List of gluten free foods: all those things you CAN eat
When you’re diagnosed with coeliac (or celiac) disease, or you’ve been advised to follow a gluten free diet, it feels like everything you’ve ever enjoyed is off limits.
But there are numerous foods that are naturally gluten free (although we recommend that you always check the ingredients list.)
Check out our list of gluten free foods.
Proteins
- Fresh meat
- Fish and shellfish
- Poultry and game
Green and fruity
- All fruit
- All vegetables
- Fresh herbs
Carbs for energy
- Rice
- Rice cakes
- Rice noodles (CARE: Some rice noodles have wheat added. Always check the ingredients.)
- Corn tortillas (CARE: Authentic corn tortillas are made without wheat or gluten. But always check the ingredients or ask your waiter.)
- Corn chips (CARE: Authentic corn chips are made without wheat or gluten. But always check the ingredients or ask your waiter.)
- Tapioca
- Pulses, lentils and beans
- Corn flakes
- Millet flakes
- Polenta
Flours for cooking
- Corn flour
- Gram flour
- Rice flour
- Tapioca flour
- Soya flour
- Buckwheat flour
- Millet
- Dairy
- Eggs
- Cheese
- Cottage cheese (not cheese spreads)
- Yogurt (the ones without the wheaty bits added)
- Milk
- Ice cream
- Fromage frais
- Cream
NOTE: If you’ve been recently diagnosed with coeliac disease, you could be lactose intolerant as well.
The body produces lactase which breaks down the sugars found in milk. But if your intestine is damaged by coeliac disease you may temporarily have lactase deficiency. So avoid dairy products for a while, follow a gluten free diet, allow your intestines to repair and slowly reintroduce dairy back into your diet.
Spreads
- Jam
- Marmalade
- Marmite
- Black treacle
- Honey
- Golden syrup
- Peanut butter
Snack attacks
- Nuts (CARE: Some dry roasted, ‘chocolate’ coated or ‘yogurt’ coated nuts contain whet or gluten.)
- Dried fruit (CARE: Some dried fruit coatings such as ‘chocolate’ or ‘yogurt’ contain wheat or gluten.)
- Popcorn
- Jelly
Cooking basics
- Bicarbonate of soda
- Cream of tartar
- Coconut milk
- Dried and fresh yeast
- Dijon mustard
- Horseradish sauce
- Garlic puree
- Sugar
- Salt
- Pepper
- Tomato Puree
- Tamari Sauce (a wheat free and gluten free soy sauce)
- Vegetable oil
- Sunflower oil
- Olive oil
- Cider vinegar
- Wine vinegar
- Distilled vinegar (not malt vinegar)
- Xantham gum (add to gluten free flours to get delicious breads and pastry)
Drinks
- Coffee
- Tea
- Herbal tea
- Fruit juice
- Fruit drinks (not barley water)
- Alcoholic drinks
- Wine
- Champagne
- Port
- Sherry
- Ciders
- Liqueurs
- Spirits, including whisky, are all gluten-free
Have we missed anything? Let us know.
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On the subject of gluten-free flours… I have bought a lot of different flours over the years from Asian groceries; maize, rice, potato, buckwheat, gram (chickpea), tapioca, millet, ragi (finger millet), and various others. I’m wheat-intolerant, not coeliac, but have recently found that small amounts of contamination bother me, so the Asian-grocers-option is suddenly less useful. I did write to Natco and they advised me thus:
‘…we pack our Rice flour and Maize flour on the same line as product containing gluten. Our Besan (gram) flour is packed on a dedicated line – however, we produce pack product containing gluten in separate areas of the same factory.’
I can assume from this that their gram flour is probably OK for me, but not their rice or maize.
Is there collated information, anywhere in existence, on this subject? It would be great to know which brands were safe to eat.
By the way, careful with Tamari sauce – I have seen some that wasn’t wheat free.
Thank you for this. It is a handy little reminder list to pass to people to avoid repeated questions.
Helen R: It is good that Natco replied to you and it is as I suspected. This is obviously several years since they replied to you; however, the description of their Natco fine corn meal on various supermatket websites always stresses that corn meal is “naturally free from gluten”. Not a word of warning about the possibility of cross-contamination due to manufacturing methods.
Well, this past weekend I made two delicious cornbread loaves using their fine corn meal was severely glutened. I am currently undergoing intensive treatment for the excrutiating rash which has spread all over my body, among other symptoms. I have had to give this one away, plus the bread. Cleared the kitchen of anything with the name Natco on it!