Guest Article: FDA defines Gluten-Free on labels

FDA defining what 'gluten free' means on food labels

Mary Clare JalonickThe Associated Press

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8 hours ago (8/2/13)

WASHINGTON -- Consumers are going to know exactly what they are getting when

they buy foods labeled "gluten free."

The Food and Drug Administration is at last defining what a "gluten free" label on a food package really means after more than six years of consideration. Until now, manufacturers have been able to use their own discretion as to how much gluten they include.

Under an FDA rule announced Friday, products labeled "gluten free" still won't have to be technically free of wheat, rye and barley and their derivatives. But they almost will: "Gluten-free" products will have to contain less than 20 parts per million of gluten.

That amount is generally recognized by the medical community to be low enough that most people who have celiac disease won't get sick if they eat it.

People who suffer from celiac disease don't absorb nutrients well and can get sick from the gluten found in wheat and other cereal grains. Other countries already have similar standards.

Click here to read entire article on NBC news. 

Update 7-29-13

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an update, so I thought why not post today? I can report that

I’ve been doing pretty well on my vegetarian journey—for the most part. I have to admit that I have not done much exercising, unless you include tons of house work, remodeling and yard work. I will be taking August 1^st – August 31^st off for some much needed “me-time.” During this time, I plan on starting a vigorous exercise regimen—something I can stick to.

I’m so proud of myself. A couple of weeks ago, I hosted a meeting/BBQ for one of my Toastmasters group. When we originally planned it, we were going to just throw something on the grill. But when I tell you these members came with food, they came with food. I mean there was chicken, burgers, bratwurst, potato salad, sweet potatoes, coleslaw, salad, dips, chips and all sorts of other goodies. I had my veggie burgers so none of it bothered me—except for those bratwursts. I absolutely love bratwursts. The person that made

them made sure she told me how she made them; sautéing them in beer and raspberries. The constant “mmms” and “oh this is so good” comments didn’t help. I really thought about jacking a few people for those bratwursts. However, I held strong and although they barely made it out the door, I made it without eating one. But I’d have to say, that was a close call.

I’ve pretty much done well for myself . . . that was until this weekend. Hubby and I ordered our normal Chinese food. I had the fried rice and he had his usual. However, this time, he ordered chicken wings. And if you’ve ever had fried chicken wings from China Garden, you know it’s the best chicken wing ever cooked (with the exception of the lemon-pepper wings from Wing Stop in Dallas, Texas). As soon as hubby took them out of the bag, the smell hit my nose and at that point, there was no way he was making it out of the

kitchen without giving me one. I took the first bite and I just wanted to melt. After I devoured the first one in thirty-seconds flat, he offered me a second. Oh, Em, Gee. Those wings were so good! I know, I know. I had a moment of weakness. I’ll just make sure it won’t happen again. *wink*

Besides the chicken wing fiasco, I’ve been doing pretty good. Although I’m not eating meat, I’ve been doing a little dairy. I absolutely have to have creamer in my coffee. I tried the soy creamer, but it just doesn’t taste the same, so I do have a tablespoon of flavored creamer. I also eat a cup of yogurt a day for digestive reasons. Right now, it seems to be the best way to receive probiotics (I think that’s the word) and maintain a decent digestive system. I love cheese a whole lot, but I have been doing good and have not had any since I started my journey.

One of the issues that I am running to is that I had to have everything I ate, that wasn’t sweet, spicy. But I’m finding now, I can’t take it as much and I get heartburn a lot.

I’m still new to this. It’s been a little over a month and it gets easier and easier. Did I mention how expensive it is? I now live in Earth Fare and Whole Foods, and I have found tons of uses for tofu. I also now buy vegetables from various gardeners. As soon as I get the time, I am going to start my own raised garden out back and start growing my own vegetables. Now wouldn’t be a good time anyway, not with all the rain we’ve been having.

I’ve started a vegetarian board on Pinterest if you’re interested. If you have any ideas, tips or tricks for this baby vegetarian, I’d love your input.  http://pinterest.com/ymjauthor/boards/ 

Until next time, Eat all your vegetables.

PS: Did I mention that my new best friends are hummus and sweet potato chips? Yum, Yum!

