Tag: Food

The Witches Spell for Sept. 30: The Neutralizing Bottle Spell

The Bottle Spell

A spell used to neutralize others bad or harmful intentions towards you.

 

Items You Will Need:

4 tbs. Frankincense or myrrh

4 tbs. Black powdered iron

4 tbs. Sea salt

4 tbs. Orris Root powder (or Oak Moss)

1 White candle

1 Bottle with a cord or lid

Mortar and pestle

Parchment paper

Black Pen

Black Thread

 

The Spell:

Used to neutralize the power of those who intend to do you physical harm or hurt your reputation or in any way pose a threat to your security. Mix the sea salt, orris root powder and the iron in a bowl. Then cut a piece of parchment to fit inside your bottle and write on it with black ink.

“I neutralize the power of (Name of adversary) to do me any harm. I ask this be correct and for the good of all. So Mote It Be!”

Roll up the parchment, tie it with a black thread to bind it, and place it in the bottle. Fill the bottle with dry ingredients. Then take the white candle and while turning the bottle counterclockwise, drip the wax over the cork to seal it. Last, secretly bury the bottle in a place where it will not be disturbed and no animals or people will dig it up. This spell is like a genie in a bottle. It should never be unleashed or the power of the spell is lost.

Daily Motivator for September 24 – Nourished by thoughts

Nourished by thoughts

Your life is constantly nourished by your thoughts. Whatever the direction  your life is moving, your thoughts have led you there.

Consider any possibility, and by your thoughts about it you have given that  possibility a presence in your life. As you dwell on that possibility, its  presence grows stronger and more vivid within you.

By giving your thoughts to life’s goodness, you fill your own life with a  unique expression of that goodness. By focusing your awareness on the positive  possibilities, you gain real access to them.

Your mind is an enormously powerful tool over which you have intentional  control. There is no limit to what you can think, and no limit to how far those  thoughts can carry you.

You set the direction of your life with the thoughts you most consistently  and persistently think. Fill your mind with thoughts of goodness and positive  possibility, and allow those thoughts to guide your every action.

Give your life the highest quality nourishment and the most positive energy  you can imagine. Let your positive, loving thoughts set the stage for a truly  rich and fulfilling life.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivator

Removal of a Spell

Removal of a Spell

 

Items You Need:

3 Cloves of Garlic

Water

 

The Spell:

With water, grind the garlic into a paste. Rub the paste on the souls of the afflicted person’s shoes, and on the front step of his/her home. Create a blessing with the Sun retribution Symbol invoking enlightment and clarity. This will negate Earth Spells.

Calendar of the Sun for Sept. 13

Calendar of the Sun
13 Halegmonath

Egyptian All Souls’ Day – Day of Anubis

Colors: Black and tan
Element: Earth
Altar: Set with a cloth of tan like the desert sands, upon which is poured a mound of sand with one black candle set within it, a cup of beer, and a figure of the jackal god Anubis.
Offerings: Candles. Incense. An offer to guide someone in need out of darkness.
Daily Meal: Beer. Figs. Dates. Millet. Barley. Lentils. Duck or goose.

Invocation to Anubis

Lord of the desert sands
Who guides lost souls through endless waste
Into a better land
Who brings the Dead
To their final judgment
Into the hand of Ma’at
Great-eared one who sniffs out
All things hidden
And from whom nothing
Can be concealed forever,
Guide us surely and skillfully
Out of the darkness
Of our own blind searching.

Chant:
Dark God of the West
Take me home
I am a wandering soul

Call and response while pouring the beer libation:

Bring us forth out of darkness
Guide us through the waste lands
Find for us the track of Fate
Like all our ancestors
Like all the souls of the beloved dead
We will find a way
We will find a way
We will find a way
Forth out of the darkness
And into the blazing Sun.

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Moon for September 10

Calendar of the Moon

Grapevine Month

Colors: Blue and Purple
Element: Water
Altar: Upon cloth of blue and purple set a great pitcher of wine with many cups, four purple candles, and many wreaths of grapevine and baskets of grapes.
Offerings:
Daily Meal: Vegetarian, with wine or grape juice to drink, and of course grapes.

