<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> >I'm confused!!! Taken from Bette Hagman's cookbook and many questions >from the members in my support group (due to reactions from mentioned >grains), amaranth, teff and quinoa are questionable grains. Many health >food stores sell them as gluten free or low in gluten. Since somebody asked me about teff a while back, I'll post what I had sent in response. I really do think that the reason for the bad rep is just because of contamination -- which is not a problem if you grind your own flour or (obviously, since there are very sensitive celiacs eating the stuff...) if you get them from reliable places that avoid such contamination. But celiacs, like the rest of the human species, can be allergic to anything they are eating. So maybe it all started because there are some celiacs who also happen to be allergic to such things. Definitely teff, quinoa, and amaranth are not related to wheat, if that's any help in sorting it out. Neither are buckwheat or millet. Spelt and kamut, on the other hand, are definitely more ancient forms of wheat. But their protein is different enough that some people with wheat allergy can eat them. That's probably why you will get store personnel thinking that spelt and kamut are safe if you can't eat gluten -- they don't realize that celiac is not the same as a wheat allergy. From what I've heard on this list, the US celiac organization is far more restrictive than similar groups in other countries (such as Canada). And yet celiacs elsewhere are thriving on foods that the US outfit bans. I think the US group is just confusing sources of trouble, and is incorrectly assuming that that foods such as quinoa, teff, millet, buckwheat, and amaranth "must have gluten" because a few people have reactions for other reasons entirely. Peace, Cathy Flick [log in to unmask] ----------- [from some previous correspondence] I've seen contradictory statements about gluten in teff and amaranth -- some people say to stay away from them as low-gluten but not gluten-free, others call them non-gluten grains or grain substitutes, others say they are all right for gluten-free diets, still others say that the gluten in such grains can come just from cross-contamination. Arf. Well, I'm not celiac but do better if I only eat wheat about once a week, and do fine pigging out on teff periodically.... But I also do fine with barley or oats, and barley at least definitely contains gluten (you can tell by the way barley flour works when making tortilla dough; oats must have much less gluten if any, since oat flour just doesn't handle in a wheat-y way). Someone on the list who is very sensitive to gluten said that he carefully picked out stray wheat kernels from oats and then didn't have any reaction to the oats at all, which suggests that cross contamination is the most important thing to worry about. Whole teff can be purchased, by the way -- hard to see how a wheat kernel could hide among them, the teff seed is VERY tiny. I was able to make teff flour from the seeds in a Vita-Mix, although usually I just buy the flour. Teff is also called injera. I saw this on one web site that has recipes you might want to check out: http://www.javanet.com/~loehr/a/gluten.htm It says: "Gluten-free diets exclude wheat, rye, barley, spelt, tritical, kawmut, and usually oats. Rice and corn are generally agreed upon as gluten-free. More controversially, I accept amaranth, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, and teff as gluten-free. This page includes links to some of my gluten-free recipes." I guess this means teff is in the same category as millet and quinoa, which most people think are okay as GF but others will insist they are not. Obviously teff isn't even as gluten-y as oats, according to this site: http://www.food-allergy.org/cooking2.html "The gluten-containing grain flours include spelt, kamut, rye, barley, oats, and wheat. Among the non-gluten grains are teff, rice, wild rice, millet, milo (also called sorghum or jowar), and corn. Non-grain flours include amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, tapioca, cassava meal, arrowroot, chestnut flour, water chestnut flour, and various legume flours and starches such as garbanzo flour, soy flour, carob powder, lupine flour, bean starch, and kudzu starch. In addition, tropical tubers can be made into flours, such as malanga flour, white sweet potato flour, true yam flour, cassava flour, lotus flour, and others." Wild Oats web site also has some useful info about using all the grains and grain substitutes: http://www.wildoats.com/know/bulk/b_flour.html They consider teff as gluten-free, also.