Welcome to The Healthy Celiac Podcast—the go-to podcast for women with celiac disease! This podcast is designed to help you thrive beyond your diagnosis and embrace life to the fullest because you are so much more than just a woman with celiac disease.
Hosted by Certified Health Coach Belinda Whelan, who specializes in follow-up care for women with celiac disease, each episode is a blend of practical advice, personal stories, and expert interviews. Belinda shares valuable insights on everything from navigating a gluten free lifestyle to managing the emotional aspects of celiac disease.
Join me as we explore topics that empower you to take control of your health, and discover joy in every meal and moment. Tune in for practical advice and support as we navigate the challenges of celiac disease and empower you to live confidently.
To find out how Belinda can support you, visit her website www.belindawhelan.com and while you're there be sure to download your FREE eBook '11 Mistakes People Make Living Gluten Free'.
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Have you ever wondered whether a gluten scanner device would save you from getting glutened while eating out? Or perhaps if you should be using a gluten scanner app when shopping for groceries? I'm discussing the pros and cons of these on today's episode.
Now something that I get asked quite often is my recommendation on gluten scanner apps. So I wanted to talk with you today about my take on gluten scanner apps and also on some gluten sensors, just so that you have an awareness and you can make a decision for yourself whether these products and these apps are right for you. Now, as you may know, there are a number of gluten scanners that you can put gluten, sorry, you put food into<laugh>, you put some food into the scanner and it will tell you whether that food has got gluten in it. Now there's some positives and some negatives to these products. I wanted to talk with you about that today. And then I'm also gonna talk about the kind of the pros and the cons of scanner apps that are available. So let's jump on into it. So there is a very popular, uh, gluten device, gluten detector device called nema and it is quite an expensive product. However, some people swear by it, they love it and wouldn't go anywhere without it. So what the deal is with these is you can take it to a restaurant cafe, you order your meal and you basically take some of your meal and you place it inside this detector and it will give you a smiley face if it's gluten free, but it will then let you know if it's got gluten in it. The problem with these is you are only testing a very small amount of your food. There could be gluten anywhere in that meal, but it may not be in that one tiny particular piece of food that you grab from your plate and put into the scanner. Now these, these devices, I guess they, they are something that once you've bought it, you have to keep buying from that company. You have to keep buying the capsules to put inside it. And if money's no object, by no means, then that is fantastic and I think that's a really great option. As a backup plan. It can be helpful if you know you wanted to test different, just say you went out for a meal and you had different things on your plate. You might have a gluten-free piece of lasagna, some gluten-free salad and some gluten-free fries or chips where you're not just gonna be able to test one of those and get an answer. You need to test all three of those things on your plate. So that's three capsules you need to use. So dining out then becomes very, very expensive as far as using up those capsules. So that's something to think about there. But like I said, if money is not a problem, then by all means it's a great option as a backup plan. I personally think it's very, very important to know how to order a meal when you're out, what questions to ask, you know, how to kind of really pinpoint all of the things that you need to know about that meal. It's not a one size fits all. It's not going to be the perfect answer to getting a gluten-free meal that I think it's not, it's not the first step at all. The first step is always asking the questions and really, really finding out from your server or your weight staff what's in the meal, what steps are they taking and how can they make that meal safe for you. So in that respect, I wouldn't say that it's a must have, but it's a backup plan. Now there are other tests that you can get as well. So there's a number of different ones on the market where you can test yourself after you've been out for a meal. So depending on the product, some of them are the next day you test your uterine or your feces, not something I really wanna be doing as part of my fun activities<laugh>, but it might be something that you suspect you've been glutened and you don't get major issues as far as symptoms and you just want peace of mind to know whether it was just something like, you know, maybe greasy food. Some people have greasy food and it makes their bowel movements very soft. So you might be worried that you actually did have gluten. You could do one of those tests and it will let you know whether or not you've had gluten. So for that, I think that's a good idea. If you haven't got on top of the way that your body is reacting when you eat out, that can be a little nice backup plan for seeing how you are progressing with that. Now, when it comes to gluten-free scanner apps, there are a number of different ones. Some of them are very popular and the way that I look at these scanner apps, again, I don't think they're the be all and end all. I don't think that they are the best option for us. And basically how a scanner app is designed to work is you take your phone, you go to the grocery store and you scan the food that you are looking at buying. So you scan the barcode, you look at the app and the app will tell you whether that food is safe or whether it's not. Now the downside of this is not all food products are going to be on this scanner app. So you may have a win and it might tell you that yes, this food is gluten free, they've got it on their app, but it may have just been updated last week. That product may have just changed ingredients. They may have just changed suppliers and the app hasn't been updated. So there's that risk of it not being 100% accurate at that particular point in time. Because companies do change their suppliers, they do change their their labeling from time to time and you can get caught out with that. So for that, I think that's a very bad downside and the fact that not every single product is going to be on these apps. So that's where you might start to rely on these apps. And then when you come across a food that you can't find an answer to, are you gonna put that back on the shelf because you don't have an app there telling you that that product is safe? I personally think it's more important to learn how to read labels for yourself and to rely on your best scan and which are your own two eyeballs because your eyes in that exact moment are going to do a better job than any app is going to do for you. So if you can learn how to read labels, you can learn exactly what to look for, you know how to pinpoint exactly what's in those labels when you are at the grocery store, then that is going to be so much safer than relying on a third party product and relying on an app that may not have been updated recently may not have the answers that you actually need because at the end of the day, you are there, you've got your eyeballs, your phone is not the be on end. All the phone is, again, it's another, it's a backup plan. It could be, it could be helpful when you're first starting out. So let's look at it is you've just got celiac disease and you're relying on a scanner app. You might want to use it as far as, okay, this product says it's gluten free. This product says it's not gluten free. All right, let's start to look at these labels and let's figure out what's the difference between the two that might be helpful in that way. I don't think it should be the thing that you use a hundred percent to do your grocery shopping. I don't think it's the answer to living with celiac disease. I don't think it's the one thing that you need to have in your life. Which app do I need? Which one's the best one? Not at all. It's about learning how to read labels. It's about knowing what's in your food. And if I can be completely honest, the best thing about not only looking for gluten when you are reading labels is you can see all the other crap that is listed in those ingredients when you are looking for food. And if health is your priority like it is for me and many, many people, then you'll start to see some of the stuff that is in the food that you are picking up and it'll make you more aware of what you're putting in your body. So for that, I think it's fantastic as well when we really start to read labels and look at what's in our food. So empower yourself to become the best label reader that you possibly can. I am here to support you in that. And if you haven't already checked out Ultimate Celiac system, this is one of our main modules that I focus on and help you to really hone in on all the ins and outs of reading labels, what to look for, some of the little tricks, some of the little tips that you need. And no more jumping in Facebook groups and putting a picture of something in there and asking everyone else is this gluten free? You'll know how to do it, you'll know how to read labels and you'll be on top of your game. So head to Ultimate Celiac system to have a look at my program because I would love to support you on your journey and help you to actually read labels and nut it out. So head to my website, balinda wheeler.com to learn
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More about that and make sure you sign up for my emails as well so that you can get a discount on that program. So yeah,<laugh>, check it out. Alright, so, um, I think that's all I've got for you this week. So thank you for tuning in. I hope that's helpful and I hope that's inspired you to really learn how to read labels and be your best advocate when it comes to celiac disease. All right, I'll talk to you soon. Take care. Bye.
