Three Cheers for Pacific Foods!

Polly · Post by **Polly** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 6:52 pm

Hi Fellow Food Sensitivity Sufferers,

It was so refreshing to receive this info when I inquired about the ingredients in Pacific Foods chicken broth - I was especially interested in the "organic flavor" ingredient, since often I have found it is derived from soy. I can't believe that they even told me there are no nightshades or celery (red on my MRT, my most reactive veggie). WOW! Mary Beth tells me they are an excellent company - they have the only gluten-free rice milk she says. There is hope for the future for us when there are companies like this!!!!

Dear Polly,

Thank you for taking the time to email Pacific Natural Foods. We are delighted to hear how much you enjoy our Organic Free Range Chicken Broth. The Natural Flavors we use consist of natural plant extracts and are free of MSG, free glutamates and all of the big 8 allergens, as well as nightshades and celery. This product is also free of soy and any soy derivatives. These ingredients are of utmost quality and have been rigorously scrutinized by our Certified To The Source Program.
Pacific Natural Foods’ Certified To The Source is a program in which we identify the exact origins of the ingredients for our products. This ensures that you are receiving a food or beverage that is of highest quality and nutritional value. Nothing in our products is included without certification. All of our ingredients meet the requirements put forth by Oregon Tilth.

We appreciate your continued support of our products. If you have any other questions please feel free to contact us again.

Sincerely,

Cyndee Olsen
Consumer Services Coordinator
Pacific Foods of Oregon
Ph. (503) 692-9666

starfire · Post by **starfire** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 5:31 am

I always get Pacific when I can find it. Thanks for posting the reply you received.

Love, Shirley

Kari · Post by **Kari** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 7:37 pm

Hi Polly,

Thanks for your post about Pacific Foods, it was very timely for me. I checked their rice milk, and unfortunately, it has guar gum and xanthan gum as listed ingredients, which means it's off limits for me :(.

I have been drinking Rice Dream rice milk and have loved it. It does not list any ingredients that should be a problem, but when I researched it on the internet just now, there was a comment on the celiac board that it has trace amounts of gluten? I was wondering about other people's take on this?

Thanks,
Kari

Post by **tex** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 9:24 pm

Hi Kari,

If you will read all of the thread at the following link, you will find just about everything you might want to know about the gluten issue with Rice Dream.

http://www.perskyfarms.com/phpBB2/viewt ... eam+gluten

Love,
Tex

Gloria · Post by **Gloria** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 11:04 pm

Kari,

I no longer drink Rice Dream milk because I didn't want to take any chances. I make my own rice milk instead.

I have gotten a little lazy making it - you might want to try my quick method. I use white rice instead of brown rice and I don't need to strain it. It's probably less nutritious, but it tastes fine to me. Note that I don't drink it, but use it for cooking and in cereal.

Here's the recipe: http://www.perskyfarms.com/phpBB2/viewt ... 2874#52874

Gloria

Kari · Post by **Kari** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 2:17 am

Thank you Tex and Gloria. I'm finding more and more that I simply have to use pure ingredients and make my own "everything" to have a chance to heal.

Love,
Kari

mbeezie · Post by **mbeezie** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 5:39 am

Kari,

I agree that pure ingredients are the best for healing. It is so hard to find commercial products without additives or hidden ingredients. It's very time consuming to have to investigate each and every product.

Mary Beth

Polly · Post by **Polly** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 6:48 am

Hi Good Buddies!

You hit the nail on the head about the lack of pure products! It has practically driven me crazy over the past month on the LEAP diet. For example, olives, which are one of my safest foods. They are easy to have available when I'm hungry and on the go. Anyway, I simply could NOT find pure olives in a jar - they all had things added like lactic acid or ferrous gluconate or citric acid. Even most of the ones in olive bars had other ingredients mixed in, like capers, red peppers, different oils. I eventually found some pure ones, but it was not easy.

Finding pure coconut milk was difficult, but I did find some at Trader Joe's - lite. Haven't tried it yet because Mary Beth recommends I try pure coconut first. Kari, sorry to hear about your coconut problems.

