some minutes are harder to deal with than others

[Guest guest]

Last night I was in the ER with my child for a number of hours.

The junk machines had only gluten, gluten, and more gluten for sale.

Gluten in various sizes, colors, and shapes, and flavors. All equally

toxic, I'm sure. My DD asked for Skittles. Got them for her. Sure

enough, that old nemesis " modified food starch " is in them. I looked

at all the other candy, hoping to find SOMETHING to keep my stomach

from growling audibly. Finally found Jolly Ranchers. Figured that they

were about as safe as I could get in the land of Gluten Vending

machines. Pressed the button and hoped for the best. Phew. Jolly

Rancher candies seem to be GF.

(My child is going to be OK.)

[Guest guest]

Skittles are gluten free. They're actually casein (milk) free too.

My daughter got a lot of them for halloween last year.

http://www.gfcfdiet.com/Chocolatecandy.htm has a big list of candies

that are both gluten and casein free.

Trudy in NH.

>

> Last night I was in the ER with my child for a number of hours.

> The junk machines had only gluten, gluten, and more gluten for sale.

> Gluten in various sizes, colors, and shapes, and flavors. All equally

> toxic, I'm sure. My DD asked for Skittles. Got them for her. Sure

> enough, that old nemesis " modified food starch " is in them. I looked

> at all the other candy, hoping to find SOMETHING to keep my stomach

> from growling audibly. Finally found Jolly Ranchers. Figured that

they

> were about as safe as I could get in the land of Gluten Vending

> machines. Pressed the button and hoped for the best. Phew. Jolly

> Rancher candies seem to be GF.

> (My child is going to be OK.)

>

[Guest guest]

Thank you. I'll keep that in mind for future reference.

When you don't have access to research tools, you have to go

by what you CAN tell from the label. Sometimes that's as much as

" no way " , or as little as " looks safe " , or totally ambiguous

like " maybe yes, maybe no, is it worth the risk? "

>

> Skittles are gluten free.

[Guest guest]

I totally agree. If I don't already know that the item is safe, I'll

put down anything with a questionable ingredient rather than try to

find out if it's safe or not. Of course when my hubby comes home with

a new product (he doesn't understand the whole reading the label

thing), I'll look it up online to be sure. His latest thing actually

was to buy some soy milk made by Kikkoman (yes the company that makes

soy sauce). There was clearly labelled with malt so that one was out

for sure. I did found out though that the Shaw's Wild Harvest brand

of soy milks are all gluten free - every flavor (he bought the

chocolate milk so I had to call).

Trudy in NH

> >

> > Skittles are gluten free.

>

[Guest guest]

They didn't have any M & M's?? That's my fall back when in a pinch.

Plus, I always find it satisfying to indulge in chocolate when I am

under stress.

I hope your daughter is doing better.

Sue in Denver

>

> Last night I was in the ER with my child for a number of hours.

> The junk machines had only gluten, gluten, and more gluten for sale.

> Gluten in various sizes, colors, and shapes, and flavors. All equally

> toxic, I'm sure. My DD asked for Skittles. Got them for her. Sure

> enough, that old nemesis " modified food starch " is in them. I looked

> at all the other candy, hoping to find SOMETHING to keep my stomach

> from growling audibly. Finally found Jolly Ranchers. Figured that

they

> were about as safe as I could get in the land of Gluten Vending

> machines. Pressed the button and hoped for the best. Phew. Jolly

> Rancher candies seem to be GF.

> (My child is going to be OK.)

>

[Guest guest]

They may have had M & Ms at some point. But believe me, the place was P

A C K E D PACKED! Someone more desperate than I must have beaten me to

the M & Ms. 'S'OK, though. Jolly Ranchers take a lot longer to eat than

two handfuls of M & Ms would. :-) Thank you for the well wishes. DD will

be fine.

> >

> > Last night I was in the ER with my child for a number of hours.

> > The junk machines had only gluten, gluten, and more gluten for sale.

> > Gluten in various sizes, colors, and shapes, and flavors. All equally

> > toxic, I'm sure. My DD asked for Skittles. Got them for her. Sure

> > enough, that old nemesis " modified food starch " is in them. I looked

> > at all the other candy, hoping to find SOMETHING to keep my stomach

> > from growling audibly. Finally found Jolly Ranchers. Figured that

> they

> > were about as safe as I could get in the land of Gluten Vending

> > machines. Pressed the button and hoped for the best. Phew. Jolly

> > Rancher candies seem to be GF.

> > (My child is going to be OK.)

> >

>

[Guest guest]

Esther, glad your DD is fine. There I was with hubby last night in SB

thoroughly enjoying my potato slabs and cinammon apples wondering

where you were. Shudda called me - I have M & Ms (nope-check that)HAD

M & Ms.

I know what you mean about parties, affairs, showers, meals after

funerals. Those are the times when I really feel like a PITA (because

I'm not paying). In fact, I'm having that problem right now. Need a

place for a baby shower for my daughter in law. Since I'm

paying.......I should at least be able to get a decent meal.

bj in RI

[Guest guest]

If you see modified food starch on a north

American product it is made from corn or potato. If it is from wheat it

will say so. The mainstream candy companies like Hersheys, Nestles, Mars,

etc have trustworthy labels. If it is an imported product I do not trust

the mod. food starch – but most of the vending candies will not be

imported.

