Monday, August 15, 2016

Gluten free snacks--bleh

There are many people buying gluten free products who don't need to--but I actually bought a snack item yesterday because I thought it tasted better than the "real" product.  At the after-church fellowship hour at UALC, gluten free honey mustard pretzels had been offered.  I'd tried them, and really liked them.  So I bought a bag of Snyder's Honey Mustard and Onion Pretzel sticks gluten free to have for snacks before dinner last night with guests.  Now perhaps I over did--I've been known to have a soft place for salty snacks--but I had a lot of stomach distress later in the evening.  So today I looked at the list of ingredients.

Corn starch
Potato starch
Palm oil
Tapioca starch
Dextrose
Sugar
Water
Salt
Cellulose Gum
Onion powder
Baking powder
Soy lecithin
Citric Acid
Maltodextrin
Yeast
Mustard flour
Modified cornstarch
Vinegar,
Spice and herb
Vinegar powder
Honey Powder
Spice and coloring (contains turmeric)
Natural flavoring
Soda

Interestingly, in small print, "We are not connected with "Snyder of Berlin" of Berlin, PA 15530.  This is package is Snyder's of Hanover.  I wondered if they were originally together and so I did a little research and learned that descendants of the Snyders of the 19th century who had their plant in Hanover relocated in Berlin and had different ideas, particularly about potato chips. So there was a split.  But that's neither here nor there; why did the gluten free snack cause me digestion problems when regular (less flavorful pretzels) didn't?  The basic ingredients of pretzels are wheat flour, sweetener (usually sugar or corn syrup), water, yeast, and salt with some egg wash to make them crispy.  In my case, less is better than all the tricks to go gluten free.  I wonder how many people pick up gluten free processed food at the market and don't read the ingredients?

Still have half a bag.  I think it goes into the trash.

1 comment:

Paula said...

Yuck! For whatever reason, I'm finding lately that almost all meals out, even the healthiest ones, give me some form of indigestion (not to mention the wallet bite). My aging tummy likes simpler food, prepared simply, at home.