It had been at least 12 years since I had oatmeal for breakfast. Or ate an oatmeal cookie. Or thought much about oats, other than writing about them occasionally and making sure they weren’t in anything I was eating.
Until recently.
For those with celiac disease, or gluten intolerance, living without products made from wheat, barley, oats and rye becomes a way of life as soon as you’re diagnosed.
The only control for the disease, which affects about one in every 133 people in Canada and about the same worldwide, is diet. The culprit is the gluten found in the grains upon which we base much of our diet.
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You quickly learn to identify the obvious and hidden sources of gluten. And you learn to eat the heavy, usually dry, gluten-free products available at high prices. Most gluten-free breads cost between $4 and $7 per loaf.
Having said that, there are more and better options all the time.
That’s where oats comes in.
Research over the past 10 years found that while commercial oats is usually contaminated with other grains, resulting in gluten content, most celiacs can eat moderate amounts of pure oats.
The Canadian Celiac Association announced in March 2006 that it was safe for adults to consume 50 to 70 grams per day (one-half to three-quarters cup dry rolled oats) and for children to eat 20 to 25 grams, as long as the oats are pure.
But where to find pure, uncontaminated oats?
Regina-based FarmPure Foods has developed Only Oats, a line of oat-based products that come out of a dedicated facility in Regina and supplied by farmers who are knowledgeable about the importance of segregation.
FarmPure is the second company to provide pure oats products for Canadian consumers. Cream Hill Estates of Montreal harvested its first crop in August 2005 in southwestern Ontario.
Shelley Case, a Regina dietitian who sits on the CCA professional advisory board and is an authority on the gluten-free diet, said there are also two companies in the United States.
“Of the four pure oat companies (FarmPure) probably got the most innovative,” she said.
Case said she was “blown out of the water” that the company came up with such a varied list of products in such a short time. It began the project about two years ago. The products aren’t quite on store shelves yet.
One of the hurdles the companies face is Health Canada’s regulation that lists oats as a gluten-containing grain. The companies, therefore, can’t label their oats gluten-free, even though they are.
“Cream Hill has been ready for more than a year and hasn’t been able to sell on Canadian shelves,” she said.
Last week the American Food and Drug Administration published a proposed rule to define the term gluten-free. Now open for a 90-day comment period, the proposal recommends the term be applied to foods that don’t contain any prohibited grains, including all species of wheat, rye and barley.
Gluten presence must be less than 20 parts per million.
Trenton Baisley, FarmPure’s chief executive officer, said tests on that company’s products are finding readings of zero in most cases and definitely below five ppm.
It’s all part of a protocol the company has set for its growers, truckers and employees.
The oats are tested before they are even unloaded at the plant.
“We won’t even accept a load if that is contaminated,” Baisley said.
The end product is tested again before it leaves the plant.
Case said both Canadian companies have been doing the most sensitive testing on their products to ensure quality control, and Health Canada recognizes that regulatory change is in order.
She said consumption of as little as 10 milligrams of gluten can cause a reaction in a gluten-intolerant person.
Meanwhile, for those who can’t wait to start eating oats again, Case has a few words of caution. The person’s celiac disease must be well controlled before oats is introduced, she said. A celiac should be tested and consult with his or her doctor and dietitian.
“Start slowly and limit intake to moderate amounts,” Case said. And be careful.
“Purity means no gluten contamination,” she said. “In Canada, only Cream Hill and FarmPure can say that.”
