Healthy Food Choices: Gluten-Free Beverages

Last Update: October 16, 2008

Video By: LIVESTRONG.COM

Grocery shopping tips for people buying gluten-free beverages. Learn how to adjust your diet to fit your specific health and nutrition needs in this video on grocery shopping.

Take Action

  • Check food labels
  • Avoid chocolate drinks
  • Choose drinks like water and teas
  • Avoid non-dairy creamer

About this Author

Mary Hondros graduated from University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Science in Dietetics. She currently works as a nutritionist for New Hanover County Schools in North Carolina. Her main focus is to teach children to improve nutritional habits.

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Video Transcript

MARY HONDROS: If you are trying to keep a gluten free diet, one of the things that you might be concerned about is gluten free beverages. As a general rule, things like water, tea, seltzer waters, most sodas, fruit juices, minerals and carbonated waters are gluten free so you do not have to worry about there being gluten in those. However, things such as beer and anything that has any kind of added malt or any anything like that to it; it is probably a gluten product. So in general you need to stay away from things like beer, whisky, ale and then malt containing beverages. Most milks are okay choices for gluten free, whole, skim, low fat milk but it should be plain milk because chocolate milks may have a gluten additive in them called malt. Some things that gluten also goes under the name of is malt vinegar, vegetable gums, stabilizer, starch flavoring, emulsifier, those kind of things can all be listed on a label and be the other terms for gluten. So if you are following a gluten free diet and you are concerned about your beverages, just remember the following. First and foremost check your food labels because if they have gluten listed you need to stay away from it. Gluten can come under other names like stabilizer, emulsifier, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, malt, vegetable gum; those types of things are all different words for gluten. Secondly, avoid chocolate drinks like Ovaltine because they tend to have something called malt in them which is a gluten derivative. Thirdly, choose drinks like water, plain milks, teas, a hundred percent fruit juices are all guaranteed to be gluten free beverages. And lastly, be careful with things like non-dairy creamer, cocoa drinks and those such of things because they may contain gluten. So those are some tips on looking for gluten free beverages.

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