Eating is essential to life, and when you’re told that you can’t eat something that is in so many foods, it becomes discouraging and confusing. You just want to know what you can eat, right? So you find yourself continually asking, “Is it gluten free?” Below is a table listing a few food items that people commonly ask about and whether or not they are gluten free.
Reading Labels
However, please understand that you do not need to consult a list as you are grocery shopping. Food labeling laws have made it much easier to determine if a food is gluten free. I have explained how to read labels in these posts:
- Reading Labels to Determine if a Food Contains Gluten
- Reading Labels Part 1 – Basic Information
- Reading Labels Part 2 – How to Read a Label
- Reading Labels Part 3 – Cross Contamination and Warning Statements
Wheat, Barley, Rye and Oats
The bottom line is that if a food contains wheat of any kind, then wheat has to be clearly stated on the label. Gluten is found in barley and rye as well as wheat, but wheat is the primary source. So the labeling of wheat makes label reading much easier.
Barley is often used in making malt, though malt can be made from other sources. If the source is not stated, assume it is barley. Barley can also show up in brewer’s yeast, so keep an eye out for that.
Rye is not used in making other ingredients, so if a food contains rye, it would show up on a label and not be hidden.
While pure oats are gluten free, they can easily be cross contaminated with gluten due to growing and processing practices. You should consider oats to be unsafe unless they are certified gluten-free oats.
Is it gluten free?
Most of the gluten-free items listed below are single ingredient foods. However, they are sometimes combined with other ingredients to make flavored versions which are not necessarily gluten free (specifically buckwheat, coffee, quinoa, and rice).
| Food | Is it gluten free? |
| Barley | No |
| Buckwheat | Yes |
| Cheese | Yes (Read this regarding blue cheese.) |
| Coffee | Yes if plain, unflavored |
| Corn / Cornstarch | Yes, though some people have problems with it |
| Couscous | No |
| Marshmallows | Yes, but double check ingredients |
| Oats / Oatmeal | No, unless certified gluten free (GF Harvest is safe) |
| Orzo | No |
| Pasta | The package must say it is gluten free (I like Tinkyada) |
| Potatoes | Yes |
| Quinoa | Yes |
| Rice / Brown Rice | Yes |
| Rye | No |
| Wheat | No, also see other names for wheat |
| Wheat grass | Some say it is, but I avoid it. Read this. |
| Wine | Yes |
Related Posts:
- Gluten-Free Ingredients (flours and other ingredients)
- Gluten-Free Ingredients (alphabetical listing)
Although the name escapes me at the current time, my husband brought a French cheese home from work that has a sort of casing on the outside. I had never heard of the cheese so I googled it, and guess what? It contained wheat. No, it was not in the blue cheese family either, so I would recommend that all cheese a person wishes to consume still be researched before consumption.
What a great list Linda! I sure wish I had this list when I was first diagnosed with celiac disease! 🙂
Great post, Linda! The only note I’d add is that we still need to ensure (to the best of our abilities) that we are getting gluten-free “versions” (for lack of a better word) of naturally gluten-free grains. I’m thinking back to the study that Tricia Thompson and others published in 2010 that showed that grains/flours like buckwheat, millet, sorghum, and soy can be highly contaminated with gluten via field and processing, just like mainstream oats are. So I recommend that we always use a trusted source of such ingredients.
Shirley
Great advice, Shirley. Thanks!