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3. For Natural Gluten Free Products, read the labels minutely

Many products are naturally gluten free like packing of legumes, grains, milling of chana dal (Bengal Grams) as besan, soya flour etc. If the choice is there to buy from dedicated gluten free manufacturer, it’s always safer but if the choice is not there, one must look for the word ‘gluten free’ on the label as many general manufacturers who label their product Gluten Free, take care by keeping a tab on the segregation process regarding wheat, barley while sieving the grains, millets and lentils.

To replace natural gluten in gluten free food is done artificially by gums. Gums are derived naturally and are used in many other applications of food made by chefs all across the world. They are Hydrocolloids and are used to improve quality attributes and shelf-life. The two main uses of it are as a thickening and gelling agent. From soups to gravies as thickening agents to gelling agents in a jam, jelly, marmalade they play an important role. Xanthan gum, locust bean gum, guar gum, Arabic gum to carrageenan are a variety of gums that manufacturers use in gluten free flour as a replacement for gluten. Though it doesn’t replace the properties of gluten none the less they are good alternatives but they are expensive and they add to already costly gluten free flour.

4. Make a habit of reading the label while buying general merchandise

Very reliable ways of verifying about the ingredients have evolved over time and some of them are:

Writing to the manufacturers, being in touch with Celiac Societies, asking your dieticians, checking with celiac support groups on social media who are proactive and have prior in depth knowledge or even search engines like Google. Getting first-hand knowledge about the brands which are clear and not clear becomes important for buyers. Also, regular updating of knowledge is required as many MNCs change the ingredients without any prior notice and connecting with the company or active celiac support groups on social media always help to avoid lapses at a later stage.

5. Meet the Chef while dining out

Follow the golden rule of meeting the chef and confirming the ingredients of the dishes you plan to eat when dining out. Such an exercise helps in eliminating the chances of you being glutened.  Chefs of fine dining or good restaurants are well aware of gluten as an allergen and immediately can let you know which dishes are gluten free and which are not.

Even a cook at dhabha knows which items he is adding and many of the things like besan, maida, suji can be ruled out by speaking to him in simple colloquial language. Sometimes we assume many of the items to be inherently gluten free like dosa, idli, vada which are made from rice and lentils but we can check with the chef about any addition of rawa (suji).

It’s always recommended by doctors/dieticians to have homemade food for Celiacs/Gluten Intolerant. But the wants of such persons are not quenched by having everything at home. So buying out ready to eat gluten free products like cookies, cakes, savouries or to be prepared items like pasta, noodles are required to give variety to their already restricted diet. By following above such precautions one can give a better quality of life as this gives them more choices and varieties to decide what they want to have thus helping them enjoy life Gluten Free.

To replace wheat, combination of many grains, legumes and millets have to be tried in permutation to bring the taste nearer to wheat and barley. If one grain like rice could have replaced wheat in all its properties, surely gf food would have been cheaper but alas that’s not the case to be. These combinations of multiple grains with millets and legumes make the cost of the base flour to be costlier which in turn make all the products made out of the base flour like cookies, savories, fresh bakery ‘expensive’.

Just to give an example of cost implications, wheat flour may cost around Rs. 35/- per kg and rice ( Rs. 30/-) in combination with black split grams (₹ 120/-), Bengal chana grams ( Rs. 75/- per kg) will bring the cost to be around three times the base price. Anything made from this flour will always be costlier than products made out of maida or wheat flour.

Another major reason which is seen in making gf foods costlier is replacing gluten which is missing. Gluten is the protein that gives elasticity and moulding properties to wheat. The softness in naan, rumali roti, bread, kulchas, burgers is due to the rising power of the gluten when it reacts with water to ferment.

To replace natural gluten in gluten free food is done artificially by gums. Gums are derived naturally and are used in many other applications of food made by chefs all across the world. They are Hydrocolloids and are used to improve quality attributes and shelf-life. The two main uses of it are as a thickening and gelling agent. From soups to gravies as thickening agents to gelling agents in a jam, jelly, marmalade they play an important role. Xanthan gum, locust bean gum, guar gum, Arabic gum to carrageenan are a variety of gums that manufacturers use in gluten free flour as a replacement for gluten. Though it doesn’t replace the properties of gluten none the less they are good alternatives but they are expensive and they add to already costly gluten free flour.

