Surprising foods and cereals that contain gluten

Nowadays, coeliac disease is very known, but unfortunately many people thinks that this is an allergy. In fact, coeliac disease is a digestive disorder in which the body mistakenly reacts to gluten. This type of protein is found in some cereals as wheat, barley and rye. Generally, this type of cereals is associated with bread, so it»s usually though that there are only few foods and cereals to avoid.

Cereals and foods that we can’t buy

We would be lucky if the list of foods and cereals to avoid were short, but is not like that. Cereals as wheat, barley and rye are used to make a lot of foods. For example, drinks as beer, malt beer, whisky or gin are made with barley and rye.

As for wheat, we know that the wheat flour is the main ingredient in any kind of pasta and pastry, but the fact is that this flour is present in a large amount of foods.

We would never suspect of some foods as meat products. Sausages, hamburgers or tinned meats include gluten. The same applies to processed fish as surimi or tinned fish.

Vegetables tinned like beans or nuts can include among their ingredients gluten. In the case of breakfast cereals, many of them are rice or corn, cereals that don’t have gluten, but if we read their nutritional labels, we will found ingredients as wheat flour or malt.

We have to be careful with processed foods as frozen croquettes, chicken broth, soup sachets… Unfortunately, sweets are no exception, so many ice-creams, custard desserts and chocolates include gluten.

As we can see, the list of cereals and foods to avoid is too long. And we have only talked about home food. But, what happens when we want eating out?

Eating out: the challenge to avoid cross-contamination in foods and cereals

As we said before, coeliac disease is very known but also very superficially. So when we want eating out, always we have to ask in the establishment if they have gluten-free options or at least, if they have knowledge about the cross-contamination.

To avoid cross-contamination is very important a right food handling, because we can’t eat any dish if there are some food with gluten in it, even if we remove it. Moreover, during the cooking processes as grilling or shallow frying, gluten-free foods or foods with gluten can’t be mixed.

In the same way, we have to be careful with our own cutlery and avoid sharing with the other fellow diners.