Shortly after going gluten-free back in 2012, I found the Glutino gluten-free breakfast bars. I really enjoyed them and thought they were similar to the Nutri-Grain bars I used to eat years ago. I would take them to college to have for a snack when classes ran through lunch. I was able to find the strawberry, cherry, apple, and blueberry gluten-free breakfast bars at various local stores like Ingles, Kroger, and Earth Fare. I would eagerly stock up whenever I was at a location that had a flavor whose supplies were running low at home. When I had to eliminate guar gum and later on xanthan gum, these were able to stay on my grocery list because they had neither of these ingredients. I was sad about having to give up the Glutino toaster pastries since they contained xanthan gum. Someone from Glutino told me that corn is used to make the xanthan gum they use in their products, but I decided the safest course would be to find products that didn’t have the ingredient at all in case suppliers changed or mistakes were made. I wanted to err on the side of caution to prevent reactions.
One Sunday afternoon, I went to Ingles to do my weekly grocery shopping. I was getting low on the strawberry bars, and I knew Ingles had that flavor. I had them on my list to pick up at the store. I entered the section of the store where the bars were and picked up a box from the shelf there. I put it into my buggy, and that’s when I realized that the box looked different. I picked it back up and looked at it more closely. The image on the front was different, and the box said “Gluten Free Oven Baked Bars” rather than “Gluten Free Breakfast Bars”. The front of the box also said “New Recipe”. When I saw the “New Recipe” graphic, I immediately began searching for the ingredients list. I was very saddened and disappointed to see ingredients like oat flour, oat bran, xanthan gum, and guar gum on the list. I put the box back on the shelf. Later, I went online to see what else I could find out about the new bars. When I went to Glutino’s website to look, all but one variety had guar gum as an ingredient. All of them had xanthan gum. They may have all had the oat ingredients as well, but I wasn’t paying as much attention to those. Again, it was very disappointing.
Guar gum became reactive for me in the early months after I went gluten-free. I only cut it out of uncooked stuff at first because I could still eat baked things made with coconut milk with no problems. Over two years later, though, I ended up cutting guar gum out of all products because I began to suspect that even cooked foods with the ingredient were causing problems. I finally realized that xanthan gum was a problem when I used some Bob’s Red Mill xanthan gum in something I was baking, and I knew I was careful to avoid cross-contamination. I still had a reaction. Bob’s Red Mill xanthan gum is made using wheat. I decided that xanthan gum was an ingredient best avoided unless I could easily determine the food source fed to the xanthan gum bacteria. The xanthan gum that I bought to use for baking and to replace the Bob’s Red Mill xanthan gum is advertised by its manufacturer as being made using corn. As long as that information continues to be made easily available and stays current, I would have no problem continuing to buy that xanthan gum. However, for most products made with xanthan gum, like gluten-free baked goods, I would have to contact the manufacturer to ask. This information is not usually provided on a website or in other material where it can be easily found and read. To me, contacting the manufacturer is just too much trouble for a product that’s not really necessary to have and for which an alternative could be found. Also, ingredients and suppliers can change, and something that was once safe may not be safe any longer. Oats that are not grown using a purity protocol, where the oats never come into contact with gluten grains throughout their entire processing, can be problematic because traces of wheat and other gluten grains may still exist even after the oats are mechanically cleaned and sorted. I’ve had trouble with some of these oat products. I have not contacted Glutino about the oat ingredients in their bars to find out if they were made from oats grown using the purity protocol. Again, as much as I love the breakfast bars, it’s just not worth the trouble to try and find out if I can find a suitable alternative.
The alternative I’ve found, although not exactly like the breakfast bars but does contain fruit ingredients
and similar calorie counts, is the Pressed by Kind bars. I’ve been able to find these locally, and these are really good too. They’re made with fruit (and sometimes vegetables) and chia seeds. They run from about 110 calories to around 130 or 140 calories, which is pretty close to the amount of calories in the Glutino gluten-free breakfast bars. They don’t have gums or any grain ingredients. Even though the bars contain chia seeds, I haven’t noticed any issues with losing any balance between copper and zinc or between iron and vitamin E when eating them. They’re as good a snack as the breakfast bars. Although I’ll really miss the breakfast bars, I’m thankful to have found a good alternative with safe ingredients where I will not have to worry about contacting a manufacturer and hoping that the source of ingredients won’t change without me knowing.
I’m very disappointed in Glutino for changing the breakfast bars and adding ingredients to them that I’m avoiding. I’ve even wished that Udi’s, which is also owned by Boulder Brands, would make the original breakfast bars available. However, I’m thankful to have found a good alternative in the Pressed by Kind bars. Hopefully the Pressed by Kind bars will continue to remain a safe option for me.
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