Whenever we talk of 8 billion dollar gluten free global industry size that is expected to grow in 2024, it’s not all consumed by gluten intolerant/celiac persons. On the contrary, the majority of gluten free foods are consumed by those who might not require them as a medical condition but as healthier options that suit their gut and digestion.

Very few experts are available to make such foods and they come with a price. Also, entrepreneurs and gluten free manufacturers who jump into this business, have to train their manpower, especially for gluten free manufacturing. Procurement of grains which are sieved manually and also double sorted to ensure that not even single grain of wheat/barley/rye goes into manufacturing add to the cost. Entrepreneurs can’t buy big automatic plants as the requirement in the market is much lower than the capacity of available machines. Economy of scales is not applicable in this field and involvement of manual labour and manufacturing in smaller batches hikes the production cost.

The last but not the least reason which enhances the cost is expectations of the retail segment which think that it’s a special food and compare them with imported goods. They expect higher margins and want gluten free manufacturers to increase the MRP of the products so that they have more profits. It becomes counterproductive to people who are in continuous requirement of gluten free foods as their food is their medicine.

All the above factors add up and make gluten free food products expensive. Most of the reasons are genuine and until or unless only rice and corn are used to replace wheat and barley, the gluten free food can never be cheap. But rice and corn cannot give nutritionally balanced food and to do that, many grains, legumes and millets are added so that low carbohydrates, good proteins, fats and fibre are there in the meal to keep the gut of person in good health. To stay in good health and to bring happiness in life we need such grains and they come at a price.

When this disease was discovered, existing food became poison for the gluten intolerant and coeliac patients and most of the innovation came from mothers whose kids had been diagnosed with this problem. As it is said that necessity is the mother of invention so most gluten free products which were created and came into the market, came from the cradle of love and emotions of motherly love. God always create a solution to any problem which has arisen in the world.

Gluten is the protein that gives elasticity, helps in making puffed chapati, rumali roti, naan hence innovation becomes very restrictive with gluten moving out but it opens more doors of using alternative gluten free grains, millets and legumes. Grains like Corn, Quinoa etc, millets like Sorghum, Pearl millets etc and legumes like Bengal grams, black grams etc not only add a different flavour to taste but also make food more nutritious as these alternate grains are rich in proteins, fibres, low in carbohydrates.

Innovation becomes all the more interesting when one primary colour from the pellet has been taken away but in turn, nature gives you a full rainbow of so many millets, grains, legumes to experiment with. Smart chef or foodpreneurs who are forthcoming in experimentation, not only end up making GF food tasting closer to normal but also make them more nutritious and healthy. The cravings of consumers are enormous and they want all type of products and such an appetite gives more leads to innovations. India is so rich in variety of millets and legumes which makes innovation more interesting and captivating.

Freehand to NPD with a substantial budget and lanced with kitchen equipments, can give a variety of a gluten free choices. If brief to NPD head is clear that innovation has to based on good nutrition and good taste then surely lot many gf products can be rolled out to the satisfaction of consumers. A food lab in any good food company can be the cradle of continuous innovations which not only will increase your market share but also will make you a market leader.

“Innovate or Stagnate” is our motto in Wheafree and we believe “Innovation resides where the risk is taken not necessarily where the idea is generated”

Wheafree has imbibed and embedded innovation in its DNA for the road to success and it has been churning out products and recipes successfully and we see contended customer with a smile.

The keyword in any gluten free food is the absence of gluten which at outset might appear to be easy but it comes in a hidden form and in so many aliases that the manufacturer has to be extra cautious and on guard while manufacturing GF goods.

Many crops have harvest times that coincide, wheat comes at the same time as sorghum and Bengal gram, and no particular care is taken at the market place, where all of these crops are kept out in the open. Neither farmers nor the market officials are aware of this critical factor and the acuteness of the problems which arises due to cross-contamination. Hence the onus of cleaning and segregating of involved crops comes on the manufacturer and it is his responsibility to take care of it. Any overlook or carelessness at this stage will give a bad name to gluten free manufacturers to have a presence of gluten higher than prescribed norms.

To maintain the standards, the best possible solution is that all the grains should be sieved and segregated properly. Segregation should be done with machines as well as manually as many times as possible till the machines cannot segregate the material any more effectively. The quality check will be better if contract farming can be done directly with farmers where the facilities of dehusking can be created independently, as products will arrive directly to the manufacturer’s premises with no chance of cross-contamination.

