It’s a ways back to 1849 and the Gold Rush.
The folks that made some money then were in mining supplies and trains .
What’s the profit for your grocer or your distributor when they sell you processed foods? Does the grocer have a section designated as the “gluten free” section? Have you realized the free isn’t really better?
Coming to terms with free, and certainly not the free in the way one might think of free, the other day I posted an analysis of the GFD – Gluten Free Diet and stated gluten free diets are not always diets free of gluten.
“Free,” in food terms, is supposed to mean none, nada, zero, zilch. Zero salt, for instance. Processed foods or processed foods packaging labels take some time to read and understand, and they don’t necessarily disclose the parts per million (ppm) of an ingredient — ppm is the measurement in determining gluten — accurately. We’re all busy. Maybe we’re too busy to take the time to read or understand package labels. Maybe we’re too busy to take the time to question why we’re reading a label on processed foods. But since we are, the celiac’s friend will look for the ppm certifications that are available for packaging. Certifications may help in identifying the gluten parts per million for the contents of the box or package. Normally, consumers go right to the Nutrition Facts portion of the label, but gluten ppm certifications have recognition seals, logos, or symbols to help define ppm, and ppm measurements aren’t defined in the Nutrition Facts label at all. Ppm measurements aren’t in the ingredients listing either. The ingredients listing simply mentions by name the ingredients in most to least fashion. The names of the ingredients are listed. The weights of these ingredients are not listed.
A group that is assisting in clarifying what’s in the package is the Celiac Sprue Association, CSA, certifies GF-5 ppm and provides a comparisons and contrasts table of Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), codex is the international standards body, to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) 2006 standard of GF-20ppm, with the CSA’s guidelines.
The Gluten Intolerance Group ( GIG ), setup the program Gluten Free Certification Association, (GFCO) , which certifies to GF-10ppm . Gig’s website is difficult to navigate as many links are broken or self-referring to the page you’re already viewing, but they will be developing a directory of certified food services. Coming soon, I guess. Their logo gets the ppm below the voluntary manufacture notification of GF-20ppm.
In my local corporate type grocery store(s) many of the products I see are showing the manufacturer’s voluntary GF-20ppm, next are the GFCO’s logo, and very few CSA seals. I have a preferential leaning towards the CSA seal, as least amount of gluten is best for me.
Still, I sometimes forget or misplace my better judgment and buy a product voluntarily labelled ‘gluten free’ and it makes me sick.
And I fall back to the contagion of what’s going on currently with gluten — the Gluten Gold Rush — I realize I’m just human. A human with failings and triumphs. A human with celiac disease. The privilege is mine. Maybe if I can keep from ingesting gluten our connection can be deeper. I know it will be for me, and that’s what I would wish for.
I’m making wishes every time I try to make sense of how to add in the extras that everyone needs as an individual. Mining these extras with the dreams and hopes of fueling the rush.