I did find a fairly pure sunflower seed butter that I tolerate - organic by Once Again. It does have sugar in it, but I had already tested cane sugar and was OK with it. Remember, the tocopherols (think soy) in Sunbutter were probably why I reacted to that brand. The Once Again butter is processed in a facility that also processes treenuts and peanuts but NOT soy.

OK, will get off my soapbox now! Thanks for the opportunity to commiserate.

Love,

Polly

Kari · Post by **Kari** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 12:54 pm

Thanks for "commiserating" - glad to know it's not only me who feels like I'm losing my mind trying to navigate the ingredients "mine field" :(. I posted about "pure coconut juice" on another thread, but now see I should perhaps have posted it here ........

Love,
Kari

TooManyHats · Post by **TooManyHats** » Fri Feb 25, 2011 9:10 pm

they have the only gluten-free rice milk

I wish I had read this earlier today before I went 35 minutes to Whole Foods. I definitely saw that brand. You know, I've had Rice Dream milk since my diagnosis. I've never tried it, and now I'm glad I didn't. I guess I'll be returning it.

I did, however, get pure almond butter there. The label says: INGREDIENT: Almonds.

TooManyHats · Post by **TooManyHats** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 8:57 am

I'm SO glad you created this section!! Thank you Tex. These posts get buried in other sections of the board.

I forgot about this post. I've been reading the ingredients on the PF label, and wouldn't buy it because it didn't list everything. I will now though!

Thank you for doing the leg work on this one, Polly!

DJ · Post by DJ » Sat Nov 16, 2013 10:46 pm

Yikes! I somehow came upon this old thread about Rice Dream. I use it by the boatload

Have they improved their process over the past two years? It looks like I'll need to start using Gloria's recipe. Eating has become so labor intensive

Post by **tex** » Sun Nov 17, 2013 9:46 am

DJ wrote:Yikes! I somehow came upon this old thread about Rice Dream. I use it by the boatload Shocked Have they improved their process over the past two years? It looks like I'll need to start using Gloria's recipe. Eating has become so labor intensive

Originally, the Rice Dream website simply stated that Rice Dream was Gluten-Free. Then some celiacs began to notice that they seemed to react to it, and a bit of detective work determined that the manufacturer uses barley malt to begin a malting process to malt rice, as part of the production process. So eventually, the manufacturers decided to defend the practice, and they posted a comment on their website to explain why the process was "safe". (They claim that they remove all but traces of gluten during the processing, so that the final product contains less than 20 parts per million).

Up until a couple of years ago (the last time I checked prior to just now), this explanation was still available on their website in the FAQ section. But when I checked just now, the website has been completely revised (updated), and the explanation is gone, of course. Why? Because now that the FDA has finally placed the 20 ppm regulation into effect, Rice Dream can legally and legitimately claim that their product is "gluten-free", and the FDA will back them up. It's actually low-gluten, of course (like many products), but if the FDA says that it's OK to call low-gluten products "gluten-free", then by golly, they're "gluten free", whether we like it or not. Here's how the question about gluten-free is addressed in the FAQ section of their current website (which I couldn't actually find on their website — I had to do a Google search to locate it):

Are Taste the Dream Beverages gluten free?

Taste the Dream Beverages are Gluten Free. Look for the Hain Celestial Group Gluten Free symbol on these and many other Hain Celestial products that are tested to be Gluten Free.

IOW, they are certifying that the product contains no more than 20 ppm of gluten. As background information, consider that barley is the only grain that is used for "true" malting, because it is the only grain that can properly, (optimally), initiate the malting process. Whenever other grains are "malted", the malting process is started with barley, (by necessity). Therefore, no matter what grain a manufacturer claims to be malted, you can bet that the malting process was started with barley.

And this is precisely the reason why Rice Dream has traces of gluten in it. For some reason, the manufacturer feels obligated to "malt" the rice, before making Rice Dream. I'm guessing that it's done to make the finished product sweeter, because when a cereal grain is malted, it generates enzymes that convert some/most of the starch back to sugar.