In India, proper training to female workers for manual segregation has given good results and they are still a cheaper and effective solution to machines or sortex segregation. The flour of these grains should be periodically checked by Elisa Kits to see that gluten ppm is in the control range and this testing should be done before sending them into the market or using them in-house for making other products like cookies, cakes, fresh bakery or savouries etc.

Most starches in India are corn and rice based, or can come from neutral products like potato or tapioca, and are considered safe but still, certificate of analysis for their product to be gluten free should be taken from the suppliers. However, many flavour enhancers and thickeners are not gluten free and can create problems if used by the manufacturer in his premises, as his end product will be found to be adulterated which can lead him to be penalised by the health and the food regulatory body for producing unsafe food. These products should be also tested for gluten on a regular basis with in-house testing labs to validate the results sent by the vendor of such additives.

Small dust of wheat flour is enough to contaminate the whole batch of flour, thus the above factor which is ignored normally should be taken care of in particular.

For savouries, especially Indian savouries, many masalas have gluten which we people normally are not aware of. Asafoetida/Hing in its purest form is gluten free but when it comes to the market commercially, it is adulterated with starches to make it economical and hence most of the masalas containing hing) fail the gluten testing. All spices and spice mix which comes from either a vendor or from the market must be tested to ensure that all namkeens and savouries are gluten free and suitable for consumption as GF products.

For gluten free product manufacturing, premises should be dedicated solely to gluten free manufacturing, and conventional glute containing food should never be prepared there. This instils confidence and trust in the manufacturer’s products. If for some reasons the product being made is gluten free but made on the machinery where earlier products containing gluten have been made or premises have gluten present in some form, it is better to declare on labels about the risk of cross-contamination and let the consumer decide whether to buy the products according to their sensitivity and reaction to gluten.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has introduced new regulations recently for gluten free labelling of products and if the products fail in the government’s testing lab when a sample is taken, the food samples are declared unsafe and have very serious implications like heavy penalties and even imprisonment.

Furthermore, the manufacturer is always under the scrutiny of the aware consumers who keep on picking the declared Gluten Free products randomly and get them tested; if they are found contaminated and beyond the permissible limits, they put the results on social media and make them viral. Such actions are very damaging to the reputation of the manufacturer and once the brand name gets soiled in a controversy, it’s very difficult to come out of the quagmire.

Hence gluten testing not only makes the product safe, but it adds value to the brand name and builds trust and loyalty.

Our endeavour at Wheafree is to integrate all the above testing protocols in our manufacturing processes and follow them stringently. Such a testing regime has helped us to give high quality gluten free products and gain the trust of our customers.

Skin is the largest organ of the human body, it’s considered to be the mirror of what’s going on inside our body. Many a times number of diseases first manifest as skin problems, when a skin problem is present for a long duration and not responding to treatment, then we try to find the underlying cause and this leads to investigations and regular follow ups, this may lead to a diagnosis. For example diabetes is often diagnosed from skin rashes and recurrent infections. Similarly gluten sensitivity or coeliac disease can present with skin problems; certain skin diseases manifest more frequently in people with gluten sensitivity.

Coeliac disease is an autoimmune disease which affects the digestive tract, it’s the severe form of gluten intolerance. A few may just have gluten intolerance and not the coeliac disease. It can present with different symptoms like bloating, abdominal pain or discomfort, loose motions or constipation, feeling of tiredness, headache and many others like skin problems. I shall deal with skin problems here.

Many people present with long standing itching, redness, rashes and even blisters sometimes. In such individuals of long standing skin rashes, I always get them tested for gluten sensitivity. A few present as eczematous lesions, which are to begin with dry patches of intense itching which may be labelled as dermatitis and when they become oozy because of persistent itching or secondary infection then it’s known as eczema.

Eczema more frequently seen in children. Another presentation is with hives (commonly known as chappaki/thaphad) and diagnosed as urticaria by a dermatologist.

Dryness of the skin is often noticed by the patients, this is explained on the basis of poor absorption of nutrients from the damaged digestive tract, here your doctor can give you multivitamin supplements and a dietician can help you improve your diet. Keep your skin hydrated by drinking of plenty of fluids, diet rich in nutrients which help in skin hydration and apply good moisturising lotion. Very important to keep the skin well moisturised as it will otherwise lead to itching. Darkening of the skin is also a result of poor nutrients and dryness of the skin.

