Happy Healthy Blogger Thursday!
Today I want to introduce you to a gluten-free blogger, T.R. Crumbley from No One Likes Crumbley Cookies. I met T.R. through the Love Blog Hop. He blogs about all things gluten-free and I think he is a great resource for people struggling with gluten problems. After you read his post below, you should check him out.

For those of you new to Badger Girl Learns to Cook, every Thursday I introduce you to a new food blogger and they share with you a healthy blog post. To see past healthy bloggers, check out the Badger Girl Healthy Buddy page. This has become my favorite series because I love introducing you to new, amazing bloggers, like T.R.

On a side note, I am happy to say that the blog-cation is coming to an end and I am excited to start blogging again.  I have two more chapters left in my whole foods cookbook and then I will have some time to catch my breath. You guys are going to love this cookbook and I’m so excited about it. Today I am working on some whole grain, whole food recipes for pop tarts and nutri-grain bars (as you may guess, I am on the breakfast chapter). It’s been so fun! I keep trying to think about what my favorite recipe is so far and I can’t do it. There are so many good, fun whole food recipes, and all of them are so easy to make!

Now, back to today’s post. In his post below, T.R. shares some surprising sources of gluten than you may not guess. I know I was really surprised at some of them.

Without further adieu,
heeeeeerrrrreeee’s T.R.!

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Top Five Foods I Never Realized had Gluten

I’m excited to have the opportunity to guest post with Kimberly this month! I’ve been gluten free for about three years now, so my memory is still relatively fresh with the days of discomfort and exhaustion. When I talk to other people today about eating gluten free and the difficulties associated, my first thought always goes to the sneaky gluten foods. I may be hard to pass by baked goods or pastas, but at least those are obvious foods that contain gluten.
For those new to the world of gluten free, here’s a list of five foods that I only learned had gluten through errors in my diet (and occasionally not paying 100% attention to my doctor).

soy sauce
Soy sauce. Pretty crazy, right? You’d think that this common Asian condiment would have zero gluten since its soy sauce, but a vast majority of soy sauces are made with a blend of soy and a grain. Never fret though, there are a variety of gluten free soy sauces you can find, just be careful when you go out to eat and bring your own!

Oatmeal. This one caught me completely off guard. If you read up on the science of the oat grain, the grain itself does not contain gluten. So where does it come from? Cross-contamination. Oats are often harvested and processed with gluten-filled grains, thus killing their status as gluten-free. A few years back I had difficulty finding gluten-free oats, but have seen one or two brands appear in the past year.


Candy. Some candy is obvious, such as Twix, Oreos, or many others that contain wafers or baked items. For things such as chocolate bars and sugar candies you still have to be careful and always check the label. (Researching on celiac.com beforehand doesn’t hurt either). Once again, cross-contamination is the culprit here.


Cornbread. I don’t trust cornbread unless I read the labeling of pre-baked cornbread or make it myself. Even though the primary grain, most cornbread mixes still contain wheat flour, either to drive the cost of the product down or contribute a texture achieved through wheat flour.


Anything Fried. Potatoes contain starch, but are naturally gluten free. So why can French fries contain gluten? There are two main contributors here. First is potential gluten in the seasoning on the fries. The second concern lies in how fried food is prepared. If a naturally gluten free food is fried in oil that’s been used to fry breaded foods or anything else containing gluten, you can’t trust the oil. Nasty, nasty cross-contamination.

I hope this list is helpful to anyone who is new to the gluten free world. Thank you to Kimberly for hosting this guest post, and be sure to check out No One Likes Crumbley Cookies.

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What food were you most surprised at? Are there any other foods you want to add?