Muin Invocation

Call: Hail the Month of the Grapevine!
Response: Hail the Month of the Vine-Gods!
Call: Hail the month when sour turns to sweet!
Response: Hail the month when labor comes ripe!
Call: Hail the month when our hands come together,
Response: Hail the month when the cup is passed!
Call: This is the time of bonding,
Response: When the fruits of the harvest lay within our grasp.
Call: This is the call of Joy and Merriment,
Response: This is the time of coming together.
Call: For though we may have forgotten laughter beneath our burdens,
Response: Laughter comes for us at last.
Call: And yet we begin to see the year passing to its end,
Response: And our laughter is the light passing into the dark.
Call: May we go to into the dark like the Children of Dionysos,
Response: Embracing the cycle with open arms!
Call: Like the grapevine, we are givers of ecstasy.
Response: Like the grapevine, we are givers of dream.
Call: Like vines, we yield up our fruit.
Response: Like vines, we yield up for the good of all.
Call: Like vines, we twine towards the Light.
Response: Like vines, we twine towards the Spirit.
Call: We hold the line, we keep the Mysteries true,
Response: We hold the line, we keep the Mysteries true,
Call: I am the vine; the branches, you and you.
Response: I am the vine; the branches, you and you.

Chant:
Taste Joy in the Day
Take Joy in the Night
Touch Joy in your face turned
To the fading light
Ay ay ay ay-yi-hey.

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Daily OM for Sept. 9 – Have Fun & Save The Planet

Have Fun And Save The Planet

Think Globally, Eat Locally

We all know that our planet needs our help right now, but we often feel unsure about what to do, where to make an effort, and what will really help. The good news is that we can heal the planet on a daily basis simply by buying and eating food that is grown locally. Food that has been transported long distances doesn’t contain much life force by the time it gets to your kitchen. Making a commitment to shop, buy, and eat locally is not only a very important part of creating positive change, it can also be delicious fun.

One of the best places to begin the adventure of eating locally is a farmer’s market. Stalls brim with fresh fruits and vegetables grown on nearby farms. Not only is this good for the environment, it’s good for the farmers since they benefit from selling directly to the consumer. The consumer benefits, too, from the intimate experience of buying food from the hand of the person who grew it. In addition, the food is fresher and more diverse. In supermarkets, particular varieties of fruits and vegetables are favored due to their ability to survive transport to a far destination. Alternately, at a farmer’s market, you will find versions of the fruits and vegetables you know that will surprise and delight your senses—green striped heirloom tomatoes, purple cauliflower, white carrots, and edible flowers, just to name a few.

Make an effort to buy as much of your food as possible directly from local farmers. You will become one of a growing number of people eating delicious food to save the planet and having fun doing it.

Calendar of the Sun for September 9

Calendar of the Sun

Media Aestas

Colors: Gold and blue
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon a golden cloth set a single blue candle, a bunch of herbs from the garden, lengths of twine, a bowl of rainwater, a bucket of manure tea, and several empty baskets.
Offering: Water and fertilizer, to be added to the garden.
Daily Meal: Vegetarian

Media Aestas Invocation

Earth, your bounty is showered upon us!
We walk amid your green leaves
And cut down what you give us,
And the harvest begins in earnest.
Bless us with a full pantry
As the Sun begins to wane,
Let us eat his light in the food
You gift to our table.
We now enter the time of year
When we do take more than is given,
Yet even now we will water and feed you,
For this is the dance of giving.
And we shall do the sacred act of cultivation,
Weeding that which hinders our harvest,
Bringing the first death that Life may go on.

