of options out there!

We have SAn-J at the regular grocery stores, Target & I think Walmart. Probably cheaper at Target or Walmart.

On the San-J, I know a certain large chain of "CHINESE" food that uses it in a lot of the dishes, not just the ones marked gluten-free. SH!

[eatmeat4good]

Here's a list of some safe foods that people question. Blue cheese is on it. Once upon a time, the blue part was grown on wheat then added to the milk part. Most companies don't do that anymore. Even if they did, the blue mold eats the wheat up and changes it to blue mold.

https://www.celiac.com/articles/181/1/Safe-Gluten-Free-Food-List-Safe-Ingredients/Page1.html

Oats: https://www.celiac.com/categories/Celiac-Disease-and-Oats%3A-Are-They-Gluten%252dFree%3F/

Up at the top it says Celiac Disease Info. Click it & you will see that alot of questions are answered there.

I'm going to add to this. Be right back.

You just made my day! I have been avoiding Blue Cheese now for 9 months. I'm celebrating this with a salad with Blue Cheese Dressing this weekend. I will let ya know how it goes!

[T.H.]

Re: the gluten free tamari. You can totally pull an erudite chef moment with this one. Tamari, without wheat, is actually the original soy sauce as it was first used; wheat was included in soy sauce at a later date, partially because it mellows the flavor somewhat. So some traditional asian dishes will often call for tamari rather than soy sauce.

The flavor is stronger, a little harsher, so if you use it instead of soy sauce because of the gluten, you may not want to add quite as much tamari as you would soy sauce, and possibly have something added to mellow it out a little. Wish I knew what ingredients work for that, but turns out I'm allergic to soy, too, so I never got a chance to mess around with this, LOL.

I used the San-J gluten free tamari for my family and they seemed to like it quite nicely. I have seen some food bloggers that were making a dish with tamari to mention San-J specifically, so hopefully that means it's pretty good.

I have also heard that some thai soy sauces are also typically only soy based, and so some traditional Thai restaurants may be using gluten free soy sauce for all their dishes. I haven't really looked into this, just came across it once on a food show, as I recall. Might be worth looking into, though, if you like asian food. :-)

Do you cut up your own sushi, or do you buy it pre-made? There are a few, like unagi, that are marinaded with soy sauce, so those ones are hard to get unless you're getting 'em right off the boat.

Re: the blue cheese. From what I've seen - calling up the companies - the more expensive the cheese, the more of a risk that it might have mold that was grown on bread. Basically, the process is slow and produces mold in smaller amounts, so only really high-end cheese manufacturers can afford to do it this way anymore. Or possibly local cheeses with limited distribution.

Unfortunately, while the mold itself is fine, if it WAS grown on bread, there's just no way to ensure that it has completely broken down the gluten from the bread that it was grown on, and the method for collecting the mold doesn't separate the mold from the bread completely. So some still gets in there, and it is slowly being consumed, but that doesn't mean all of it has been. A risk, in other words, but almost all the blue cheese you're going to run into is gluten free...well, at least the mold is. :-D