Top 10 Places Gluten Hides (That Even Careful People Overlook)

You double-check your labels, you avoid bread and pasta, you even bring your own snacks… but you still end up feeling sick sometimes. The truth is, gluten hides in more places than most people realize. And some of them are sneaky — even for those of us who’ve been gluten-free for years. Today, I’m sharing the top 10 surprising places gluten can lurk, so you can stay safe and feel better. Stick with me until the end, because I’ll also share the one place I personally overlooked the longest — and it made a huge difference when I finally cut it out.

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Hidden Gluten in Everyday Life

Carrie Saunders 0:00

Quick reminder before we get started on this episode this podcast is based on my personal experiences and isn't medical advice . You double check your labels , you avoid bread and pasta and you even bring your own snacks , but you still end up feeling sick sometimes . The truth is , gluten hides in more places than most people realize , and some of them are sneaky even for those of us who've been gluten-free for years . And some of them are sneaky even for those of us who've been gluten-free for years . Today , I'm sharing the top 10 places gluten can lurk , so you can stay safe and feel better . Stick with me to the end , because I'll share one place I personally overlooked the longest , and it has made a great difference when I finally cut it out . Welcome to the Gluten-Free Engineer Podcast . I'm your host , Saunders .

Carrie Saunders 0:45

In 2011 , I was diagnosed with celiac disease , a moment that changed everything , but I was determined not to let it hold me back . With my two engineering degrees , I set out to reverse engineer the gluten-free lifestyle , breaking down recipes , safety tips , travel hacks and everything in between to rebuild a life I love . Whether you have celiac disease , gluten intolerance or simply choose to live gluten-free , this podcast is for you . Join me each week as we simplify the gluten-free lifestyle , make it fun and prove that you don't have to miss out on anything . Welcome back to the show . So if you've been gluten-free for a while , you of course know that gluten doesn't just show up in bread , pasta and cookies it you of course know that gluten doesn't just show up in bread , pasta and cookies . It also sneaks into other things , for example , sauces , seasonings , personal care products and unexpected household items . So today I want to talk about 10 spots people often missed .

Asian Sauces and Dressings

Carrie Saunders 1:42

Now , the first one , and one that I missed at first , was soy sauce and Asian sauces . So most soy sauce is brewed with wheat . Soy sauce and Asian sauces so most soy sauce is brewed with wheat . You will have to look for special gluten-free soy sauces if you're able to eat soy and want to have soy sauce . Tamari is a great alternative . It is a gluten-free soy sauce . And then in our house we actually use coconut aminos because we also can't have soy . A couple of us can't have soy . So in the Asian sauces , make sure you really look at the ingredients in there , especially like hoisin sauce or some of the other Asian sauces that are so delicious , because I really do miss hoisin sauce . I'd have to make it from scratch . I think it's really hard to find that one gluten-free , but I think there might be one or two brands that might do that . But so make sure that you are looking at all the ingredients , especially with Asian sauces , just because they typically will put soy sauce in it , and traditional soy sauce has wheat in it . At least the American traditional soy sauce has wheat in it .

Carrie Saunders 2:40

Now number two is salad dressings and marinades . This one may or may not be obvious . It's sometimes a bit unintuitive that things like ranch dressing would have gluten in it , but it can be used as a thickener and in many of the dressings that are thicker it can be used for that . It also can be used as a stabilizer or it can be hidden as malt vinegar for flavoring . So we want to make sure that we are careful with our salad dressings and marinades , because they can definitely have some hidden gluten in them .

Soups, Seasonings, and Sweets

Carrie Saunders 3:15

Now next is soups and gravies . Now , gravies are probably a bit more obvious if you're a bit more seasoned to gluten-free , but soups sometimes are not Many times . Both of these use a roux , which is a flour-based thickener , and or natural flavorings , and those can all be gluten-containing , especially the roux , of course , unless they're using a gluten-free flour for it . So if you are having soup , make sure you double check it , just in case , even if it's a brothy soup , they may have used a little bit of flour to just give it a little bit of a thicker texture , or they may have added some other natural flavings to it that might have created it to be not gluten-free anymore . And then , of course , gravies . We need to make sure that they are gluten-free . Most are not , unless they're specially made gluten-free , so please be careful there .