Chant: Gift given
Hands receive you
Earth’s bounty
Brings the sheaf to you

(Two who have been chosen to do the work of the ritual take up the rainwater and the manure tea, and carry them out tot he garden, where they are ceremonially poured around the roots of the herbs and vegetables, and especially into any plots of land where everything has been harvested. All others follow with empty baskets to harvest some thing from the garden, or twine to cut herbs and hang them to dry. After this, each should do some weeding, as weeding is the sacred cultivation work of this season. The weeds should be placed in a compost heap with all due reverence; we take their perfectly legitimate lives that our own plants may grow.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Lighten Up – The Caffeinated Cross

The Caffeinated Cross

by Karl Lembke

The following ritual was found in a musty, dusty old fragment of parchment lodged between the musty old pages of a musty, dusty old book in a musty, dusty old library whose musty, dusty old dust hadn’t been disturbed by the presence of man in many a musty, dusty old century. It took a great deal of effort to translate the original writings. After months of effort and research in language libraries, it was finally determined that the weird script was not some arcane, forgotten language, but English, written by someone with a very bad case of caffeine jitters.

Another fragment indicated that this was once part of a book, entitled “The Mystery of the StarBuck”.

THE CAFFEINATED CROSS

Stand, facing east, holding your coffee cup, filled with the mystical brew, in your power hand, and assume a posture of wakeful alertness.

Bring your coffee cup to your forehead and intone:

“LATTE”

Lower your coffee cup to the vicinity of your navel:

“MOCHA”

Bring your coffee cup to your left shoulder:

“CAPPUCHINO”

Bring it across to your right shoulder:

“FRAPPUCHINO”

Clasp your coffee cup in both hands over your heart chakra:

“ARABICA, OH MAN!”

Extend your arms to the sides, and intone:

“BEFORE ME, MRS. OLSON”

“BEHIND ME, JUAN VALDEZ”

“AT MY RIGHT HAND, M J B”

“AT MY LEFT HAND, THE BROTHERS HILLS”

“FOR ABOUT ME SWIRLS THE COFFEE AROMA”

“WITHIN ME SINGS THE CAFFEINE HIGH”

Drink the coffee, in communion with the spirits of the Sacred Coffee Bean. This last step may be usefully repeated as long as you like.

Calendar of the Sun for September 8

Calendar of the Sun

8 Halegmonath

Mead-Day

Color: Golden
Elements: Fire and Water
Altar: Upon a golden cloth set four yellow candles, goblets, a jug of home-brewed mead, a bee skep, the figure of a honeybee, and a small jar of honey.
Offerings: Mead libations.
Daily Meal: Food sweetened with honey. Mead.

Mead-Day Invocation

Hail to the Queen Bee who gathers the workers!
Hail to the workers who gather the nectar!
Hail to the hundreds who make the honey!
Hail to the brave who gather the sweetness!
Hail to the brewers who create the liquor
That the Aesir stole from the duergar
That the gods all covet
That is the finest sacrifice of any fluid.
Nectar brewed of the meadow’s flowers,
From the orchard’s blossoms,
From the sexual fluids of a thousand plant-souls.
Hail to the Queen Bee and all her progeny,
Forgive us our theft of your hard labor,
And may you multiply in plenty
In a world that blossoms with richness every spring.

Chant:
More than even a rich man can hold,
We drink the sunrise, we drink the meadow’s gold.

(Mead is poured into the goblets, and everyone takes a sip. Then some is poured into the libation well for the Gods, and the rest is taken out to the garden or the orchard. Libations are poured for the trees of the orchard, the garden, and especially the beehives.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Lighten Up – A Redneck Oil Change

