New finds, new friends, new foods

You know that game that kids and psychologists alike play “What´s the first word that comes to mind when I say…?”

Let´s play.

What the first word that comes to mind when I say Sweden?

What did you think of? Snow? “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”? Well, I thought of three things: cold, happy people, and high quality furniture. However, after recent events, my answer has altered dramatically. Now, I hear Sweden and I think: bananas, coconuts and goji berries. Crazy, right? So what caused this extreme change? Well folks, they say a picture is worth a thousand words…

GlutenTox fans, I would like to introduce you to our dear new friend, Ekomoa. Ekomoa, GlutenTox. A pleasure I´m sure.

Quick, what comes to mind when I say Ekomoa?

Maybe you thought of flowers or Eskimos or who knows what, but what should have come to mind is: quality, nutrition, and YUM

 

Hallonrolls & kyssar (Raspberry Rolls and Kisses)

Ingredients: raspberries, dates, psyllium husk,
Organic natural raspberry essence.
All organic ingredients

We met the lovely people from Ekomoa last week at Alimentaria, an international exhibition of food and beverages in Barcelona, Spain and got the opportunity to try their product. Needless to say, we´re kind of crazy about it.

What they do is create amazing, raw snacks out of 100% natural organic fruits, vegetables and nuts. But what’s so refreshing about this company is that it’s exactly what a small business should be, a group of people doing what they love and working to share their passion with the world. It´s great to see such nutrient-rich product packed full of ingredients that work with and for your body coming from such an unexpected location.

Speaking of ingredients, Ekomoa uses a ton of different nutritious packed fruits, nuts and vegetables in their 10 varieties of sweet and savory snacks, such as:  (mouth watering can begin now) bananas, coconuts, dates, zucchini, carrots, blueberries, raspberries, almonds, goji berries, sun flower seeds along with lemon, sea salt, and a variety of herbs for flavoring, just to name a few.

And you know us, we had to find out….is it too good to be true? Could such a tasty, healthy snack so jam-packed with flavor really be.…gluten-free? 

We investigated a bit further into the company itself and how they create their products before we began our testing.

We loved that they use an old-school air drying technique to make these “super snacks” rather than baking them. This way, the final product is still considered ‘raw’ which helps preserve the quality and benefits of the vitamins, minerals, fiber and enzymes of the ingredients.

Nordi - Vitlök, örter (garlic and herb)

Ingredients: Carrots, cabbage, almonds, horseradish,
walnuts, sunflower seeds, garlic, lemon, herbs, sea salt.
All organic ingredients.

Even better, there are no added sugars or preservatives - just wholesome, clean ingredients in a perfect snack on the go!.

 

Banana fans out there? Get your hands on a pretty flowered package of Bananbräck, you won´t be disappointed. These things are like bananas’ overachieving older brother. Bananas 2.0 if you will. There´s so much banana-coconut flavor packed in there, I don´t know how I can ever go back to eating just a regular banana.

So these little pieces of heaven look like they would be crunchy like a cracker which I was a bit worried about, because dried bananas can lose a lot of their banana-essence. But to my pleasant surprise, they were moist, soft and full of flavor. Not only that, the genius combination of coconut and cacao scattered throughout really creates a unique and dynamic taste.

Banan&Blåbärskyssar (Banana and Blueberry Kisses)

Ingredients: Banana, coconut, blueberries and goji berries.
All organic ingredients.

As you can see, all the ingredients used in Ekomoa´s products are naturally gluten-free. However, accidental cross contamination can be quite common even in facilities that produce only gluten-free foods, because of cross contamination during transportation or the ingredients could have already been contaminated when they arrive to the production facility. Trace amounts of a gluten containing ingredient can easily raise the level of gluten to 20 parts per million (ppm) (the Codex Alimentarius limit to consider a food gluten-free) or more.

Therefore, we´ve decided to utilize GlutenTox Home, which can test up to 5 ppm – helpful for those with extreme gluten sensitivity- to test out Ekomoa´s Banan&Blåbärskyssar snacks.

First we ground up a sample into small pieces and measured out 1 gram using a level scoop of the spoon provided in the kit.

We added this scoop to the Extraction Solution in the yellow-lidded jar, shook vigorously for 2 minutes, and then let settle for 5 minutes.

Using the provided dropper, we collected some of the liquid that separated from the solids at the bottom of the jar, and since we were testing for 20 ppm, added 2 drops to the blue-lidded jar of Dilution Solution (if we wanted to test for 5 ppm, we would have added 8 drops).

After shaking gently for about 15 seconds, we added 5-6 drops to the analyzer (in the little well labeled ‘S’) and waited a few minutes.

 
Drum roll…….

Success!

Our blue control line showed up first, telling us that we had correctly administered the test, then not a single trace of a pink line showed up next to it, meaning, according to the Codex Alimentarius standards, that the Banan&Blåbärskyssar lot we have tested is gluten-free!

