Rakdan

I am confused by the wording of this article. "Prevent the occurrence" of Celiac disease sounds like something that only works before the fact, but then this is referred to as a treatment.

Personally, I am not too worried about a shared facility. However, sometimes companies lie, and it is really shared equipment, so it makes a difference whether you trust the company. You could also call to confirm that it is not shared equipment. I am also allergic to dairy. With dairy, I would be somewhat worried about a shared facility because lots of dairy is cooked, and dairy really spreads in the air. I don't find that to be the case with gluten so much.

In terms of gluten free, as I understand it, that means two things. 1. Under 20 parts per million. 2. No ingredient (or sub-ingredient) is gluten. In other words, no gluten is intentionally added, no matter how little. So, even a product made on shared equipment could be labelled as gluten-free as long as there is less than 20 ppm, since the company has no intent to have the gluten from the equipment be an ingredient.

Unfortunately, there is a limit as to how much is disclosed to the public.

17 hours ago, trents said:

"Gluten Free" and "Certified Gluten Free" are not the same.

You are correct. I am not saying that this product is definitely not gluten-free. My point is that, when something is certified, if you have faith in the certification system, you are satisfied that the product is ok. If not, you have to contact the company, and you have to assess their credibility as well. The answer that this company gave about gluten does not make them sound credible.

5 hours ago, Scott Adams said:

The company itself is testing for gluten in "every single batch of finished product," which is exactly what certified gluten-free companies must do. Your claim that this products isn't gluten-free must be supported by evidence, not conjecture or plain assumptions. 

If their label doesn't say gluten-free, they are not a certified gluten-free product, no matter what they do.

Ka Chava contains "85+ superfoods, nutrients & plant-based ingredients.". They did not test all 85+ ingredients. I Googled the cost of certifying a product gluten free, and it is reportedly anywhere from $500 – $5,000 annually. Some of the ingredients might have been certified by suppliers, but they are not going to be able to find 85 such ingredients that they want to use. If they want their product to be labelled gluten-free, they only have to pay once per year for the finished product. Labeling it gluten free will make them more money as people allergic to gluten will buy it. It is common sense. And the part that is retarded is that your doctor cannot tell you what is gluten free. That is just a fact. That statement is made for one reason, and one reason only. They are willing to give you information that is objectively wrong just to avoid liability. If anyone gets sick, all they have to do is ask if the person consulted their doctor before eating this. There are only two possible answers to that. Either, no they did not ask, or yes they asked, but the doctor did not know.

16 minutes ago, trents said:

The article states the company checks for meeting gluten free standards by the batch, meaning each production run, not each individual container of the product. That would be an unrealistic expectation.

Each ingredient doesn't have to be checked as long as the total formulation meets the 20 ppm standard. Seems like the company has been pretty transparent about all this to me. Our super sensitive celiac and gluten sensitive community members need to remember that to use the label "gluten free" does not and never has meant totally free of any trace of gluten. And that is the FDA standard. If you want better, go for "certified gluten free" labeled products as they are held to a lower PPM standard.

The article states that each ingredient is gluten-free. If gluten-free means less than 2o ppm, then you cannot know that without testing each one individually. The mixture could be gluten-free, even if one ingredient is not.

If they are doing such extensive testing, and it all comes out gluten-free, the package would be marked gluten-free. The fact that it is not marked that way means that either they are not doing enough testing, or that they are not getting all gluten-free results.

55 minutes ago, Guest ANTHONY COLATRELLA said:

 

I Think you mean 20ppm not 200!

Yes. Thanks for the correction.

This is retarded. People think that doctors know everything. A doctor has no expertise in food ingredients. I am no expert, and my knowledge on this is very limited, yet I know more than the vast majority of doctors on whether an ingredient is gluten free.

As for the company statement, it is suspicious to say the least.

1. "All the ingredients in Ka’Chava are Gluten-Free in accordance with FDA specifications".

Does that mean that the ingredients are not gluten, and every single one was tested for cross-contamination? That's what it sounds like, but that is not believable. It would be a huge waste of money. Also, the mention of the FDA specifications implies that there is definitely gluten in something, but just not 200 ppm. That is not necessarily a problem, but it is relevant to the few who are most sensitive.

2. "We test every single batch of finished product as part of our Certificate of Analysis. In addition, we have independent, third-party labs test and verify periodically for additional assurance".

Presumably, the testing is that the product is gluten free. If that is the case, then end of story. What follows is a red flag that they are hiding something.

3. "As always, please review all the ingredients with your doctor first, if you have any health conditions such as Celiacs Disease."

Their verbiage makes it sound like they spend all their time and money doing test after test, yet they are still worried that someone will have a reaction to the gluten in this product. If the product is not marked as gluten free, then I do not believe them. I suspect that it is near 200 ppm, and they cannot mark it gluten free because they get occasional test results above 200 ppm.

I question how this study could be blind. If people are given granola bars to eat, they have to be made by a recognized manufacturer so that their content will be consistent, yet you cannot give someone a package showing any information that would allow someone to Google the ingredients or whether it is gluten free. The only thing that I can think of that might work would be to take granola bars out of the package and put them in generic packaging. You would also have to find glutenous and gluten free bars that look similar so that nobody could recognize the granola bar even without the packaging. I don't know if that is possible.

Excellent recipe!

This article is obsolete. There are now 9 top allergens, rather than 8, and this article mentions the need to know ingredients in dietary supplements and vitamins, but oddly leaves out the need to know ingredients in alcohol, and more importantly than anything else, medicine.

A list of sodas containing gluten would be useful.

