Green & Black's

Today I found myself wondering whether Green and Blacks chocolate is gluten free. It’s a brand I sort of forget about for a while then remember when I see it in a store or a friend offers me a chunk. This time I decided to do some research so that I know whether or not I can eat it next time the opportunity arises. I was always a big fan of their butterscotch chocolate bar in pre celiac days. And their ice cream, especially the one with caramel and hazelnuts! But is it safe for me to eat now? Is Green and Blacks Chocolate Gluten Free?

If you’re in the UK or Ireland  you can look at their nutrition page for a list of which products contain gluten and other allergens. It appears that most of them do not contain gluten. According to this list it’s only their biscuits which contain gluten, none of their bars or ice creams. Fantastic! The packaging of some of their products states ‘ May contain traces of cereals’ which sounds as though there may be possible cross contamination issues. I emailed Green & Blacks UK a couple of days ago to ask them about this but haven’t gotten a response yet. I will update you as soon as I do.

For those of you in Canada, the nutrition page suggests that all of the products they sell in Canada do not contain gluten.

As usual the US version of their site makes it much more confusing for consumers to figure out whether or not their products are safe for them to eat. From reading the label the ingredients appear to be the same as those in the UK and nothing throws up a red flag. Again, whilst they probably don’t contain gluten ingredients they may be affected by cross contamination and I would recommend calling them just to be on the safe side.

Mountain Dew

With all the time and effort we give to ensuring what we eat is gluten free and safe for us, we need to make sure that what we are drinking is also safe. I drink mostly water, tea or fruit juice and try not to drink too much fizzy juice, soda, pop, whatever you like to call it, but sometimes I can’t resist a can of Mountain Dew. Back when I was first diagnosed as celiac I contacted Pepsi to ensure that original and diet dew were gluten free but today I decided it would be a good idea to email them for further and more up to date information. They emailed me back within 2 hours.

Dear Laura,

Thank you for contacting us at Pepsi with your inquiry.

While this company does not make gluten-free label claims, none of the ingredients in Pepsi-Cola products are derived from grains or flours that have been linked to malabsorption syndrome associated with gluten sensitivity.

We want to assure you that our products continue to be suitable for gluten-sensitive individuals with Celiac Disease. Please know that we fully understand the seriousness of this issue, which is why we have shared this information with Celiac Sprue Association and the Celiac Disease Foundation.

This information relates to Pepsi-Cola soft drinks in the US. They confirm that the following are gluten free.

Pepsi (all varieties)
Diet Pepsi (all varieties)
Mountain Dew (all varieties)
Diet Mountain dew (all varieties)
Sierra Mist Natural (all varieties)
Diet Sierra Mist (all varieties)
Mug Root Beer & Mug Cream
Diet Mug Root Beer & Diet Mug Cream
Citrus Blast Diet & Regular
Manzanita Sol
Mirinda (all varieties)
AMP Energy Drinks

I also emailed Pepsi UK to double check the gluten free status of Pepsi products in the UK. I received a fast response from Britvic, which now has agreements with Pepsi as well as Robinsons, J20, Tango and drench. They say that the following products are not gluten free and are therefore not suitable for coeliacs.

Robinsons Fruit & Barley
Robinsons Barley Water
Britvic Tomato Juice Cocktail
Shandy Bass

All remaining Britvic/Pepsi products are gluten free.

When it comes to what you’re drinking whether it be soda, juice, tea or flavoured water do you check that it’s gluten free before you drink it? Do you get online, contact companies and ensure cross contamination isn’t an issue the way you would if you were looking for something safe to eat? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Share your opinions in the comments below..

Yummy gluten free curry!

John Carrigan’s is a fantastic, family run bar and restaurant in Hamilton, Scotland, very near to Glasgow. The food is tasty, the portions are big and the staff are friendly. It’s an altogether nice place to have a drink or to go for a meal out. I ate here a lot before being diagnosed as celiac and it was one of the places I always wished I could still eat at but up until recently there was no mention of them doing gluten free options. Around a year ago my mum was there for a meal and noticed an introduction of gluten free signage on their menu! I had to check it out when I was back in town!

When making a booking to come back for a meal I asked one of the staff a few questions about their gluten free options. They started offering gluten free options due to demand. A number of customers had been asking about gluten free options and they wanted to cater for these customers. I’m always concerned about methods of preparation when it comes to eating somewhere which isn’t 100% gluten free. The staff here know their stuff. Gluten free dishes are made using separate utensils/equipment. Where fried stuff is concerned, chips are made in their own special fryer, apparently because they need different oil from other things and so this also eliminates any cross contamination. The chef at Carrigan’s I was told has a pretty serious sea food allergy and understands the importance of safely and carefully preparing food for those of us with allergies and intolerances.

The menu is filled with a whole bunch of different things from pizza and pasta to Mexican dishes to traditional dishes like steak pie, sunday roast and fish and chips. A good selection of the menu is gluten free including some of the starters, mains, Mexican dishes and pasta (they do gluten free pasta). I fancied a curry so I ordered the Chicken Tikka with rice and chips…how British of me! It was delicious!

