Gluten-Containing and Gluten-Free Foods: What You Need to Know
Gluten is frequently used in food production as a thickener and stabilizer.
Gluten-containing foods include cereals, processed grain-based products, bread, bulgur, couscous, semolina and confectioneries, pastries, and cakes. Gluten can even be found in products containing malt, and many foods and beverages that fall into the packaged snack category. There are varieties of foods within the same group that are made from different raw materials among gluten-free foods. This depends on the path chosen by the manufacturing company. The same products can have both gluten-containing and gluten-free options.
What Are Gluten-Free Foods and Beverages?
The first examples of gluten-free foods can be legumes. In addition to the reliable legume family, foods such as rice, rice flour, corn flour, quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat, and oats (if there is no cross-contamination) do not contain gluten. However, despite all these details, it is important to check the product content to understand whether any product is gluten-containing or gluten-free, as cross-contamination may be possible in the production facility. Fruits and vegetables do not contain gluten.
Apart from these types of foods, products such as herbal proteins, antioxidant powders, fiber-rich foods, and nutritional yeast from our Naturiga brand, which prioritizes gluten-free nutrition, also do not contain gluten. Especially gluten-free granola and gluten-free oatmeal are among the snacks that our customers enjoy consuming for breakfast. In addition to being gluten-free, they offer a delicious experience.
What Are Gluten-Containing Foods and Beverages?
Products such as whole wheat, barley, rye, semolina, bulgur, wheat germ, and cracked wheat, which fall into the cereal group, are among those that people looking for gluten-free foods should avoid.
Gluten can also be found in processed grain-based products. Crackers, breads, breadcrumbs, pasta, seitan, wheat-based soba noodles, cookies, and pastries may contain gluten.
Packaged meat products may also contain gluten. Bread crumbs, meat products prepared with dough, sausages, and other processed foods are often gluten-containing. Marinated meats may have gluten-containing or gluten-free options depending on their ingredients. Meat pastries or frozen meals may also have varying amounts of gluten depending on their ingredients.
Packaged snacks, flavored potato chips, corn chips, and muesli bars may also contain gluten depending on the product's composition. Gluten can also be found in barley malt, malt vinegar, soy sauce, some salad dressings, flour, bouillon, and sauces thickened with some set waters. Certain types of alcohol also contain gluten.
If you cannot find information about the content on the packaging or elsewhere when purchasing a product, you can try to get detailed information from the manufacturing companies.
It is especially recommended that individuals sensitive to gluten pay attention to any special warnings about the product before consuming new foods.
Dietitian Ege Bölük
I graduated from İstinye University's Department of Nutrition and Dietetics in 2020 and worked at a specialist doctor's clinic to specialize in bariatric nutrition.
I continued my career by completing various training courses on multidisciplinary approaches to eating disorders, the use and support of nutritional supplements in diet, psychodietetics, nutrition and physiotherapy in athletes, celiac disease, and gluten enteropathy.
After joining the Naturiga team, I have been working on functional nutrition and supplementary foods with functional medicine dietitian Mr. Erdi Uğur.
