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By Will, July 24, 2009 1:20 am

• @SilknPearls Happy to put the vote in for your #GF Cupcakes. in reply to SilknPearls #

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By Fred, July 17, 2009 7:31 am

The New Scientist had a great article on the accuracy of calorie counts in food labels written by Mr. Bijal Trevedi. Labels matter. Any issue about items like calories, arguably the most important number on the label, provide huge guidance in how we can expect the gluten labeling to work for those of us with Celiac disease.

Here are a few great quotes;

“Yet according to a small band of researchers, using the information on food labels to estimate calorie intake could be a very bad idea. They argue that calorie estimates on food labels are based on flawed and outdated science, and provide misleading information on how much energy your body will actually get from a food.”

“”Food texture might be as important a factor for preventing obesity as taste or food nutrients,” Oka and his colleagues concluded (Journal of Dental Research, vol 82, p 491).”

Again, here at Juno Nutrition we are 100% focused on ensuring that the food information that people pursuing a gluten free diet use is as accurate as possible. We should look at these issues with calories and try to understand how they will map to our own issues with Gluten.

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By Will,

• @natamac No worries! Not many good #GF fish n chips here in North Carolina. We used to love Manly Fish n Chips when we lived in NSW, AUS in reply to natamac #
• @GlutenFreePost Traveling @GF is not any fun. That’s what forced me to start this business… Glad you are excited about the new position. in reply to GlutenFreePost #
• @wellssusan Thanks for the recommendation on Lighthorse! I’ve sent them a note and will drop it into our database. in reply to wellssusan #
• @nkodell We made the #GF BC chocolate chip cookies last night and they were great. Still good the next day, although they’re going fast. in reply to nkodell #
• @IronHillBrewery Please share your @GF menu online! in reply to IronHillBrewery #
• @FoodAllergyBuzz We’d love to be a panelist for your Twitter party. When are you thinking about doing it? in reply to FoodAllergyBuzz #
• RT @AtlCeliacGirl Thanks for sharing the Harvard Food Article, that was really interesting. http://bit.ly/f7HEO #
• @abetterjulie What did you use for your #GF crust? in reply to abetterjulie #
• @SimpleLeigh Don’t have a recipe for the brown rice tortillas, but they are usually in stock at Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods. in reply to SimpleLeigh #
• @NuVitaeBaker What kind of source grains do you use for your fiber? in reply to NuVitaeBaker #
• RT @danamlewis Starbucks is getting rid of their GF cake and going to stock @KindBars instead. This is the opposite of General Mills. #
• @HoldTheGluten Re: Sami’s - buy an EZ Gluten test kit and check their product to confirm it is GF. in reply to HoldTheGluten #
• @CoastalCupcakes #GF cupcakes? Can we persuade you to open a Chapel Hill location? in reply to CoastalCupcakes #

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By Fred, July 16, 2009 7:17 am

Thank you, Ms. Betty Croker

Great to see these in a regular grocer

If you are gluten free, it’s hard not to love the Betty Crocker chocolate chip cookie mix. It tastes good, which we all expected. More importantly, it is a top tier food manufacturer bringing a GF product to mass market grocery stores around the world. We thought we’d add our review to the mix, although there are plenty of good ones out there, including this one from Gluten Free Chapel Hill.

In the past year, there were 613,000 Google citations of Betty Crocker, when you add “Gluten Free” to that, the total shrinks to 15,700, for 2.5% of the total. In total Google hits for Betty Crocker are just over 2 million, with only 1.5% of those in total including the phrases “Gluten Free” or “GF”. That’s a pretty big search in just the past year. It’s great to see General Mills embracing our dietary concerns, and it is great to see that we’ve reacted with appropriate enthusiasm.

So how did they taste? They were great. They were good hot, but as we all know with GF baked goods, the real test is how they work the next day. They held up great. In fact, they disappeared in less than 3 days. The only item that was noticeable was the sandy sound of the mix in the bag - but you know you’re being hypercritical when your major issue about a baked good is the auditory performance of the mix in the bag!

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By Fred, July 13, 2009 10:01 pm

Thanks to everyone who stopped by our table top yesterday at the Gluten Free vendor exhibits at the Earth Fare in Raleigh.

The quick summary was:
32 National chain locations with a GF menu identified.
6 Well known grocers
11 Local restaurants that are known to be GF friendly or have a GF menu.

We’ll be putting up the full materials later this week, but wanted to be sure to share the snapshot of the map right away. We loved the feedback and camaraderie it generated.

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By Fred, July 12, 2009 1:35 pm

The only time we were free to take a photo was at the beginning before we were swarmed! Thank you, Earth Fare and Gluten Free Raleigh!

We just got back from our first external marketing effort. We’ve done tons of private beta walk-throughs and our user feedback so far has been great, but this was our first walk public demo with the broader gluten free community. Zach at Gluten Free Raleigh had put together yet another cooking class by Jules Gluten Free at the Earth Fare in Raleigh. We’re big fans of all three.