I’m so glad that Carrigan’s is now celiac friendly. It’s not often that I get the opportunity to eat pub food anymore and now here’s a place where I can. Hamilton is also very near to and easily reached from Glasgow so if you’re headed to Glasgow on a gluten free trip you don’t need to miss out on Carrigan’s.

More gluten free goodies!

YES! These are all gluten free!

Paris is fantastic. Paris is, well, it’s Paris. I’ve been lucky to visit the French capital on three different occasions over the years but all of this was before I was on a strict gluten free diet. France is a country filled with amazing breads and pastries but all of these are gluten, gluten, gluten. What do you eat in Paris as a celiac?

Last weekend my mum and her husband, John, travelled to Paris for a long weekend. Paris is one of their favourite cities and they visit pretty often. Neither of them are celiac or gluten free but on their travels they always have an eye out for stores selling gluten free goodies or menus with gluten free options. They hadn’t come across anything celiac friendly in Paris, until Helmut Newcake.

Helmut Newcake is France’s first 100% gluten free bakery, yip you heard right, not just the first in Paris but in the whole of France. France are pretty late to the gluten free party but we are so very glad that they showed up! I know I wasn’t the only gluten free-er who was very excited to hear about this place and I’m so happy that my mum had the chance to check it out and report back.

Thanks to my mum and John for this report. I wish I could have joined you for a slice of gluten free cheesecake and thank you so much for resisting the urge to get in about the amazing looking cakes until you took some fantastic pics of them!

Lemon cheesecake

Helmut Newcake is a deli patisserie in a little unknown area on the outskirts of Paris. It is the first gluten free patisserie in France, but nothing makes it stand out as being different. Perhaps this is the secret to it’s success. It’s situated at 36 Rue Bichat (in the Saint Martin area of the city), a small street close to none of the major attractions you imagine when you think of Paris,  but still within walking distance of a few of the city’s hidden gems. The patisserie is easily reached from the centre of Paris by the Metro. From Châtelet, one of the Metro’s major hubs, simply hop on line 11 to Mairie des Lilas and get off at Goncourt, it’s nearest Metro station.

Once there you will be surprised at what they have to offer. There is a great selection from plat du jour to pastries, hot chocolate to lemon cheesecake.  Everything is 100% gluten free. As well as cakes the bakery also sells a small selection of gluten free products such as pastas, breakfast cereals and flours, most of which are British gluten free products. The presentation, taste and quality of the food is excellent. They also offer brunch with a good selection to choose from.

My lovely mum

Cake and hot drinks on a chilly afternoon

As you can see from the mouthwatering photos, the cakes look just as you would imagine cakes in a French bakery to look,  scrumdiddlyumptious! The menu offers six or seven different cakes to choose from and you would never be able to tell them apart from gluten filled pastries and cakes. My mum had an apricot and pistachio tart whilst John had the lemon cheesecake. I wish I could have been there to try them because from what I hear they were extremely tasty and they didn’t fall apart the way some gluten free cakes have a habit of doing. The next time my gluten free travels take me to Paris, Helmut Newcake will be my first stop.

Opening hours are Monday to Saturday, 12pm-9pm and Sunday, 10am to 6pm.

Apricot and pistachio tart

Delicious and healthy!

Sizzling away

Recently I’ve fallen in love with asparagus spears. It’s not a vegetable I’ve cooked with much in the past but I bought a couple of bunches recently on a kick I was having to try new things and now I can’t get enough. In reading about it’s nutritional value I see that asparagus is a very good source of dietary fiber, potassium and maganese amongst other vitamins and minerals. This recipe is very simple and has delicious results.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

• Oil
• 300g Tofu – sliced into chunks
• Chilli powder
• Small onion – chopped
• Pepper – chopped
• Lime
• Natural yoghurt
• Asparagus

How to make it

• Brown the tofu in a little oil
• Sprinkle tofu with chilli powder and stir
• Add onion and pepper and leave to simmer
• Clean asparagus, cut stems and place in around an inch of water
• Boil asparagus for 5 mins or until soft
• Squeeze lime into tofu
• Turn off heat and stir in yoghurt
• Rinse asparagus, serve with creamy tofu and enjoy!

Quinoa and avocado salad

I love quinoa and I love avocado so really how could any recipe which combines the two not be good? This very simple recipe is one of my lunchtime favourites.

Ingredients (Serves 1)

• Half a cup of quinoa
• Red pepper – chopped
• Half a small onion – chopped
• One small avocado
• Gluten free soy sauce
• Chilli powder
• Lime

How to make it

• Once your quinoa is cooked, place in a pot on medium heat
• Add a few splashes of gluten free soy sauce and a dash of chilli powder and stir
• Add the chopped up pepper and onion to the quinoa and allow to simmer for a few mins
• Squeeze half a lime into the mix and stir
• Serve with fresh avocado and enjoy!

Kimchi beef stirfry

Almost ready...