Congratulations Ekomoa! And welcome to the gluten-free community!

You can find more information about Ekomoa and their fabulously fruity-nutty snacks at www.ekomoa.se (don´t be afraid of all the Swedish, Google Translate does a pretty good job translating the whole page for you) or by contacting anita@ekomoa.se

Celiac Disease worldwide travelers

Biomedal Diagnostics is happy to have Tina Turbin the multi award-winning children's author of the acclaimed Danny the Dragon children’s series as a guest for our GlutenTox blog:

As celiac disease patients and worldwide travelers, where do you find it most difficult to keep a gluten free diet? It is most difficult to keep a gluten free diet in most restaurants. When we grocery shop and cook for ourselves that is far easier. One always run the risk when eating out because that cross contamination can occur. Relaying we have celiac to a waiter or waitress in detail is very important.

Is there any food you find while traveling abroad that you wish you had easy access to at home? The desserts in Europe are to die for! They just don’t make them the same in the US. Also, we have never had such amazing espresso as we did while in Europe. Can we bring it all back?

When you are eating out, what can a restaurant do to assure you that they understand celiac disease? When a restaurant offers to clean off their grill before cooking our food we feel a sense of relief. What doesn't make us feel at ease is when our server says they understand celiac disease and then asks us if rice has gluten in it. This happens in the USA a lot, as the kids are not taught what gluten is in many schools or universities here.

Do you bring any sort of card, or phone app, or other written explanation of celiac disease with you? Does it help? We do not but we have pretty good understanding of it and can easily explain it to others. If you can't explain celiac disease we strongly advise you to keep a good laminated card with you at all times. Ensure the chef reads it and ensure your health situation is fully understood so you can eat a meal with no concerns.

When you are eating on the go, how do you choose where to get food and what to buy? We really enjoy our local health food store, which has an amazing and full hot bar with many GF options. It has many protein and vegetable dishes to choose from which makes our busy lives easier. The gluten-free community where we live is pretty expansive so eating on the go isn't too difficult. Many restaurants we go to these days even have a separate gluten free menu. This is a result of our many celiac groups’ efforts spreading the word. 

Do you travel with some emergency-snack in case you cannot find anything that you can trust is gluten-free? If so, what do you bring? Yes, yes and yes! We may have nuts & dried fruit, some sort of home made GF protein bar, fruit etc. in our purses in case we can't find something close by. As a celiac preplanning is a way of life.

Tina, as a children's writer, have you been tempted to turn one of your characters celiac? In the Danny the Dragon series I have not as of yet. This does not mean that is cannot happen but that is not the direction these stories are going. I have other books in the works. I feel it is important to use my position to help get the word out about celiac disease, the importance of early detection, misdiagnosis and increased awareness. Children are very important to me. Due to the amount of writing Miranda Jade and I do on this area and on a monthly basis, we find ourselves pretty busy. Miranda Jade is taking over much of the research and writing so I can now devote more time to working in the kitchen on 100% grain free recipes and my own personal writing.

Tina Turbin became extremely interested and involved in the subjects of celiac disease and gluten a number of years ago after many years of unresolved troubles, to finally get properly diagnosed herself. She has since been a diligent researcher, writer, develops gluten-free recipes with her business partner Miranda Jade, they teamed up with top professionals, reviewing GF companies & GF cook books on their renowned website: GlutenFreeHelp.info.

As the multi award-winning children's author of the acclaimed Danny the Dragon children’s series, Tina and Miranda Jade take great pleasure in additional writing contributions for: CeliacCentral.org, Celiac.com and EverydayHealth.com. They work in their East and West Coast studios continuing to write, promote and work within the celiac and gluten-free arena to help increase the awareness of this area and help others on a daily bases. Tina is forever writing additional children's books to entertain the world. To stay updated please sign up for their newsletter by visiting GlutenFreeHelp.info.

Illustrations obtained from: © Copyright 2012 TinaTurbin.com

“Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom” and “Celiacs in the House” met at GFAF Expo in Chicago

GlutenTox Home met Heidi and Wendy of Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom and Celiacs in the House at the GFAF Expo earlier this month!

They’ve teamed up to try the GlutenTox Home kits, and written a great, thorough post with outstanding pictures about gluten detection and our test kit. Check it out yourself and find out if you favorite food it Glutenfree!

If you didn’t win the 2-test GlutenTox Home kit (Congratulations to Suz Reagan J for winning it!) you can get a 10% during the month of May, using the code GFMAY upon checkout by ordering a kit via our US Distributor Emport (www.glutentox.com).

Have a nice glutenfree day!

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Welcome

Hello!

Today I am opening this space, in which I will be informing you about the latest news related to the celiac world. I hope it will be an interactive place where everyone can participate and make life a little "easier", in a fun and interesting way.

Greeting!

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