Does Your Food Have a Secret?

One of my awesome patients came in the other day and started asking me about wheat in products. Because this patient suffers severe headaches from consuming wheat, this patient has much more knowledge about it than I do. Therefore, I decided to go on a search for foods hidden within our foods.

The one food that I was really surprised to find out about was tomato paste. The website www.glutenfree.com says “if you are buying a jar of spaghetti sauce, the ingredients list ‘tomato paste’ but the manufacturer has not been required to tell you what ingredients may have been added to the tomato paste.” Many manufacturers will use gluten as a filler in the tomato paste. Therefore, when you think you are eating nothing but tomatoes, you can actually be consuming something that is contributing to your symptoms!

Unless it is a whole food, or made by you from whole foods, you really can’t be sure what is in the dish you are about to eat! Soups and ground beef are also culprits to hidden ingredients. Binding agents can be added that can innocently be overlooked when you are trying to eat according to a specific list of ingredients.

Of course you need to be aware of the obvious, too. There are brands of almond milk and rice milk that contain soy lecithin. You wouldn’t know that unless you read the ingredients on the label. So much for avoiding soy!

Then you need to realize that reading your labels in the food store should be a common part of your grocery buying experience. Manufactures will announce when they remove a “bad” ingredient, but they don’t lay claim to adding a “bad” ingredient. Be familiar with your labels and ingredients and don’t become too committed to one brand. In any event, be sure your food isn’t hiding anything.