Shopping Guide And Ingrediants

[ASM613]

Hey all,

I recently found out I am allergic (not celiac, not intolerant) to gluten. It does not induce shock, but I have horrible allergies and feel quite crummy after eating foods. Doc thinks it might have been the gluten all along. So, I am going gluten free. As a newb, I have a few questions and would really appreciate as many people as possible weighing in:

1. To get started, I'd like a shopping guide. How is cecelia's? Is it reliable?

2. I read elsewhere in this forum that cecelia's is a crutch, and that really its best to become a good ingredient reader. How do I become a good ingredient reader? Is there a database of book of some sort that goes through all ingredients, and provides other tips and tricks?

3. Is ingredient reading really good enough? Apparently lots of things that would seem gluten free can be derived from gluten sources and processed foods that say gluten free and have no gluten ingredients may in fact be cross contaminated. That is why cecelia's was appealing to me not just as a crutch, but using primarily, because it would seem the authors are aware the these types of issues. Thoughts?

Thanks!

EDIT: Wow, I cannot believe I misspelled "ingrediants" in the title. I'll take my one free pass now, thanks.

[TiaMichi2]

I use Cecilia's as a first point of reference, I still read the ingredients of the foods they reference however, and I at times also call the companies if I still have some doubt.

I have not had any problems with their lists.

Personally, I have to be also careful of CC since I am very sensitive.

Welcome to the world of gluten-free!!!!

[sa1937]

Welcome to the forum!

While I never bought a gluten-free shopping guide, I see nothing wrong with using one as long as you also read ingredient labels. It's impossible to publish a guide and expect it to be accurate all the time as manufacturers do change ingredients occasionally and it would be impossible to keep anything like that up-to-date.

Here's a list that you may want to refer to that includes safe and unsafe ingredients

You might also want to check out this Newbie Info