Pasta, Pasta, I Love Pasta…Or I Used To

by Sarah Johnson Carter

This summer started off with a major blow to my habitual carb devouring when I was diagnosed with celiac disease (an immune reaction to foods containing gluten, like wheat, barley, and rye). The solution is to eliminate all gluten from my diet. It’s not a lifestyle choice, it’s a medical necessity, since eating gluten with celiac disease can lead to cancer and osteoporosis. Some food choices I can make confidently. A fresh, unpeeled banana? Yes, please! A carton of organic nonfat cow’s milk? Sure! Other items are a definite N-O…like a lemon square from my favorite bakery or a plate of pasta at my favorite restaurant. But with some options, the water gets murky, and further research is required. Wait…research? Eating used to be fun.

One morning, I tried to treat myself to a latte at Starbucks. Oh yeah, that turned out to be a real treat (insert eyeroll here). I asked the barista at the cash register if the sugar-free vanilla syrup is gluten-free (because gluten hides everywhere). After giving me a blank stare, she turned to ask one of her colleagues, who shrugged her shoulders and looked to a third associate. She said “I don’t know, but I guess you can read the bottle.” Okay, so I scanned it as quickly as possible.

Survey says? Um…none of the ingredients listed on the bottle screamed GLUTEN, so I played the celiac version of Russian roulette and ordered a skinny vanilla latte. Yep, nothing makes getting a latte more relaxing than interrogating the baristas while incurring the wrath of the dozen people behind me in line and possibly poisoning myself.

When I got back in my car, I checked Starbucks’ website, which I should have done in the first place…or not. “Allergen information is not available online for our beverage selections at this time. If you have an allergen concern, please feel free to ask our baristas to check the ingredient labels.” Come on, Starbucks…you can ethically source your coffee, but this is too much for you to deal with? Note: I haven’t been back since.

Another food dilemma I faced was if I could eat my mom’s yummy meatloaf (she makes it with dried onion soup mix). So, I went to the Lipton Recipe Secrets website, only to get this answer, “Since product formulations change from time to time, we do not have a printed list of products that identifies those products that contain specific allergens or gluten. The best advice we can give you is to check the ingredient list on the label. If you cannot determine whether the product contains the ingredient in question, we suggest you do not use it.”

At this point, I thought I was being punked. Really, you can’t make a database that tracks what ingredients you are currently using in your products and filter out a gluten-free list? So I’m back to reading labels at the grocery store…which is totally fun, you guys! Especially while I’m trying to stop my toddler from rearranging the jam jars, and using the spotty store wifi to see if an ingredient could be secretly packing gluten.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently issued a rule regulating the labeling of gluten-free food. The rule defines the term gluten-free, but doesn’t require that food has to be labeled one way or the other. Perhaps that will happen in the future. In the meantime, I want to buy $5 lattes…I want to make onion dip from a little white envelope, and I’m sure some of the other millions of celiac sufferers in the United States do too. Food industry, please work with us and take a cue from Chex:

Now, about that genetically modified corn…

Sarah Johnson Carter is an attorney, mom, and occasional writer. When not reading food labels, she connects families affected by rare chromosome disorders. Explore her story at www.misscayli.com and follow her on Twitter @sarahjcarter for some general nonsense.