Carrie Saunders 4:05

Now , seasoning blends . This is something interesting . Spice mixes sometimes use wheat starch or anti-caking agents , and those anti-caking agents could have gluten in them . So this is something a little less intuitive that a spice mix might have flour in it or a thickening agent that is a gluten binding agent . So I want you to be really careful on your spice mixes , make sure that they are gluten-free and double check them , because this is a really easy , sneaky way to get gluten in your system , which is obviously bad if you're celiac or highly gluten sensitive . If you're less gluten sensitive , then it may not bother you , but it's still something to be aware of , just in case .

Carrie Saunders 4:51

Now the dreaded candy and chocolate . Number five candy and chocolate . Certain brands coat things with flour to prevent sticking , or they use barley malt as a sweetener or as a flavor enhancer . This is something I ran into when I was first newly diagnosed . Or they use barley malt as a sweetener or as a flavor enhancer . This is something I ran into when I was first newly diagnosed . Halloween came around and I was like sometimes I was getting sick when I was getting into the kid's candy , because you know how us parents will dive into that kid's candy , right , and I was sometimes getting sick and I couldn't figure out why . Okay , well , I finally looked it up . One style of a Milky Way bar has malt , barley malt in it and the other style doesn't . I'm pretty sure I'd have to do a double check . It was the midnight dark , because I love dark chocolate , so it was probably the midnight one that had the barley malt in it . So obviously make sure you , if you eat Milky Ways , to make sure you're double checking the labels for current information , because that's always changing and I want to promise which one's gluten free on the podcast , because it's always changing . So make sure you're double checking the candy and the chocolate .

Carrie Saunders 5:58

Now , another thing with chocolate is many times the chocolate chips . So if you go buy chocolate chips to make chocolate chip cookies or something with chocolate chips in it , many times they can be processed in a facility that's processed with beet . So please be careful there too , especially if you're celiac or highly sensitive , that we don't want to be using the chocolate chips that are processed with beet . My favorite brand of chocolate chips is Enjoy Life . It's allergen friendly and it tastes super good . Nestle has recently come out with an allergen friendly one too . That's like free of the top eight allergens , so it is also safe . I prefer the Enjoy Life . I just like the texture of it . The quality is a bit better , not the texture , the taste of it . The quality is a bit better , has a lot less sugar in it , and so I feel like you get more of the chocolate flavor from it . So I really love that one , or at least I perceive less sugar taste from it . It just tastes better to me .

Carrie Saunders 6:53

And then next , medications and vitamins

Medications, Cosmetics, and Communion

Carrie Saunders 6:55

. This is number six . This is this is one that is so frustrating to me and it drives me absolutely crazy , if I be honest with you . Um , medications can have fillers and binders , and many of them contain gluten , and this is really hard to determine which one it is because they are not required to put inactive ingredients on the labels and to tell you for sure whether there's gluten in it or not . This is something I always check with my pharmacist or the manufacturer . Many times my pharmacy actually has to call the manufacturer to find out to be sure , because sometimes , like the information that they get from the pharmacy or from you know , the supplier of the pharmacy from pharmaceutical items doesn't even tell them what is in it . So sometimes they even have to call the manufacturer themselves . And then I do want you to call the manufacturer themselves , and then I do want you to also be cautioned . Let's say you have a brand of medicine and this particular brand of medicine , a particular manufacturer that's making it , and it's gluten free . I would suggest you regularly check in case they change your ingredients , because they're , again , not required to tell you . So make sure you check on this one every single time .

Carrie Saunders 8:09

Vitamins I have found vitamins that had gluten in it too , that I didn't expect it as well , even higher quality vitamins . So just be really careful of medications and vitamins . It's a very , very easy place to get gluten stuck into your system Now number seven is lip balm and cosmetics and snuck into your system Now number seven is lip balm and cosmetics . So , like chapsticks , lipsticks and glosses can contain gluten and you will end up ingesting small amounts from this . I also recommend anything that you put on your skin or on your face , especially if you're celiac .

Carrie Saunders 8:49

You have gluten-free because , like I've said on the podcast before , you might think your hands are clean because you just got out of the shower and you just put on , let's say , your moisturizer for the day or your foundation or just lotion . If you don't put stuff on your face , maybe you just use lotion on your body to make sure everything's moisturized and then you go eat something with your hands afterwards , but your hands are already clean , so you don't worry about washing your hands , because you just basically wash your hands in the shower right after the bathroom or whatever , and then you put lotion on . Well , that can be an easy way to get a little bit of gluten in your system . So I caution you to look at all of your ingredients , because it's just not worth it , whenever you're celiac , to risk getting a little bit of gluten . At least for me it's not . It just makes me feel so terrible .

