Wheat-Free Diet
Best Bets
Items marked with a (G) should be avoided by those who are sensitive to gluten:
- Almond : flour and meal
- Amaranth : whole (as hot cereal, flour, puffed
- Barley (G): whole hulled, flakes, flour
- Buckwheat : whole groats, cereal, flour (raw or roasted)
- Cassava: flour (whole root, dried, ground; tapioca starch is refined from this)
- Chestnut : flour
- Chickpea : flour
- Flaxseed : flour and meal
- Hazelnut : flour and meal
- Jerusalem artichoke : flour
- KAMUT wheat (G): whole, flakes, flour, pasta
- Legume flours: yellow and green pea; red and green lentil; white, lima, and pinto bean
- Millet: whole grain, flour
- Oats: Scotch style, flour, oat bran, rolled flakes
- Pearled millet: whole, flour
- Potato : flour, starch
- Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah): whole, flour
- Rice (short, medium, long grain): whole, flour, pasta, puffed, cakes, crackers
- Rye (G): flakes, flour, crackers (that contain no wheat)
- Soy : flakes, grits, soy flour
- Spelt (G): whole, flakes, flour, pasta
- Tapioca: starch flour, “pearls”
- White sweet potato: flour
- Wild rice: whole, pasta
- Yam (true yam): flour
Foods to Avoid
To avoid wheat and wheat products ask about ingredients at restaurants and others’ homes, and read food labels. The following list is not complete. Consult with a healthcare professional before making any significant changes to your diet.
- Bulgur wheat
- Couscous
- Flour , including cake and pastry, durum, gluten, graham, wheat flour, whole wheat flour
- Hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) or texturized vegetable protein (TVP)
- Semolina
- Wheat bran
- Wheat germ
- Wheat starch
Note: Buckwheat is not wheat. It’s listed below in Best Bets.
These foods may include wheat. Use with caution, if at all, and read the label carefully:
- Baked beans
- Baking powder (some)
- Biscuits
- Bouillon cubes and extracts
- Bread crumbs
- Breaded foods
- Breads
- Cakes, pastries, or cookies (commercial or prepared)
- Canned fish
- Cheese sauces or spreads (unless known to be wheat-free)
- Cloudy lemonade and ginger beer (some)
- Commercially prepared fruit pie fillings and jams
- Commercially prepared gravies, salad dressings, sauces, or condiments containing wheat flour
- Commercially prepared mustard
- Crackers
- Creamed or scalloped potatoes (unless thickened with cornstarch)
- Creamed or scalloped vegetables (if thickened with flour or topped with bread crumbs)
- Creamed products
- Egg dishes thickened with flour
- Luncheon meats
- Malted milk and drinks
- Meat and poultry containing flour
- Meat tenderizers (if made from monosodium glutamate [MSG])
- Muffins
- Mustard powder (some)
- Pancakes
- Pasta noodles
- Pre-molded hamburgers
- Pretzels
- Pudding (commercial or homemade, thickened with wheat flour)
- Rolls
- Sauce and gravy mixes
- Sausage (unless they are pure meat)
- Soups containing commercially prepared noodles, macaroni, or spaghetti
- Soup mixes and bases
- Soy sauce , Tamari (unless wheat-free)
- Stewed fruits thickened with flour
- Sweets dusted with wheat flour to prevent them from sticking
- Tomato sauces
- Waffles
- Wieners
Nonfood Factors
Is This Diet Vegetarian-Friendly?
Eating Out
Call ahead to find out what the restaurant offers. Make sure that you are getting complete answers to your questions. Ask what you can have, instead of what you can’t, and understand that most restaurants can’t guarantee that your food will be wheat-free, since the chance of contamination in a traditional kitchen is high. Good choices include:
- Green salads (minus the croutons!) with an oil and vinegar or vinaigrette dressing (note: some vinegars are fermented over a wheat product and must be avoided)
- Dishes made with rice noodles instead of wheat (make sure there isn’t any soy sauce, or textured vegetable protein)
- Chicken, fish, beef, tofu, and beans if there is no breading or other wheat or flour in the sauce or marinade