ER is a very stressful place to be –

made worse by starvation! I am glad your child is o.k. – but even

so it takes a while to get over the stress of the ordeal. Hope things are

calmer now.

Becky

From: SillyYaks [mailto:SillyYaks ] On Behalf Of esther_p210

Sent: Friday, March 31, 2006 10:22

AM

To: SillyYaks

Subject: some minutes

are harder to deal with than others

Last night I was in the ER with my child for a number of hours.

The junk machines had only gluten, gluten, and

more gluten for sale.

Gluten in various sizes, colors, and shapes, and

flavors. All equally

toxic, I'm sure. My DD asked for Skittles. Got

them for her. Sure

enough, that old nemesis " modified food

starch " is in them. I looked

at all the other candy, hoping to find SOMETHING

to keep my stomach

from growling audibly. Finally found Jolly

Ranchers. Figured that they

were about as safe as I could get in the land of Gluten Vending

machines. Pressed the button and hoped for the

best. Phew. Jolly

Rancher candies seem to be GF.

(My child is going to be OK.)

[Guest guest]

>

> If you see modified food starch on a north American product it is

made from

> corn or potato. If it is from wheat it will say so. The mainstream

candy

> companies like Hersheys, Nestles, Mars, etc have trustworthy labels.

If it

> is an imported product I do not trust the mod. food starch - but

most of the

> vending candies will not be imported.

>

> Becky

Are you sure about that? I was under the impression that modified food

starch could be wheat, regardless of the country of origin.

>

[Guest guest]

It's due to the new food labeling laws. Of course, if the food was created

prior to 1/1/06 (and some has a shelf life of several years, so a lot is

still out there), the new law may not be followed.

Of course, companies can ask to be exempted from this labeling law - as

those using spelt already have applied for. And anything from oil (wheat

germ oil is the only common one from a gluten grain) is already exempt.

Starches generally are not - but glucose from wheat starch and any glucose

derived products are exempt in the EU and that " presumed gf " status could be

used to ignore labeling in the US (the law allows no labeling of " presumed

protein free " derivatives and specifically lists oils as an example).

> -----Original Message-----

>

>

>

> >

> > If you see modified food starch on a north American product it is

> made from corn or potato. If it is from wheat it will say so.

>

> Are you sure about that? I was under the impression that modified food

> starch could be wheat, regardless of the country of origin.

---

[This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]

[Guest guest]

In any event, if it is wheat it needs to be listed as an allergan.

Sue in Denver

> >

> > If you see modified food starch on a north American product it is

> made from

> > corn or potato. If it is from wheat it will say so. The

mainstream

> candy

> > companies like Hersheys, Nestles, Mars, etc have trustworthy

labels.

> If it

> > is an imported product I do not trust the mod. food starch - but

> most of the

> > vending candies will not be imported.

>

> >

> > Becky

>

> Are you sure about that? I was under the impression that modified

food

> starch could be wheat, regardless of the country of origin.

> >

>

[Guest guest]

I am sure enough that I am comfortable

with it – if that counts! Over the last three years I have made

umpteen gajillion phone calls to companies of all kinds and in no case did I

find a modified food starch that was derived from wheat and not identified as

such. That was before the new laws – now they are all required

to identify wheat if it exists in the ingredient. Again, I don’t necessarily

trust imported products without a call – but I don’t worry about

mainstream North American food companies with this ingredient.

However, it is always a good idea to check

with the company yourself for reassurance. You will begin to learn the

companies that you feel good about and get more familiar with their products.

Becky

From: SillyYaks [mailto:SillyYaks ] On Behalf Of per4mance_plus

Sent: Saturday, April 01, 2006

12:51 PM

To: SillyYaks

Subject: Re: some

minutes are harder to deal with than others

>

> If you see modified food starch on a north

American product it is

made from

> corn or potato. If it is from wheat it

will say so. The mainstream

candy

> companies like Hersheys, Nestles, Mars, etc

have trustworthy labels.

If it

> is an imported product I do not trust the

mod. food starch - but

most of the

> vending candies will not be imported.

>

> Becky

Are you sure about that? I was under the impression

that modified food

starch could be wheat, regardless of the country

of origin.

>

[Guest guest]

Would it be possible for you to print out a list of the candies/snack foods

or any other lists and keep them in you car? This is what I do and it has

come in handy quite a few times. I also keep the restaurant guide in the

car. Last night we were at Outback and they were having trouble locating

their gf menu because someone else was using it when I got there and then

it hot passed from server to server. I almost went out to the car to get my

print out, when they finally got it to me. The hostshostesses there were

impressed that I had one!

But I can certainly relate to the ER/hospital snack machines. I was

waiting with my son for an x-ray for hours and we were staring at the

vending machines. We finally broke down and got some soda, but the only

things in the machine that we could eat was M & M's and Fruit-by-the-Foot.

Neither of those are very filling when you are waiting for a long time! By

the time we got the x-ray the doctor's office was closed, so we were able

to go home to eat! Yeah!

nn in CA

~Original Message~

Thank you. I'll keep that in mind for future reference.

When you don't have access to research tools, you have to go

by what you CAN tell from the label. Sometimes that's as much as

" no way " , or as little as " looks safe " , or totally ambiguous

like " maybe yes, maybe no, is it worth the risk? "