Tag Archives: Coeliac disease

Ruebens the Right (and Gluten-Free!) Way

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Sometimes it is really fun to spend a lot of effort making a fancy version of something that is usually very simple. That is what I decided to do after I saw this at my local PCC:

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ImageGluten-free bread that tastes like rye bread, made by Wheatless in Seattle! I immediately hatched a plan to make elaborate Ruebens. I needed a real slab of corned beef:

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That beauty needed to be cooked, covered and surrounded by water in the oven, for about 2 1/2 hours. While it was cooking I sauteed Sauerkraut to dry it out, and I sliced some Swiss cheese. I also picked up some Thousand Island dressing by Annie’s.

ImageI of course buttered the bread slices before making them into sandwiches to get that lovely golden color when they cooked. Also, only in the past few years have I made sure to always use softened butter for this sort of thing. Life is too short to try to spread cold, hard butter (Especially since many gluten-free breads are more crumbly that their gluten-containing counterparts)! And, of course, a fancy sandwich is only complete with a big, crunchy pickle spear. I made these pickles myself (so of course they were a little spicy and garlicky)! Image

ImageOh man these turned out well. The “rye” bread had that distinctive slightly sour, dill-esque taste that adds a little kick to a Rueben, and it had very good texture as well. Unfortunately, the price is a little high for my budget, so I don’t think I will be making this bread a regular part of my menus, but it was fun to put so much effort into a simple sandwich!

Are Oats Gluten-Free? The Oat Dilemma for Celiacs

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are oats gluten free?

There still seems to be some confusion swirling around regarding whether or not oats are gluten-free. Hopefully this summary of what I have learned over the years will prove helpful for those of you trying to figure this sometimes confusing world of gluten out!

The short answer:

Oats are gluten-free.  In their natural form, they do not contain the protein that harms people with celiac disease and is present in wheat, barley, and rye.

The long answer….

Oats that are not grown in a dedicated field, and processed in a dedicated facility, cannot at this time be considered gluten-free. Crop rotation (4th grade history, anyone?) is said to have been invented/advocated by the first US president George Washington (although it looks like the ancient Romans, as well as some Asian culture came up with it first. For more details, here is a nice Wikipedia article). In general, this is a very good practice, as it prevents the soil in the fields from being stripped entirely of nutrients, and allows for more plentiful harvests. For those of us who are sensitive to gluten, however, this practice has allowed the dreaded “contamination” to infiltrate almost every single batch of oats grown and harvested, as the fields are often alternated between wheat and oats. There is no way to ensure that a few “volunteer” wheat plants don’t pop up during the oat rotation, and make their way into the harvest, and thus into our stomachs.

As if that weren’t enough, oats are also usually processed in the same plants that wheat (aka flour) is processed in. This means that there is a lovely flour/gluten coating on all of the machinery that makes oats and other grains fit to eat (for the rest of the population, anyway).

All that being said, there are some brands of oat growers/processors that grow their crops in dedicated fields, and process them in a dedicated facility. Bob’s Red Mill and Trader Joe’s, are some examples.

BUT….

There are a very few Celiacs (my little sister included) who are quite allergic to oats, regardless of their gluten status. This is thanks to a protein called Avenin, which in some celiacs mimics the effects of gluten. See this article and this article for some of the super geeky science-y details. I will warn you though, the sample sizes in these studies are quite small, which affects how valid the results of a study are.

So, as you can see, the issue is still a little convoluted. From personal experience, I can tell you that I eat certified gluten-free oats without any problems, as can other Celiacs that I know. My sister, however, cannot, and from my research, I have found that she is not alone.