The feedback was great and we were overwhelmed with the response! As promised, will be sharing the information off of our handmade map with everyone who sent us their emails this week with a link to a posting on this site.

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By Fred, July 11, 2009 8:53 pm

We are big on flexibility and being lean. We’ve got a great group of volunteers who represent us at events all over, and our latest version of cards can be completed by them on site, AND it includes a coupon for new users. Just thought we’d share them with everyone!

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By Will, July 10, 2009 1:20 am

• Thank you for the #followfriday@ lesliemac59 @GF_Glutton @JulesGlutenFree #GF, #Gluten, #Celiac #
• @beyondthewheat Which #GF hotdogs do you like? Happy 4th! in reply to beyondthewheat #
• @GFGourmand Your article on the #GF beer made my mouth water, even while I was drinking a Redbridge. Any chance they’ll ship to NC? in reply to GFGourmand #
• @beyondthewheat I definitely agree that Johnsonville Brats > Hotdogs. However, I still like the hotdogs. Hope your 4th was great! in reply to beyondthewheat #
• RT @gfveg: New Lara Bar flavors, PB&J, Tropical Fruit and German Chocolate Cake: http://bit.ly/d88jR, #GF, #Celiac #
• RT @MinnieBerger - Godfather’s pizza shows off their #GF options. Great news. http://bit.ly/zos5x #
• @TheNakedLabel - Thanks for the follow! Your site looks interesting, we share a common outlook on food. Liked the Vitamin Water post. #
• @GlutenFreePost What are you doing after you leave JPM? in reply to GlutenFreePost #

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By Fred, July 7, 2009 7:31 pm

The Gluten Free Gourmet was one of our first and favorite GF authors

We’ve been looking at the comments about The GFree Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide by Ms. Elizabeth Hasselbeck and allegations of plagiarism. We’re not lawyers, but at first glance it doesn’t appear as if the charges have much merit. Looking at that case, it made us think of the books that we’ve included in our own library.

1. Wheat Free Worry Free by Ms. Danna Korn. This was my first book post diagnosis, I found it very helpful.
2. Let’s Eat Out! – The Allergy Free Passport. We purchased a general guidebook and two specific cuisine guides for Chinese Indian and Thai, as well as American Steak & Seafood and Mexican Cuisine Passport. We found the big book helpful, the smaller books less so. The smaller books were full of individual meal warnings that a product may have been cross contaminated or the recipe may have ingredient risk. This series has been well-recognized and it is clear that author Kim Koeller is committed to the franchise.
3. We’ve mentioned Triumph Dining in the past and think that is far as guidebooks go that drill down to specific locations, they are one of the best. Our library includes the 2nd Edition of their Grocery Guide as well as the 2nd and 4th editions of their Restaurant Guide.
4. One of our original favorite books was by Bette Hagman, The Gluten-Free Gourmet Cooks Fast and Healthy, who passed away several years ago. She was a longtime supporter of the Gluten Intolerance Group.
5. Gluten-Free Diet by Ms. Shelley Case was a gift that came at just the right point. It was maybe a year into the diagnosis when gluten-fatigue was beginning to way on us. For a great article talking about Celiac disease and the NYC blackout of August 2003, check out this article at Celiac.com.
6. We’d also picked up 125 Best Gluten-Free Recipes, which was an easy purchase given the delicious looking chocolate cake on the cover.
7. It may not be gluten-focused, but we’re also going to include Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution. It was while on a weight-loss driven diet that I noticed my dermal issues were going away. I would find out a few years later that I had DH, which regardless of your view of Dr. Atkins’ diet, will always make him smile from our view.

Are there any other GF books out there that you love? If so, please share them with us.

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By Fred, July 3, 2009 11:18 am

Know your Toolkit

We’ve been surprised how many times we’ve been asked about our views on home gluten test kits.

Before we answer, let’s look at the field: Every day people with Celiac disease have to make food decisions in which they must avoid a protein that is found in the second largest food crop in the US. This molecule, which is less than 400 nanometers in size, is actually quite tasty, so the rest of the population really likes to eat it. It gets better – it isn’t one little protein, but two smaller sub proteins, each of which show up in different tests, and they look like many other proteins.

The odds are stacked against us. They were stacked against us in the ten years on average just to get diagnosed. Now, the odds are stacked against us in staying healthy.

We have a limited toolkit. Some benevolent food makers are good enough to make a statement, despite the regulatory burden and countless other issues, in which they declare that their products are gluten free. Our second item in the toolkit is to be an old fashioned gluten-sleuth. Ask the waiter. Ask the chef. Go back to the kitchen and read the labels yourself. Email the manufacturer.

Gluten Home Test Kits are the third piece of gear in the toolkit. Just like manufacturers who make statements or like the questions we ask of the patient wait staff, there are weaknesses in this tool. Some show gliadin, others show glutenin.

The tests may have varying degrees of sensitivity and the locations where they are administered may not be the perfect laboratory setting. But they are a tool, and even an imperfect tool is one that should be mastered.

Are we for test kits? Absolutely, we are for any tool that helps us be active in avoiding gluten in our diet and staying healthy.