That conversion process is a unique feature of the cereal grains. When they are growing, the endosperm consists of sugar. As the grain dries down prior to harvest, enzymes are generated which convert the sugar into starch, so that it will be more stable in storage. If those kernels are subsequently planted, in the presence of an appropriate moisture and temperature level, the germ will be activated, (germination), and enzymes will be generated which will convert the starch back to sugar, so that it can be more easily utilized by the sprout.

Each type of grain has it's own unique version of enzymes that it produces for converting the starch back to sugar. Unfortunately for us, by some quirk of nature, the enzymes from barley generate the most appealing, (to human taste buds, anyway), sugar products in the malted grain, no matter what type the grain might be. Therefore, a small amount of barley is virtually always used to start the malting process, no matter what type of grain is being malted. That way, the proper enzymes, (from the barley), will be propagated throughout the grain, (rather than the enzymes that are native to the particular grain, itself.

Anyway, that's why you can be pretty sure that any product that's "malted", contains gluten, (thought the amount of gluten may be very low, in some cases).

And here's the tricky part: We can't even test the stuff to determine whether or not it actually meets the 20 ppm limit, because there are no consumer-level tests available that will detect hordein (the prolamin protein in barley that is the equivalent of the gluten in wheat). Test kits are available for testing to detect wheat gluten, but we don't have that option for testing for barley, rye, or oats. So we have to just take their word on it, since the FDA has now made their process "legitimate".

While it is true that most celiacs can tolerate products that meet the 20 ppm specs, some of us are more sensitive, and we react even to such small amounts. And even if we can normally tolerate 20 ppm of gluten in our food without triggering clinical symptoms, the antibodies produced in the gut in response to those traces are probably still adding small amounts of inflammation to the lining of our intestines. Who needs that? I sure don't, and that's why I avoid any and all foods known to contain even (legal) traces of gluten. They can only contribute to damage in our gut, and while the amount of damage may be small, it's still damage.

At least that's the way I see it.

Tex

Lesley · Post by **Lesley** » Sun Nov 17, 2013 3:09 pm

Polly - Since coconut milk is my most consumed item I look hard to find a pure one. TJs is the only lite one, and Ralph's stocks one called Gold Star, which is also pure and is full fat. I buy the TJs one by the case since I use it so much.
I was talking to a PT at the Kaiser hospital the other day. It's been agreed that PT will not help me with my current situation, but we were discussing the effects of PPS on the body. I know that I am physically less and less able to do stuff (age also plays a role of course), deteriorate faster than people in my age group, and have more trouble rebuilding stamina and strength. Dominik (the PT) has been involved in a research program because his uncle has PPS. The hypothesis is that no one who had polio completely escapes PPS in later years. I asked him about the article you sent me. He said he would inquire and let me know what the people he is working with think about it.
I have been so preoccupied with the pain from the recent falls that I haven't had the energy to pursue that angle form the MC pov.

I SO wish I could have chicken. I miss the stock for cooking. So many nice soups have chicken stock a a base.

Since I fell and can't really stand to do anything my diet is so limited and circumscribed by the length of time it takes me to make something I have been basically eating grilled meat or fish (white fish and sardines for protein) potatoes, overcooked veg - mostly carrots, spinach and kale, when I have them because it's too hard to stand to cook them, and gluten free oatmeal.
When I have the energy I make a batch of coconut ice cream and baked apples. I suck on rock candy to keep my mouth moist and help with the GERD.
And that's it.
And I still am not OK. I don't know whether the constant pain is the source of the MC still being active. Or whether there is anything else I should try.

DJ · Post by DJ » Sun Nov 17, 2013 3:42 pm

Thanks, Tex. That makes life a little more complex. So many foods warn of possible "traces" that I'm worried. The symptoms I've had for the past several decades lead me to believe that my esophogus through large intestine are inflammed/damaged and I sure would like to optimize my recovery. It is difficult to travel when so few foods can be trusted

I leave again in the morning for NYC and won't return until Friday.

I've been on a wild search for GF foods. How do I know what to trust

I really need some convenience foods to get by on the road!!