Carrie Saunders 9:34

And then number eight is if you do communion . This is something that you may or may not think of . Traditional communion wafers contain wheat . There are gluten-free options available , but you'll want to request those . So if you are a church going person and you have communion at your church , then you're going to want to make sure that you talk to the person who handles that and make sure that they are not only giving gluten-free options and allergy friendly options honestly , so that we can , you know , be inclusive of all people with food needs here , but also how do they handle it safely ? We need to make sure they're educated on the cross-contamination part . I know in the church that we go to sometimes that they have a gluten-free option now and it helps those with weed allergies . So it's not only just for celiacs , it helps those for weed allergies . Many times it helps people with nut allergies , because sometimes they'll pick things that are also nut free too . So just note that you know communion wafers , for example , can contain wheat or typically do .

Carrie Saunders 10:35

Now number nine might be a little bit surprising to you

Play-Doh, Alcohol, and Spice Mixes

Carrie Saunders 10:39

. You may not have thought of this before , but Play-Doh and kids crafts , so the traditional Play-Doh brand is wheat based . You can get off brands of Play-Doh that are not wheat based . So I would recommend that if you have kids in school , that the teachers know this , that if you have Play-Doh at your home and you didn't realize this , that you need to replace it with the gluten-free version of it . Also , paper mache . So whenever your kids might have crafts at school , if they do paper mache , most of the time that glue has wheat in it too . So make sure that you inform teachers or other parents , if your kids are little and they're going to a friend's houses , that these are not safe items for them . They're not safe for them to play with because they get in their hands and you know they might ingest them accidentally . So be careful with you know Play-Doh and kids crafts because they can have hidden gluten in them .

Carrie Saunders 11:37

And then number 10 is alcoholic beverages . So if you're somebody who consumes alcohol , obviously beer has gluten in it , unless it's a gluten-free beer . But malt beverages also have it in there . And then there's some flavored vodkas or wine coolers that might contain gluten . It's really easy to get accidental get gluten from those things because many times they'll flavor them with malt and you may not notice that or may not be listed on there . So make sure any alcoholic drinks you have say that they're gluten free , and most distilled liquors are generally safe . But do check flavored liquor varieties carefully and I myself might just listen to your body here too . Liquor varieties carefully , and I myself might just listen to your body here too . My body doesn't tolerate the most of the liquors that are distilled from a traditional gluten grain . My body feels much better on something like gin or vodka , which is not traditionally a wheat or a barley based liquor . So , even though you know they say that the gluten is distilled out , still listen to your body , just in case it doesn't feel good on that type of product , and obviously drink responsibly . Of course , I'm not definitely not promoting any drinking at all here , but I do want , for those who do have an occasional drink and to you , be informed that that can definitely hide gluten in it when you're not when you least expect it sometimes .

Carrie Saunders 13:05

And then the one place that I personally overlooked the longest for years was the spice mixes . For many years I thought spices were just spices . You know , you kind of look at the ingredients and it basically says it's spices . But some blends use hidden wheat starch or barley malt as fillers . So make sure that you look for that and , when in doubt , just switch to single ingredient spices or brands that are labeled gluten-free . I have , for example , made my own pumpkin spice to put in a pumpkin pie because I wasn't confident on the pumpkin spice spice mix and whether it was gluten-free or not . And it's really not that hard to make your own blend and usually it comes out better because you're using fresher and better ingredients anyway . So it has made a big difference in how I feel . So make sure you check those spice jars in your pantry and when you go to shop , make sure you double check that they are gluten-free or get single ingredient spices when in doubt .

Episode Closing and Resources

Carrie Saunders 14:11

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Gluten-Free Engineer . If you found value in this story , please share it with someone who might need encouragement on their own gluten-free journey . For more tips , recipes , resources and even links to my YouTube channel , head on over to theglutenfreeengineercom . It's your one-stop hub to make gluten-free living simple , fun and full of flavor , and don't forget to subscribe so you never miss out on an episode . And we will see you next week . The Gluten-Free Engineer podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only I share my personal experiences and stories about living with celiac disease and navigating a gluten-free lifestyle . This podcast does not provide medical advice . Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional for medical questions , concerns or advice specific to your health .