Reading Labels
I am asked all too often what I eat. What kinds of foods I buy at the grocery store or what I order when I go out. It sounds like y’all are all too curious about what a normal day of eating looks like for me with foods that do not include dairy, gluten, or grains. How I fill, and sometimes overfill, my grocery cart and pantry while living with this disease. What things I buy pre-packaged and what things I make from scratch. What items I snack on from out of a wrapper and what items I always have pre-made in my fridge.
This topic is truly a treat for me to write about because for years even my doctors were telling me I was always going to have a severely restricted diet that may even be more so in the future. But I am here to say I have proved them wrong. I can go days, sometimes months without pain while eating all the foods I crave and desire. I’m not missing out on any of the goodness.
Alright, so I will just cut to the chase. It all starts with reading labels. That’s it. Reading labels is one of the most important things we can do! We must know what we are putting in our bodies to fuel and sustain us. The biggest misconception is that we should just avoid packaged food in its entirety with this disease. Sure, there are the obvious things that should be avoided, but they are not all bad. When I was first diagnosed, I thought I’d have to say goodbye to those beautifully packaged foods even though they were calling my name. But all I had to do was rightly chose which ones to become friends with and which ones to save for the traveler behind me.
Packaging can be super tricky to read because sometimes companies label their ingredients in ways that are hard to understand on purpose. They don’t want us to know what’s inside. Can you believe that?! Grocery shopping is not as easy as it used to be for me but the challenge does not keep me away from grocery shopping even in the middle aisles. Yes, the middle aisles where foods are in bags!
When I walk down the aisles, I don’t look like the classic grocery shopping dance move taking item after item off the shelf and into my cart. I actually look more like the dancer who is taking a break on the sidelines to catch their breath while also carefully analyzing those who are still dancing. From the side, I am watching to see what I want to mimic and what I don’t want to mimic when I enter back onto the dance floor. If I like what I see, I try to create it. If I feel like averting my eyes at the ways their bodies are moving, I do all I can to steer clear of it and not recreate the disaster. Carefully watching what’s around me makes me feel equipped to be my best when I walk down the dance floor aisle.
Standing on the sidelines is probably my favorite thing about grocery shopping. Maybe I see a yummy box of chocolate chip cookies. When I stop to admire it, I grab the box and spend a few minutes observing what’s inside. I read and re-read all the ingredients. The simple to pronounce all the way down to the most challenging ingredients that are smaller in font and impossible to know what it truly is.
Unfortunately, it is not as easy as finding the boxes labeled as gluten-free or dairy-free and trusting that what’s inside is true of what is said outside. The more I learned, watched, and failed, the more I knew how wrong of an assumption I had about labels. It is flabbergasting to think there may still be gluten/grains/dairy in a box that even contains a stamp marked as “gluten-free” or “dairy-free.” This frustration fueled me to figure out why. For years I wondered why I could not heal my stomach completely. I thought I was eating gluten-free by grabbing the boxes that read, gluten-free fig bars or gluten-free pasta, but in reality, I was living blindfolded eating products with hidden ingredients or cross contamination that all included gluten. My gluten-free lifestyle was far from gluten-free.
So what are those words and hidden ingredients? What should we be on the lookout for to ensure we are buying products free from gluten?
Certified Gluten Free: Always look for the “certified gluten-free” stamp on the packaging. This ensures it does not have even the slightest percentage of gluten in the food while also not sharing any equipment with gluten containing ingredients. Simple “gluten-free” labels will contain traces of gluten.
Made in the same facility: At the very bottom of the ingredient list, sometimes it will say, “this product was made in the same facility as: gluten, dairy, grains, etc.” Be careful with this! If gluten is on the list, it means that there is gluten in the product. In factories, after making a normal batch of cookie mix, they don’t clean the equipment. Directly following the mix from the normal batch, they run the gluten-free batch on the exact same equipment, tools, and mixers. It may be made with the gluten-free flour, but the all purpose flour will be mixed throughout.
Citric acid: If done right, citric acid is derived from lemons. However, it rarely is from lemons or oranges. Most often it is derived from corn, fungus, mold, etc. Companies don’t have to specify where it is derived from. If you see citric acid, just avoid it at all costs. The only way to ensure it does not come from corn or mold is to google the product and check out their in-depth ingredient list online.
Gums: Xanthan gum, guar gum, agar gum, sorghum, or really anything containing “gum,” are fermented sugars or grains (like corn) that work as binders or stabilizers. Gums are never grain-free, although sometime gluten-free (think of this like how oats are technically gluten-free but not really due to it’s protein structure) while also never being free from cross-contamination in the fields that they grow in.
Starches: Pea, soy, potato, rice, and tapioca are just some of the starches I avoid. They are triggering because of how they are processed, milled, or altered. They are high in sugar and extremely processed which can counteract the lining of a healthy stomach or prolong the healing of a torn stomach.
Natural Flavors/spices: These are the most tricky ones! This label is the easiest way companies are able to hide what’s in their products. Hidden chemicals or synthetic sugars enhance processed foods but come from fermented dairy, gluten, and genetically modified starches. They are far from natural and never truly a spice mix.
Others ingredients such as cornstarch, yeast, gelatin, lecithin, bicarbonate, chloride, soy, or anything in these categories, I do not put in my body. Refraining from these few items has been one of the biggest things i’ve done to maintain health. The worth of heath is worthy.
Food labels are fuzzy, but when you figure out how to read them, you will be on the dance floor in no time grabbing item after item off the shelf without hesitation. The confidence will run through you and propel you even as you travel home and open the package of goodness containing all the wonders of our lifestyle. Chips, cookies, yogurt, pasta sauce, tomato sauce, or trail mix are made for us.
Although my list of avoidable words is not exhaustive, it’s a start. My challenge for you is to be curious. If you see an ingredient you’re not familiar with, check it out and spend a few minutes finding out where it comes from. Let’s celebrate those companies who we can become friends with. Celebrate those bands that remind us we are not on an island alone.
