New Whole Foods GF Sandwich Bread

Whole Foods Gluten Free Bakehouse has developed a new white sandwich bread. The new bread is intended to improve upon the previous version of their gluten free sandwich bread. If you recall, the previous sandwich bread was rather dense and heavy. It was not flexible or soft at all. It tasted fine but was difficult to use for a sandwich. It worked well as toast or as a grilled sandwich, but not so much as the bread in a PB&J or cold cut sandwich. Well, the new bread is definitely a step in the right direction. The bread is lighter, less dense. If I'm not mistaken, the slices are slightly thinner than the previous version, which provides the bread with a sense of softness and flexibility. The taste is great. The bread is still sold out of the freezer case, and I am keeping it frozen at home. So, this still requires toasting before using. I have been able to find the perfect toaster setting for this bread (just short of 2 on my toaster) to result in a piece of bread that is thawed but not toasted and crispy. When thawed to the right degree the bread is very good. It holds together in the hand. There's nothing more frustrating in a sandwich than having the bread fall to bits in your hand. So far the new bread from Whole Foods overcomes this frustration.

So, how does it compare to my other two favorite sandwich breads? Compared to Udi's sandwich bread, the Whole Foods load is larger and less airy. Every now and again I will see a loaf of Udi's that is almost too airy, with a few hug bubbles being present in the middle of the loaf. So far I have not seen that in the Whole Foods loaf and I do not expect to see it because the loaf is still slightly on the dense side of the dense-light spectrum. In terms of softness, the Udi's bread tends to be softer. They're about equal on taste, to me anyway.

The Whole Foods loaf is similar in size to the  Rudi's gluten free loaf. However, when I eat Rudi's bread, I tend to eat their multigrain loaf because I love bread with seeds and grains in it. So, this is something of a case of comparing apples to oranges. The Whole Foods white sandwich bread is your basic straight forward white sandwich bread.

In the end, the new Whole Foods white sandwich bread is a big improvement over the previous version and it will probably make it into my lunch rotation. It is so great to have high quality choices in the gluten free bread category. Gone are the days of rock hard crumbly breads that taste nothing like bread!

Gluten Free Hamburger Bun

This weekend I ate my first hamburger bun in nearly three years. Thank you Udi's! I found them in Whole Foods  (Naperville, IL) just as they were putting them out for sale for the first time. Lucky timing! I chose the whole grain hamburger bun. It tasted great. There was little to no crumbling, a negative quality that can be associated with gluten free bread. The bun was slightly on the firm side, but not overly firm. I will definitely be buying these in the future. Bring on summer. Bring on the burgers!

Kettle Cuisine Thai Curry Chicken Soup

One of the new offerings from Kettle Cuisine is a Thai Curry Chicken Soup. This brings their gluten free soups to ten in all. The soup is packaged and prepared exactly like all the other soups: a 10 oz. serving, frozen, and microwavable. The Thai Curry Chicken Soup is gluten free and dairy free.

As my wife would ask, "What does it promise me?" The front of the package lists the following information:
* No artificial ingredients
* All natural
* Minimally processed
* Made with chicken raised without antibiotics on a vegetarian diet
* GF/DF
Most of these promises are printed in incredibly small font, which flies in the face of typical product packaging strategies. I was surprised to find the nearly microscopic statement regarding the quality of the chicken.

What is notable on the Nutrition Facts panel?
Calories: 330 for the entire bowl
Saturated Fat: ***** 8g ***** a whopping 40% of your daily value!
Sodium 560mg, rather high but typical for many prepared soups

The Ingredients are all words one can easily recognize and pronounce.

So, what about the taste? In a word, excellent. Right out of the bowl the soup smelled like authentic Thai cuisine. (We're big fans of Thai food.) The aroma of the spices reassures that the soup is going to taste great. Visually, I was pleasantly surprised to find large mushrooms and bamboo shoots. Sometimes a prepared soup relies too much on a flavor profile and not enough on actual ingredients like meat and vegetables. About the meat. Chicken in prepared soup is typically some of the most off-putting food known to man. This chicken is an exception to that rule. Every piece was quality. The overall flavor of the creamy broth was excellent--spicy but not aggressively so. It will satisfy the Thai food veteran and the occasional diner alike.

In the end, I was extremely satisfied with this soup, despite the high level of saturated fat. I will definitely buy it again and would highly recommend it to anyone. There are no hints that this soup would be aimed at a specialty diet market. In fact, one would be hard pressed to find a soup that would surpass this one as a prepared Thai soup.

Kettle Cuisine can be found at http://www.kettlecuisine.com/
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Forbes' intention is not to inform the public on Celiac disease

A recent article in Forbes has drawn the attention and ire of some prominent gluten-free advocates. Unfortunately, I first saw a number of the angry responses before reading the article, and so I was predisposed to a negative opinion of the article. Upon first reading, the article seems to take a critical view of a gluten-free diet. Out of fairness, I waited a day and re-read the article before documenting my response.

So, what does the author say? What is her goal?

Granting the author all possible benefit of the doubt, the goal of the article is to observe that some people with eating disorders such as anorexia may be hiding their disorder from their friends and family by claiming that they are on a restrictive diet, such as a gluten-free diet. Let me be clear, anorexia is a serious eating disorder and families and friends of people with this disorder should help them find help and get healthy. I am no expert in behavioral psychology, so I guess I can only take the author's word that some people with anorexia are lying to their friends and families and saying that they have a specific food intolerance.

However, the article also makes the bold claim that a gluten-free diet can LEAD to an eating disorder. This incredibly bold claim goes completely unjustified and nearly undefended in the article. Specifically, the author offers that "[t]he gluten-free lifestyle, while life-saving for the minority of Americans who suffer real consequences from grains, can be a slippery slope—or simply a means of denial—for some." Two (interviewed?) sources are offered as expert opinions in support of this conclusion. No contrary opinions are offered and one must assume that none were sought.

It seems clear that the author has a negative view of the currently trending gluten-free diet. Take the following quote, which I read as highly condescending, "[t]he gluten-free diet has become a sign of enlightened eating, an intellectual diet supported by a slew of studies and a passionate cadre of celebrity supporters." Why opine that the diet is "enlightened" and observe that it is supported by "a passionate cadre of celebrity supporters"? To my mind, these are not the types of statements one makes if one supports a gluten-free diet. Further, what would it even mean that a diet is intellectual? The avoidance of gluten has nothing to do with intellect. I can only conclude that the author is attempting to achieve a light prose, but instead in her failing has committed a serious offense: superiority and judgment. One might expect a journalist to take a non-judgmental approach to their topic. But, then again this is not reportage. The discussion of celebrities is the first part of an argument that culminates in the author's assumption/conclusion that the increasingly high profile of the gluten-free diet led two cheerleaders to use it as a cover for anorexia.

In response to some of the negative comments, the author has claimed that the "intention is not to inform (or misinform) the public on celiac disease but to raise a question". If the goal was not to inform the public on Celiac disease, then goal achieved. However, I would argue that the article actively misinforms, contrary to the author's claim. The most glaring example is the unsupported claim that a gluten-free diet can lead to anorexia. Read the DSM-IV. A restrictive diet is not a root cause of anorexia. Shockingly, the author does not explain the details of anorexia: its etiology, symptoms, treatment, and prognosis. But this is not an article meant to inform the public about the very serious problem of anorexia.