I love coconut water, but I never knew it had so many health benefits.

I knew that coconut oil is very healthy. Now I know that coconut water is too.

What about coconut milk? Is that also very healthy?

"At the hospital, they had little cups of vanilla ice cream".

As far as I can tell, there are no hospitals that know anything whatsoever about proper diets for people. And, I am not exaggerating. They have a menu, and it tells you which things are heart safe, and they think that those are the things that are good for literally every patient.

Do not ever trust a hospital to decide what to eat under any circumstances!!!!!

99% of doctors are equally ignorant on the subject.

You have to do learn for yourself.

For anything related to loose bowels, you never eat any dairy or gluten. Period.

Glad to see that you added this article to your site.

I made comments similar to what you state in this article when you published the original article about how gluten-free food was less healthy.

"Because of this, Celiac.com considers Kahlúa, along with other top brands of coffee liqueur, to be gluten-free and safe for people with celiac disease".

That is an irresponsible statement. gluten-free has a definition. You cannot "consider" something gluten free because most similar items do not have gluten ingredients. The correct statement would be that Kahlua is probably safe for most Celiacs and people who are sensitive to gluten.

This article is amazing. I have never read anything describing how to cook something with so much detail and useful information, e.g., the advantages of each of so many types of flour.

I think that recalls are better than advisories. Customers should not be responsible for seeing advisories. It is also unclear whether this specific advisory was in response to "several" reported reactions, or if they all are. I know that they said that there is no specific number, but is it always "several"? One is enough given the right circumstances. Also, if someone complains about an ingredient that was not supposed to be there, and that can be confirmed, then the advisory or recall should be automatic without any adverse reactions.

What I do not like about our recall system is that companies are allowed to lie and say things like "may contain" when they know it contains the item, and "in an abundance of caution". They also talk about mis-branding a lot. To me, if they put cookies and cream ice cream in a vanilla ice cream box, that is mi-branding. But, often, they use the word, and then just say that they did not declare an ingredient.

On 7/28/2020 at 8:54 PM, knitty kitty said:

I highly recommend Food for Life gluten free breads. They taste way better than any other gluten free breads that I have tried. I usually buy the Brown Rice variety. It is the cheapest, and they sell it at more places, including some Jewels. I think that Whole Foods has an extensive selection, but at higher prices. There are other varieties, such as flax and more. Some taste better, but may not be worth the higher price. The ingredients in my Brown Rice Bread are: organic brown rice flour, filtered water, organic agave, organic tapioca flour, safflower oil, organic chia seeds, fresh yeast, organic vegetable gum (xantham, cellulose, psyllium), rice bran, sea salt. It is made in a facility that processes wheat, soy, and tree nuts, but does not say anything about shared equipment with these allergens. One word of advice: They come frozen, and the pieces are not easily separable in that state. I leave it out for an hour or so, and then separate the pieces by hand or with a plastic knife before refreezing them. Then, you can take out one or two pieces at a time.

"Sourbread Starter" concerns me as an ingredient. I would not eat anything with this ingredient. I have found, without exception, that there is no way to determine the ingredients in anything with the word starter in the name. If you look up how to make a starter, it always says that you have to start with starter that you got from someone else. In addition to the ingredients being mysterious, it is also disgusting to be eating something that came from something that came from something ... that was made who know how many years ago. I wonder if anyone can shed any light on this and make me more comfortable with such an ingredient, though I think that it is unlikely as it is hard to trust ingredient lists when companies are constantly recalling products, often due to their gross negligence.

Eric, I agree with everything that you said. Especially since dairy issues are more correlated with gluten issues than any other allergen is, I would simply have liked to have seen a statement that hydrolyzed whey protein is gluten free, so it is safe for anyone who can tolerate dairy. i would not expect a similar statement if the allergen was peanuts, for instance, since I am not aware of any correlation between peanuts and gluten. After all, the article does mention MSG, and that is not gluten, though I assume that there is a high correlation between MSG and gluten as well.

9 hours ago, sc'Que? said:

 

I am just saying that dairy should not be promoted. For instance, many of the recipes given should be dairy free. You also have to keep in mind that anyone suffering from intestinal issues (e.g., chronic diarrhea) is generally told to avoid gluten and dairy, even if test for these foods come back negative, if the cause of the problem is not known. People that have gluten issues should not eat dairy unless they are sure that they have no intolerance or allergy, and people with dairy issues should not eat gluten unless they are sure that they have no issues. By being sure, I mean that they avoid one of the two, and their symptoms go away completely. You can never be 100% sure.

20 hours ago, trents said:

Twenty years ago, it would be hard to find a doctor that did not promote dairy. Today, many doctors, perhaps the majority, agree that dairy is bad for everyone. It increases the risk for many diseases. The calcium in dairy is not retained in the body. Some say that eating dairy actually lowers calcium. There are no benefits from milk that cannot be derived from safer food.

On 7/26/2020 at 11:36 AM, trents said:

Whey is a dairy product, not from plants I think.

Thanks for pointing that out. I was going to say the same thing. It also should be noted that whey is EXTREMELY unhealthy. Dairy is among the worst things that anyone can eat, and things like whey and casein are MUCH worse than milk as they are unnatural concentrations. There is a huge overlap between gluten and dairy sensitivities/allergies, so it would be nice if Celiac.com would start promoting dairy-free eating.

This article is pointless. It does not describe how social media is used. The survey is based on people self-reporting that they use social media. It is automatically biased toward people who use social media as they are more likely to fill out the survey. This article literally provides no information whatsoever that can be used to benefit anyone in any circumstance.