Gluten-Free Noodles?

Shirataki_bundleA reader writes:

My husband is gluten intolerant do you know if the yam flour in the shirataki is gluten free? I also did the low carb and lost 100 lbs. but now putting it back on and have to get it off health reasons. so new year new life again. Please let me know if you know about this thank you. Have a wonderful New Year and every day.

I did some checking and there are a bunch of sites on the Net that indicate that shirataki is gluen free.

This would make sense. A dictionary I checked defined gluten as "A mixture of plant proteins occurring in cereal grains, chiefly corn and wheat, used as an adhesive and as a flour substitute." Since the kind of yam from which shirataki is made isn’t a grain, it shouldn’t have gluten.

Just to be sure, though, I’d probably have your husband test a small bit (assuming that’s safe for him) to see if there’s any reaction.

It hadn’t occurred to me before, but folks who are gluten-intolerant (celiac) must sometimes have a difficult time finding noodles that are safe. I assume rice noodles would be okay, but not if you’re trying to do low-carb.

MORE INFO ON THE PLANT FROM WHICH SHIRATAKI IS MADE.

Note that this article refers to the "corm"–C-O-R-M–from which shirataki is made. A corm is a large underground root (hence: "yam"), not to be confused with "corn" (C-O-R-N), which means a grain. (Here in America we call "Indian corn" (i.e., maize) "corn," but in England the word is used for other grains, like wheat.)

INFO ON THE LOW-CARB ASPECT OF SHIRATAKI.

MORE ON THAT.

BTW, I really like the little, shrimp-sized bundles of shirataki noodles (like the bundle pictured above). They’re called musubi-shirataki in case you want to try them.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

One thought on “Gluten-Free Noodles?”

  1. My son is extremely gluten intolerant, and we have found the folks at the Celiac Sprue Assocation to be quite helpful on questions like this: http://www.csaceliacs.org/
    They are very friendly on the telephone, too.
    When you have a product not made out of a grain, the only concern is whether it is made on machines that also make grain products–and this is only a concern if you are extremely sensitive, as my son is.

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