Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, and sometimes oats. The problem with oats is two-fold. Most oats are milled using the same equipment that is used for wheat, and so they are contaminated with pieces of wheat. Therefore, we can't eat them. It is possible to get wheat-free oats (they're pretty expensive), but that doesn't work for everyone because oats contain a protein called avenin that is similar to the gluten in wheat, barley, and rye. Some celiacs have no problem with it, but some react to it. For that reason, most dietitians will recommend that you avoid oats for a year or so after you are diagnosed before trying them to see how you do. And if you are having a celiac over for dinner, I would recommend just avoiding oats entirely because they wheat-free ones are pricey and sometimes hard to find, and you wouldn't want to go to all of the trouble of getting them only to find out that your friend reacts to wheat-free oats and can't eat what you made.
Of course, like everything in life, avoiding wheat, barley, rye, and maybe oats is not always so straightforward. You need to read the ingredients on everything, even if it's something you've bought before, because ingredients can change. I even read the ingredients of things that are in my cupboards before I use them because it's such a habit for me by now. Some people think that's obsessive, but I once ate a couple of pieces of non-gluten free cereal and was sick for about a week, so there's no such thing as being too careful.
This is not a complete list, but here are a few things to watch out for:
-Anything made with wheat flour (white bread is still made from wheat, even though it doesn't say "whole wheat" on the bag
-Some corn tortillas have wheat flour added to them (but corn tortillas without wheat flour are okay)
-Wheat-based pasta
-Gravy is usually made with flour, although it's very easy to substitute cornstarch or rice flour if you're making it from scratch
-Anything breaded
-Couscous (it's made from wheat)
-Barley malt extract/malt extract/malt flavoring
-LINDT TRUFFLES have barley malt extract in them, so don't eat them (but some of the Lindt chocolate bars are okay, just read the ingredients)
-RICE KRISPIES have barley malt extract in them. You'd think they would be okay because they're rice, but they're not. Same with corn flakes and basically every mainstream cereal, except gluten-free Chex the new gluten-free Rice Krispies if you're luck enough to live somewhere where you can get them.
-Soy sauce usually has wheat (in Canada, VH soy sauce is okay as of right now)
-Chinese food usually has gluten in it because of the soy sauce issue, so make sure to ask about the ingredients before eating it
-Canned soup (tomato soup has flour, cream of mushroom soup has flour, it's actually pretty hard to find a can of soup without flour in it)
-Sausages/hot dogs/burgers/meatballs often have bread crumbs in them
-Veggie burgers and veggie meat substitutes often have wheat in them
-Beer is made from barley and/or and contains gluten (unless it's gluten-free beer and it's clearly market as such). Some people mysteriously thing it's still okay to cook with beer, but I think they're confusing alcohol with gluten. The alcohol cooks out, but the gluten does not.
-Brewer's yeast is a bi-product of beer making and is not gluten free
-Malt vinegar is made from beer and is not gluten free. Other vinegars are fine.
-Worcestershire sauce sometimes contains malt vinegar and/or soy sauce depending on the brand, so read the ingredients carefully.
-Powdered broths and flavorings are not always gluten free.
-Imitation bacon bits are usually made from a combination of soy and wheat flour, so read carefully.
-Bulgur is a form of wheat
-Salad dressings can sometimes have gluten ingredients, especially "Asian"-type ones because of the soy sauce
Feel free to comment if I've missed a frequent source of hidden gluten, but those are the ones that I seem to encounter most frequently.
So what can you eat? Anything without gluten! There are gluten free versions of seemingly every gluten containing food out there, but a lot of them are expensive and full of sugar and starch and fat, so I mostly eat things that are naturally gluten free. This includes, but is not limited to:
-Vegetables
-Fruit
-Nuts and seeds
-Meat, fish, etc
-Eggs
-Dairy products
-Brown rice pasta
-Quinoa
-Millet
-Rice
-Teff
-Corn
-Beans
-Lentils
-Chickpeas (they're beans, but I love them so much that they get their own line)
-Tofu and soy products (I mostly avoid them because too much soy seems to give me stomach cramps, so you won't find too many tofu recipes on here, but you can eat it)
-Buckwheat (despite the name, it has nothing to do with wheat)
-Sugar
-Chocolate (read the ingredients)
-Tapioca
-Gelatin (I've met a number of people who haven't realized that it was safe, but it is)
-Potatoes and sweet potatoes (some people get gluten mixed up with carbs, but potatoes, rice, etc are all fine)
-Arrowroot (not those arrowroot cookies, because they have wheat flour in them, but you can cook with arrowroot starch)
-"Glutinous" rice - it's only called that because it's sticky
And many more things. Leave your favorites in the comments!
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