The Healthy Celiac Podcast

Cheese and the Gluten Free Diet Ep. 83

November 14, 2022 Belinda Whelan Season 1 Episode 83
The Healthy Celiac Podcast
Cheese and the Gluten Free Diet Ep. 83
Show Notes Transcript

You may have wondered if Cheese is always gluten free or if it is suitable on a gluten free diet.
I am covering off what to look for when buying cheese and how cheese fits into a Celiac Disease diet.

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Music Credit bensound.com 

Speaker 1:

Okay, welcome back to this week's show. If you are new here, Thank you for joining me today on this show. I am talking today about cheese and where that fits in a gluten-free diet. I wanna talk to you about some of the different cheeses that we need to be careful of on a gluten-free diet, as well as some things that you may not have been aware of when looking for gluten-free cheeses. Okay, Now cheese is usually gluten-free, so it's, it's generally something that we don't need to stress about. However, with anything, I always say that we need to be reading labels and asking the questions because in some instances there is actually gluten in cheese. So any cheese that has been, I guess processed is more likely to have gluten in it than something that hasn't been processed. So, so just for example, say a cheddar cheese in a block is very unlikely to have gluten in it, whereas a cheddar cheese that has been shredded or pre-grad and in a bag that you buy, it's already prepared in that way, may have gluten added to it because what they do is they add the ingredient to it, as in some type of gluten to make it not clump together and not stick. So that's where you have to be careful and be making sure that you're reading labels that it doesn't have it in it. I know of some brands in America do have gluten free written on their labels, so that might be worth it for you if you are located in America, that you look for those options and know that you're getting a safe choice here in Australia, if there was gluten in the cheese, it has to be labeled on the label so we don't have to stress that it, you know, it's hidden in our bags of shredded cheese or graded cheese or anything like that. It will be labeled on the packaging. So again, reading those labels, making sure you're looking out for that sneaky ingredient that seems to weasel its way into ridiculous foods that we don't want it in. The other thing that we need to be aware of is things like cottage cheese. So cottage cheese may also have modified wheat starch in it, so you can look for that again on the labeling, making sure that your cottage cheese is safe. Again, there's so many brands that are safe, but there's the odd one or two here and there that may have gluten in it. So it's making sure that you're checking and you know, ensuring that there's no gluten added to your cottage cheese products as well. Now, please forgive me if my French is not perfect here. I'll do my best. Now, there is a cheese called Roefer, which is a blue cheese and it comes from France. And if you think of the name, um, being like champagne. So champagne is a region

Speaker 2:

In France and only um, producers of champagne in the actual region of champagne are allowed to bottle their products and call it champagne. If you were to make a say a sparkling here in McLaren, which is on my doorstep, you would not be allowed to call it champagne because you've produced that in McLaren just like this same cheese. So roefer is not a a, um, I guess brand of cheese, it is a region. So any producers that make this type of cheese, there is a allow to call their product roefer cheese, and it is a blue cheese and not all of them are gluten free. Some of them still use the traditional method of growing the mold for the blue cheese on bread. Okay? So that makes it not gluten free. Some people may beg to differ and say that it's safe. I personally wouldn't consume that product. I would avoid it because it just seems weird to be eating a product that the mold has been grown on bread. Why would we want to eat that? Some people might think it's safe, but I'm gonna go with that's a no for me. You make your decision. Um, this was brought to my awareness recently. Um, I shared a, uh, article. I shared an article on Instagram. I did an episode of a little while back as well, surprising places you may find gluten, and I just asked everyone, where's some surprising places you found gluten? And one of my friends, she works at the smelly cheese shop here in Adelaide, and she, um, Jess is her name. She wrote on there that, yeah, this blue cheese. So she was the one that let me know about this particular type of cheese. And I do remember years and years ago when I was researching where gluten's found and all the different things. I remember researching blue cheese and I remember asking about it and being told, No, it's fine, all the rest of it. But she has confirmed that the brand of cheese that they get in has got gluten in it. So we had a little bit of a chat in the inbox and she also shared with me that some of the cheeses that they sell at the smelly cheese shop are washed in different things like alcohols and some of them are actually washed in beer. How insane is that? So I've never heard this in all the years of my research and finding things out and looking into so much information. I've never ever heard of cheese being washed in beer. And as you know, beer is a gluten source, so we can't be having that either. So these are things that if you were buying your cheese from say, a specialist cheese shop, like the smelly cheese shop, you would be able to ask the staff the question and if they don't know, ask them to go someone else that works there, because

Speaker 3:

Usually the staff are experts in cheese and they can help you and guide you on the best options for you and making sure that they're gluten free. So there's that as well. So just something to be aware of. Something that I think is important to know if you're a big cheese eater. Now if you're like me and you've got lactose intolerance, you may not be consuming too much cheese as it is. I eat some cheeses. There are some cheeses that are low in lactose. So if you have lactose intolerance, you don't have to cut out all cheeses, you can actually have some cheese still in your diet. Just look for cheeses that are low in lactoses and figure out ones that work for your body. So for example, I recently had some goats cheese and it was amazing. It was totally delicious. Didn't affect me at all because I reacted the lactose from cows milk. So yeah, it's about learning what works for your unique body and looking at those different options as well. Right now the next thing is vegan cheeses. So if you've never had vegan cheese, it is actually amazing. The, the vegan cheeses that I have tried are so tasty, you wouldn't believe how much flavor is packed into vegan cheese. It's just delicious. Many of them are made from things like cashews and things like that. Um, and again, most of them are gluten free, but some of them do add gluten into the vegan cheeses. So, you know, reading labels, making sure that you're aware that just because it says vegan cheese, again, vegan doesn't ever mean gluten free. So just making sure that the ingredients that are in your vegan cheese are safe and not an issue for you there. So I hope that helps you see where cheese can fit into a gluten-free lifestyle. And always, always read your labels and make sure that you are looking for a safe option for you.