Day 2 of My 365 Day Transformaton

I just wanted to check in quickly and say that things are off to a rough start, but they’re off. I was out of town for a couple of days, completing a bit of training. And, of course, as with many of these catered events, there are not many vegetarians choices.

Yesterday, for lunch, they did serve salad and that’s what I ate. I was proud of myself until that evening—I ate at On the Border Mexican Restaurant. Although I didn’t do too bad, I ate fish tacos. What’s so bad about fish tacos? Well, not much if I was eating meat. So, the fish and the actual taco shell were a complete no-no.  I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the watermelon margarita I had with dinner. I know, I know, I’m hanging my head low.

I started off this morning with a strictly protein breakfast from the hotel. I ate scrambled and hardboiled eggs . . . then came lunch during training. On the menu were various types of deli sandwiches. I ate ½ of a ham sandwich with white bread and ½ of a chicken and feta wrap with white pita bread. On top of that, I think I drank like three diet Cokes.

For dinner, I reclaimed my position by eating a cabbage salad with mushrooms and almonds, however, I finished it off with a diet Coke.

Whew, I did say it wasn’t going to be easy and this is day two. Pray for me on day three.  

Day 1 of My 365 Day Transformation

So, today is day one of my 365 day transformation. I turned 44 years-old yesterday and for a while, I have been planning this transformation. I realize it is going to be hard, but I promised that if God allowed me to live that long, age 45 would be my healthiest and best year ever.

How am I going to do this? Will trial and error of course. What’s going to be different? Well, my determination and more lifestyle change than diet. In the last few months, I’ve tried diets like the 900-calorie diet, the Shred diet and the 3-Day Military diets. Of course, they have their place, but not for life-style change, at least not for me.

Another thing I will be doing different is I’m going to try the Vegan lifestyle.  After watching animal show, after animal show with my dear husband, I just felt that I did not want that inside of me—for personal and spiritual reasons. When I saw how animals lived, what they ate, and how they were killed—or the fact that they were even killed for human nourishment and pleasure—made me a bit nauseous.

In addition to what I named above, many are aware of the heart disease,

high cholesterol and diabetes I have been diagnosed with and have been live with for years now. Now, I would never suggest this to anyone else, but after repeated trips to the doctor and having her constantly put me on this medication and that medication, and having those meds take a little out of me each time I took them, I stopped taking them flat out. I do have insulin on standby, just in case I need it, but I was sick of making the hospitals, doctors, medical insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies rich, and I was of allowing them to make me sick. Taking one med to stop something when it caused another ailment, only to have to get a prescription to help with that ailment, when most of the time, the side effects of those medications were the reason I was taking the medications in the first place.  I’m going to have to take my God with me all the way on this way.

Since I’ve purged myself of the meds, I feel much better. I spend less days in the bed feeling sick, nauseous, puking my brains out and just plain old feeling like I was going to die.

Enough of the small talk, here I go. Today I weighed in at 187.6, which surprises me as I thought I’d weigh about 200+ pounds. A while back I lost 20 pounds doing that 900-calorie a day diet using MyFitnessPal, and although my weight has yo-yod, it seems as if I been able to keep most of that weight off. Yay me.

My goal is to lose 60-pounds and drop a whole lot of inches. I will post my measurements as soon as I can figure out what I did with my tape measure.

Do you think I can lose 60 pounds in a year? I think I can. And again, it’s going to be hard, not for just the obvious reasons, but because I have a husband and a family who likes to eat—things like meat, sweets, etc., and drink beer and soft drinks and juice and all that other stuff that has made me fat over the years.

Oh my word, please pray for my willpower. I’m trying out tofu, so if anyone

knows of any good tofu and vegetarian recipes, please let me know. Starting out with the vegetarian diet, I will be using eggs, until I can guage other permanent ways to get protein without having to down awful protein powder several times a day. But, there will be no meat and no dairy. I’ll tell you though, If my skin starts to break out and I start to get blotches and discoloration on my face and body, I will be re-introducing dairy products back into my diet . . . I mean my new lifestyle.

So here goes . . . did I ask you to please pray for me? J Let the transformation begin!

PS: I’ll only be here on Blogger until I get my new site www.weightchasingdiva.com up and running. I own the domain, I just have to find time to create the website. Hopefully I can help you, while I help myself in this journey. Thanks for following me. I've also posted a few photos that I took yesterday.