Dermatitis Herpetiformis is a skin disorder very frequently associated with gluten sensitivity and coeliac disease. It presents as itchy, red dots (papules) and vesicles (tiny blisters filled with clear fluid), they can appear anywhere on the body but most frequently seen on back, elbows, knees and buttocks. The person may complain of mild to intense burning sensation on the skin. The diagnosis is confirmed on biopsy.

Whenever someone presents with dermatitis herpettiformis, we always test them for gluten sensitivity and screen for coeliac disease. Dermatitis herpetiformis may be the first presentation or it can also present after the diagnosis of coeliac disease. It can be well controlled by treatment from a dermatologist and following strict diet restrictions for gluten.

As coeliac disease is an autoimmune disorder, it can be associated with any other autoimmune disorders, the skin disorders could be alopecia areata, urticaria, dermatitis herpetiformis. Psoriasis is also seen to be seen along with coeliac disease.

All of the above skin conditions can be well controlled with the help of a dermatologist and a dietician. Very important is the strict adherence to a gluten free diet. We are lucky now as we have many alternatives for gluten free meal plans and snacks. The family plays a very important role for the emotional support and guidance for these children and adults. Positive attitude with healthy eating goes a long way in living a symptom free life.

There has been a lot of talk about low-carb and low-fat diets, and even high-fiber diets to some degree but no one has ever talked about protein as much. The reality is that there are some conflicting viewpoints on protein in the nutrition world, so it’s important to weigh all of the facts before settling on a diet that’s right for you and your family.

When you hear of a “high protein diet” do you think of bodybuilders? People with a lot of muscle mass in their arms, chest, and legs? Yes, bodybuilders need a high intake of protein to build muscles.

What is Protein?

Let’s define protein first before we dig into the topic. What is Protein ?

Protein, like carbohydrate and fat, is a “macronutrient.” The role and significance of carbohydrates and fats in our bodies are to provide us with energy to conduct everyday activities; similarly, protein is also an essential component that our bodies need. Everyone, regardless of age, needs a protein-rich diet.

A protein-rich diet is vital for everyone. Protein is needed by the body regardless of age or fitness level, as it serves a variety of functions in the body, mainly for the:

• Bones
• Hair
• Muscles
• Skin
• Nails
• Internal organs

How much Protein do I need?

In India, more than 68% of the population is protein deficient, and 71% of the population has poor muscle health.

The protein requirement is different for every individual. A common man with a sedentary lifestyle requires at least 56 grams of protein per day, while females with a sedentary lifestyle need around 46 grams of protein per day. These estimates are based on studies that show that a person needs 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight to live a healthy lifestyle. The tricky part is that everybody requires different quantities of protein depending on a variety of factors. One of the most important factors is a lifestyle. If you are actively lifting weights, you will need more protein than someone who does not lift weights or prefers aerobic workouts. This is when a dietician’s services are needed. Where the diet chart is created based on your lifestyle, food habits, energy consumption, eating preferences, work environment, budget, and so on.

How do I get more Protein?

Nature is blessed with wonderful ingredients that are naturally rich in protein and easily available in a country like India, but some people prefer to supplement their diet with protein-rich powders, bars, or even shakes, which are undoubtedly high in protein but also high in sugar, preservatives, and sodium which can be damaging to our health.

Non-vegetarians can choose from a variety of protein-rich choices:
• Eggs
• Chicken
• Meat
• Fish

For vegetarians, there are ample of options:
• Soy
• Lentils/ Pulses
• Quinoa
• Green leafy vegetables like Spinach
• Nut butter
• Chia seeds

You can even add more protein to your diet by just swapping from your regular flour to a high protein flour, like the Everhealth High Protein Low Carb Flour. Including this flour in your daily diet can help you to meet your daily protein requirement without involving much fancy cooking because this has a blend of Almonds, Bengal grams, Flaxseeds, Soya, Sorghum, Chia seeds, Pumpkin seeds, etc which are all protein rich sources.

Furthermore, protein supplements on the market are not as “HEALTHY” as they seem because their nutritional labels contain 200+ Kcal, clearly indicating the cause of obesity. When it comes to saturated fat, any food with more than 2g is not a good option for those who choose to stay healthy. Also, the sugar content of such items may surpass the recommended limit of 8g, which is much more than recommended.

If you’re trying to lose weight, swap out your high-carb meals for some protein-rich options that will not only taste great but also keep you full and satisfied for longer.