Spain has been on our gluten-free minds a lot lately, most recently because of the gluten-free buns available at McDonald’s and before that simply as a great gluten-free destination.

Now, according to International Supermarket News, Spain is about to get easy access to Genius gluten-free bread. Wahoo!

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To me, arsenic has always been something little old Victorian ladies used to get rid of pesky tenants in their otherwise-reputable boarding houses.

Of course, it’s more than just this: arsenic is a naturally-occurring substance and a citizen of the periodic table. It’s had various other uses throughout the centuries, as a wood-preservative, a common ingredient in copper or lead alloys, insecticide, military-grade chemical weapon, etc.

Arsenic is a known carcinogen in the same class as asbestos and formaldehyde, and in high enough levels it’s quite toxic.  Why care? Well, if your gluten-free diet includes a lot of rice-based items, you might be inadvertently overexposing yourself to this cancer-causing element.

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Yum! If you know where to find them...

The other day I was standing in a recessed doorway, chowing down on a gluten-free, vegan pizza pocket from Gluuteny, a Pittsburgh-based gluten-free bakery. It was delicious.

Not too long before, I was melting butter to pan-fry some pumpkin bread from Delectable Edibles, based in the Orlando area. It, too, was delicious — reminded me of childhood mornings, when my mom used to fry up blueberry muffins.

And then my brother brought home some goodies from the Curtis Street Bakers, which can only be gotten if you’re in the Boston area. Guess what? Delicious. Blondies. YUM.

All of which is to say: there are a LOT of smaller bakeries out there, making a LOT of tasty food. How is a girl to find them all?
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How much of this can we eat?

A little tidbit found its way to my inbox the other day. It’s fairly poorly documented, so it could be a fluke: but in case it isn’t, I wanted to share.

According to the website of the Packaging Business Review, legislators in Ukraine have introduced a draft that proposes labeling of gluten-free food. The revision was suggested by Ukrainian Parliament member Viacheslav Perederiy (who is of the BYT-Batkivschyna faction). According to the article, “food products free from gluten can be marked as ‘gluten-free’ on labels, if it does not exceed 20mg per 100gm of the product weight.”

So, first of all: awareness! Labeling! Yay!

Second of all: what does 20mg per 100gm mean? Is this actually a good bill?

Turns out, 20 milligrams per 100 grams is actually 200 ppm. So, if and when the bill passes — buyer beware of Ukranian gluten-free items.
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Almost a year ago, we wrote about a promising new vaccine against celiac disease Nexvax2®, in development in Massachusetts. Now, the company behind the vaccine, ImmusanT, has even more exciting news:

They are manufacturing 9,000 doses of vaccine.

According to this article on MassLive.com, the vaccine will be produced by a local firm, Microtest.

I suspect the vaccine-manufacturing facility does not look like this.

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Don't worry, the real flow chart isn't this complicated.

There are lots of reasons to like the Wall Street Journal, but one of the biggest has to be columnist Melinda Beck.

In September of 2010, Beck published an article called, “Giving up Gluten to Lose Weight? Not so Fast” (and we wrote about it, of course).

Now, she’s followed up with, “New Guide to Who Really Shouldn’t Eat Gluten,” an overview of  a newly-proposed classification system for all people who are better-off without gluten.

Thanks, Melinda Beck! It’s nice to see the gluten-free world get coverage in such a mainstream publication, year in and year out.

So what’s this article about?
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This image has NOTHING to do with this post. Yawning puppies just felt right for a Monday.

If you’ve been following the news about undiagnosed celiac disease, then you’ve read about all the other medical problems that celiacs are at risk for. There’s lots of them: diabetes, osteoporosis, depression, etc. (you can read more at the National Foundation for Celiac Disease’s website).

A handful of small studies have shown a link between gastrointestinal cancers and celiac disease, but up until recently there was no large-scale study to verify the results. A study recently published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology fixes this, and provides a bit of reassurance to us all.
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It’s that time of year again: Triumph Dining’s Best of Gluten-Free!

This year’s awards are bigger and better. Why bigger? Well, there’s more categories and we need more of your opinions. Why better? For starters: Prizes!

Before I get ahead of myself, though, are you familiar with the Best of Gluten-Free? If not, here’s an introduction from the survey page itself:

Do you think your favorite gluten-free brands and products deserve some recognition? Ever wanted to high-five your favorite gluten-free bread or give your favorite gluten-free cookie a big bear hug?…

The Best of Gluten-Free Awards are designed to select the best gluten-free products available and to give recognition and thanks to the companies that provide them.

But what about those prizes? Click to continue reading »

Are you familiar with the University of Chicago’s Celiac Disease Center?

If not, check them out. Their website is full of good information whether you’re newly diagnosed, old-hat at all things gluten-free, or just wondering whether or not gluten is giving you problems.

Speaking of which: if you’re newly diagnosed via biopsy, the center will send you a care package full of tasty gluten-free samples and other materials. Just give them a call (see more here).

The Celiac Disease Center also puts out a free quarterly e-newsletter, and this quarter’s headline story was worth sharing: Evolving Diagnostic Criteria for Celiac Disease.
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Any time we post about Subway’s growing gluten-free options, we get a lot of comments that say, “Hey Subway! Come to my town!”

For some of you, today is your lucky day. Well, actually, your lucky day was some time in the not-too-distant past — today’s just the day we’re posting about it.

Subway has made two big announcements regarding their gluten-free offerings.

The first:

All Subway stores across the state of Oregon will now have gluten-free options.
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