Are Gluten-Free Products Healthier? page 4

[Owly]

To be honest, I would have to go to the shop and look since they're generally not marked gluten free so I tend to just make my own as I need it. Like most stuff, I just start from scratch. I know I've seen ones at Planet Organic that had no soy or canola, though.

But even if it had canola, if the bottle was clear about gluten, then if I was at a friend's place and they made a salad for me for dinner, I could decide to have the dressing and accept the less-than-ideal oil in that instance because I'd know it didn't have gluten, which for me is a far bigger problem. I can accept a little canola now and then as a 20% thing when I'm out somewhere, but gluten for me is a whole other level of bad.

[Drmike]

Fruity pebbles are gluten free. Anyone think they are healthy

[lssanjose]

ha ha, fruity pebbles. I used to "cheat," via Gluten-free donuts. Not anymore. I just go with things naturally gluten-free. Rice (for the most part), or tubers. And, already mentioned, any animal, or plant.

[Catharsis]

Catharsis, I don't know if you can get it outside Canada, but the Messagere GF beers are pretty good, and none of them are sorghum beers (all rice/millet/buckwheat combinations). They're produced by a microbrewery in Quebec. I used to be a beer person before my celiac diagnosis--the fact that beer made me sick while other alcohol didn't was one of the clues that gluten was the issue. I've found the Messagere Red is pretty satisfying if I'm really missing beer. But it's not the same thing as a real beer for sure.

I've heard of them (which I know is random). Unfortunately, last I heard, it's all they can do to keep the local's supplied. Although I do know they were looking to export to the U.S. eventually. It takes a LONG time for those guys to brew their beer. It's like an 18 hour brew day!

This might be a stupid question, but can you explain to me why they are healthier? I honestly don't understand why gluten free crackers made with rice are better than regular crackers; and I don't understand why cider is healthier than an IPA.

Well, first, no alcoholic beverage is really "healthy". But think of it this way. Cider is basically nothing more than a blend of juices from high quality apples, sugar (to feed the yeast) and yeast. Wine is the same way, except we're talking about "grape juice". All wines and ciders are gluten free, even down to the dry yeast used.

Beer is basically all grain. Sure, the protein chains and amino acids are broken down (to varying degrees) but you're consuming alcoholic grain. 150 calories of beer isn't the same as 150 calories of bread, in relation to gluten content. That doesn't make it good. Microbrewed beer is going to have water, grain (wheat, rye, barley), yeast and hops (and maybe some water additions and/or clarifying agents that aren't harmful). Trashy, commercially available beer is going to have water, grain (largely corn and rice usually, with a little wheat in the mix as well), yeast and concentrated hop extract. In addition, commercially available beers are all laden with chemicals. Even if someone with gluten issues could tolerate Keystone Light, why on earth would anyone want to?

Most all beer is brewed with liquid yeast and 99.99% of liquid yeasts are grown on a gluten-based medium. Granted, the amount of gluten is totally negligible, but it still exists.

Most of the gluten free products I see usually have the same trashy canola/soybean oil and usually have fewer or different preservatives. They are "better" only to the degree in which gluten affects you, drawing a line between trying to be Paleo to be Paleo and trying to be Paleo to not be sick for an extended amount of time. I know that's clear is mud, but it's the best I've got!

[DaisyEater]

What I'm saying is that it's easy to sneer at labelling laws that tell you that Doritos are gluten free, but for some of us, those labelling laws represent a long, hard fight on the part of people with serious allergies and food sensitivities to have the right to make informed choices about what we eat based on clear and accurate label information that doesn't hide gluten behind labels like "vegetable protein", "flavour", or "spices".

I'm also glad there's more awareness. That means people in restaurants are more likely to be able to tell you what to avoid. They're starting to get that there are a lot of gluten-free folks out there. I come across more and more restaurants these days that can accommodate me.

[econ]

Cider is basically nothing more than a blend of juices from high quality apples, sugar (to feed the yeast) and yeast. Wine is the same way, except we're talking about "grape juice". All wines and ciders are gluten free, even down to the dry yeast used. Beer is basically all grain.

OK -- that makes sense.

I've heard Mark say that drinking juice is not healthy (even fresh squeezed juice), since it's basically just sugar water because all the fibers in the fruit get broken down. By your logic, it seems that drinking fresh squeezed juice mixed with liquor is healthier (from a primal perspective) than drinking beer. Is that a fair assessment?