Gluten Free Vegan: Information, Foods, and Cookbooks

It’s easy to follow a gluten-free vegan diet. You can find an incredible variety of vegan gluten-free foods sold just about everywhere.

Are Vegan Foods Gluten-Free?

Gluten-free foods are not always vegan, and vegan foods are not always gluten-free.

Regardless, finding gluten-free vegan foods is easy. While many vegan foods contain gluten, many more are gluten-free.

Gluten is a protein found in many grains. It’s especially abundant in wheat. If you’ve ever baked bread from scratch, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that kneading makes the dough more elastic. That’s because the purpose of kneading is to stretch out the dough’s gluten proteins. The fact that bread is chewy rather than crumbly has everything to do with its gluten content.

As with most breads and breakfast cereals, vegan meats also frequently contain gluten. Any vegan meat listing seitan in its ingredients is gluten-based. Seitan is in fact pure gluten (plus some water, salt, and spices), and it’s gluten that gives seitan-based meats their meaty chewiness.

Gluten and Celiac Disease

Unfortunately, gluten plays havoc with some people’s digestive systems. This is especially true for people diagnosed with celiac disease, who should treat gluten as if it’s poison and avoid even the tiniest amounts. Among people with celiac disease, gluten produces an allergic response that inflames the intestines and bowels. Repeated exposure to gluten damages the lining of these organs, causing serious and potentially life-threatening consequences.

Like Crohn’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis, celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder—meaning that the body is attacked by its own immune system. But if you’re going to suffer the misfortune of contracting an autoimmune disorder, celiac disease is far from the worst one to have. That’s because people with celiac disease can avoid any problems by simply ridding their diets of all traces of gluten. And while that restriction is certainly a drag, countless people with more serious autoimmune conditions would be delighted to trade places with someone suffering from celiac disease.

Do You Have Celiac Disease?

Celiac disease is notoriously underdiagnosed. More than 70 percent of people suffering from this disorder don’t know they have it.

In the early 2010s, gluten-free diets became something of a fad. The trend arose because large numbers of people became convinced that they’re gluten-sensitive. But rather than getting themselves tested, they simply stopped eating gluten-based foods.

Widespread interest in gluten-free eating undoubtedly inspired a number of undiagnosed celiacs to cut gluten from their diets, and consequently witness vast improvements to their health. But at the same time, only about 1 percent of people actually have celiac disease. So the overwhelming majority of participants in the gluten-free craze probably gained no tangible health benefits. And if you’re not sensitive to gluten, cutting it out of your diet means you’re missing out on an excellent source of protein.

That said, gluten is certainly among the harder food ingredients to digest. People with digestive problems may well feel better if they cut back on gluten, even if they don’t suffer from celiac disease. And there’s always the placebo effect to take into account. Undoubtedly, at least some gluten-free advocates have no measurable gluten sensitivity.

Growing awareness of gluten intolerance has created a thriving market for gluten-free products. The abundance of gluten-free foods now available has greatly benefited celiacs as well as everyone else who wants to avoid gluten.

Which Grains Contain Gluten?

Now let’s move on to exactly which foods gluten intolerant people must avoid. Gluten is present in each of these grains:

Wheat, including these relatives or varieties:
- Bulgur
- Semolina
- Durum
- Farro
- Kamut
- Spelt
Barley
Rye
Triticale
Oats

These grains show up in a wide variety of vegan foods. You can find them in breads, pastries, cereals, and pasta. And, as we’ve already seen, many vegan meats also contain gluten.

Barley’s presence on this list is bad news for beer enthusiasts, since most beers contain malted barley. But thanks to the popularity of gluten-free diets, a number of breweries make gluten-free beer. Several of these offerings are surprisingly tasty.

Many celiacs can tolerate oats, because oats contain a protein called avenin rather than gluten. If you have celiac disease, ask your doctor to run a blood test to check for oat sensitivity.

Which Grains Are Gluten-Free?

Luckily, there are plenty of gluten-free grain varieties that celiacs can eat freely:

Rice
Corn
Buckwheat Groats
Quinoa
Millet
Sorghum
Wild Rice
Teff

The fact that both rice and corn are gluten-free opens up a tremendous assortment of Asian, Indian, and Mexican food possibilities.

Note that many celiacs have serious reactions to even trace amounts of gluten. People with severe gluten sensitivity must take extreme measures, including opting for shampoo and other cosmetics that are certified gluten-free. They must also avoid food made at facilities that process gluten-containing grains. Gluten-free foods may also become contaminated with gluten-containing grains during harvest, transport, or storage.

Gluten-Free Vegan Cookbooks

If you want to avoid gluten, there’s no need to purchase only gluten-free cookbooks. Most vegan cookbooks (apart from titles specifically devoted to baking) contain relatively few recipes featuring gluten-based ingredients.

There are several other gluten-free vegan cookbooks in print. Some recent titles include:

Plant-Based Delicious, by Ashley Madden
The Complete Gluten-Free Vegan Cookbook, by Justin Weber
Gluten-Free Vegan Baking for Every Occasion, by Sara McGlothlin
Decadent Gluten-Free Vegan Baking, by Cara Reed
Vegan Treats: Easy Vegan Bites and Bakes, by Emma Hollingsworth
Gluten-Free & Vegan for the Whole Family, by Jennifer Katzinger

Additionally, Allyson Kramer wrote four cookbooks that cater to vegans who follow a gluten-free diet:

Apart from the recipes themselves, Allyson’s cookbooks offer extensive information about living a gluten-free lifestyle that goes far beyond the scope of this short guide.