As you’ll know if you’ve looked at any of my other recipes I’m a bit of a kimchi fan. Ever since South Korea I can’t seem to get enough of it. At first I thought ‘Really? Fermented cabbage? but then I got pretty addicted. It’s spicy, it adds a lot of flavour to dishes and it tastes great. Of all meats I think kimchi tastes best with beef. I ate a lot of kimchi with bulgogi in Korea. Maybe that’s why.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

• Oil
• 200g Thinly sliced beef
• One large pepper – chopped
• Kimchi
• Half an onion – sliced
• 4 cloves of garlic – sliced
• One lime

How to make it

• Brown beef with some oil in a non stick pan
• Add garlic, onions & pepper and simmer for 10 mins
• Stir in kimchi
• Squeeze lime into the mix
• Serve with rice or quinoa and enjoy!

But which of these chocolate bars are safe for coeliacs? According to Cadbury’s UK website a whole bunch of their products are gluten free. In their ‘Nutrition’ section you can search by dietary requirements to find out which products are safe for you to eat. One of these buttons is ‘Gluten Absent (Suitable for Coeliacs)’ You can also search by multiple requirements if you’re looking for something that is for example both gluten and nut free.

Twirl, Crunchie, Fudge, Curly Wurly, Flake. Coeliacs can still enjoy these and many more. Yay! Many of the Cadbury’s easter eggs are also on this list.

San Francisco seems to import quite a lot of Cadbury’s in from the UK to sell in specialist candy or British stores so now I know which bars to look out for

Gluten Free Grocery Guide

Last week Triumph Dining sent me a copy of their Gluten Free Grocery Guide.

Since moving to the US from the UK I’ve often wondered why there was no equivalent to the Coeliac UK Food and Drink Directory here in the States. It’s something I use constantly back home. The small book is the perfect size to keep with you at all times and it’s filled with information on products which are safe for celiacs. As the information is relevant for the whole country, it’s great for  gluten free trips to Scotland, England and Wales.

I was pretty excited to check out Triumph Dining’s Grocery Guide. This is something that celiacs living in or travelling to the United States are very much in need of. In a country where there is currently no gluten free labelling legislation, it is difficult for celiacs to know which products are safe for them to eat. Some companies label products as ‘gluten free’ but what does this mean? Without a country wide legal definition of the term ‘gluten free’, gluten free consumers have no idea what they are getting. Products labelled as ‘glutenfree’ in Europe for example must contain less than 20ppm of gluten. In the US this is not the case. This is why this book is great. It helps gluten free consumers to make more informed choices regarding the products they are buying in stores throughout the US.

The Gluten Free Grocery Guide covers 30,000 products and is divided into colour coded sections such as ‘Dairy and eggs’, ‘Beverages’, ‘Canned and Packaged Foods’ and ‘Bread, Cereal, Pasta.’ to make it easy to find the type of product you’re looking for.

Most of the products in the book are those which the company reported to be gluten free but no further context was provided. This isn’t surprising due to the lack of gluten free labelling legislation in the US but consumers buying these products must be cautious and contact manufacturers for further information on what they mean when they say their product is gluten free.

Some of the products in the list have a symbol next to them meaning that some clarification has been given by the company on the product’s gluten free status and the first

Inside the book

page of the book includes a symbol summary explaining what these mean. In some cases procedures to mitigate cross contamination are in place, in others gluten testing has been performed. In very few cases the product has been made on a gluten free line or in a gluten free facility where there is no chance of cross contamination. I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed for more of these products in the near future.

This book is great. It enables celiacs and other folks required to follow a gluten free diet to make more informed choices when grocery shopping. It is unfortunate that a high percentage of the products included within this book provide no more clarification than the company reported they were gluten free but this is not the fault of the book’s writers who have done an amazing job, but rather the US companies themselves who are unwilling to provide further insight. If you’re living in or travelling to the US and you’re on a gluten free diet, this book is useful as a starting point in figuring out what’s safe for you to eat.

Reading labels can get confusing!

No matter where you are in the world when you’re celiac reading product labels becomes a necessity. Being able to understand the language the label is written in is only the first hurdle. Next comes the challenge of figuring out what ingredients such as ‘flavourings’, ‘colouring’ or ‘spices’ actually mean. These ingredients can mean different things in different countries and even from company to company making the experience of reading labels a very confusing one. If we know what to look out for and which ingredients could be a hidden source of gluten we will be less likely to make gluten mistakes and in turn feel happier and healthier.

The following is a list of ingredients found on product labels which generally require further investigation and clarification before assuming they are safe for celiacs. Products which contain these ingredients may or may not contain gluten for a variety of reasons. These ingredients are extremely vague and we don’t usually know the source these ingredients have been derived from. I never eat a product containing one of these things before double checking with the company whether it could be a source of hidden gluten. If I’ve missed out any possible hidden gluten containing ingredients please let me know and I”ll add them to the list!

• Natural flavours/flavourings
• Artificial flavours/flavourings
• Colourings
• Food starch/Modified Starch
• Spices
• Emulsifiers
• Seasonings
• Vinegar (if Malt Vinegar)