A redneck oil change

The Redneck Oil Change Checklist
1. Go to O’Reilly auto parts and write a check for $50 dollars for oil, filter, kitty litter, hand cleaner and scented tree.
2. Discover that the used oil container is full. Instead of taking it back to O’Reilly to recycle, dump in hole in back yard.
3. Open a beer and drink it.
4. Jack car up. Spend 30 minutes looking for jack stands.
5. Find jack stands under kid’s pedal car.
6. In frustration, open another beer and drink it.
7. Place drain pan under engine.
8. Look for 9/16 box end wrench.
9. Give up and use crescent wrench.
10. Unscrew drain plug.
11. Drop drain plug in pan of hot oil; get hot oil on you in process.
12. Clean up.
13. Have another beer while oil is draining.
14. Look for oil filter wrench.
15. Give up; poke oil filter with screwdriver and twist it off.
16. Beer.
17. Buddy shows up; finish case with him. Finish oil change tomorrow.
18. Next day, drag pan full of old oil out from underneath car.
19. Throw kitty litter on oil spilled during step 18.
20. Beer. No, drank it all yesterday.
21. Walk to 7-11; buy beer.
22. Install new oil filter making sure to apply thin coat of clean oil to gasket first.
23. Dump first quart of fresh oil into engine.
24. Remember drain plug from step 11.
25. Hurry to find drain plug in drain pan.
26. Hurry to replace drain plug before the whole quart of fresh oil  drains onto floor.
27. Slip with wrench and bang knuckles on frame.
28. Bang head on floor board in reaction.
29. Begin cussing fit.
30. Throw wrench.
31. Cuss and complain.
32. Clean up; apply Band-Aid to knuckle.
33. Beer.
34. Beer.
35. Dump in additional 4 quarts of oil.
36. Beer.
37. Lower car from jack stands
38. Accidentally crush one of the jack stands
39. Move car back to apply more kitty litter to fresh oil spilled during step 23.
40. Test drive car
41. Get pulled over; arrested for driving under the influence.
42. Car gets impounded.
43. Make bail; get car from impound yard.
Money Spent:
$50 parts
$12 beer
$75 replacement set of jack stands; hey the colors have to match!
$1000 Bail
$200 Impound and towing fee
Total: $1337

Calendar of the Moon for August 24

Calendar of the Moon

 

24 Coll/Metageitnion

Rhiannon’s Day

Color: White
Elements: Air and Fire
Altar: Upon cloth of white place many figures of horses, five white candles, a cup of red wine and a cup of white wine.
Offerings: Willingly take on burdens.
Daily Meal: Oats, apples, carrots, honey.

Invocation to Rhiannon

(One steps forward, pours out the white wine as a libation, and says:)

Hail Rhiannon, Lady of the White Horse!
Hail Rhiannon, wife of Pwyll,
Headstrong and proud, you teach us
That nothing is impossible if we believe.
Hail Rhiannon, wife of Manannan,
Older and wiser, you teach us
To seek wisdom as well as courage.
Hail Rhiannon, Lady of Inspiration,
Fiery and passionate, you teach us
That in order to gain one’s dreams
One need not compromise one’s soul.

(One steps forward, pours out the red wine as libation, and says:)

Pounding hoofbeats
Striking sparks
Breath snorts from nostrils
Wind through the mane;
Lady of horses,
Slow for my call.
Seeker of the horizon,
Show me the road.
Bearer of burdens,
Carry me gently.
Aid me in
My race to the goal.

Song: Horse Goddess

 

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Just In – Garden Fresh recalling 7 tons of packaged salads

Garden Fresh recalling 7 tons of packaged salads

MILWAUKEE — A Wisconsin company that makes packaged salads is recalling nearly seven tons of products because they contain onions that are the subject of a separate recall.

Milwaukee-based Garden Fresh Foods makes packaged pasta salads and chicken salads. The company is recalling 13,600 pounds of products that contain onions possibly contaminated by the bacterium Listeria.

The onions are from supplier Gills Onions LLC. The Oxnard, Calif., company launched its own recall last month due to contamination concerns.

The Garden Fresh products have the establishment number “P-17256” or “Est. 17256” inside the U.S. Department of Agriculture mark of inspection. A list of the specific recalled products is available on the USDA website.

No illnesses have been reported in connection with the products, which are sold nationwide.

No. 2 Things To Do For Lammas…..

Read about and make a loaf of bread.  Loaves of bread are a  traditional part of the First Harvest Feast.  Break bread into four pieces and place at each of the Four Corners altars.    Lammas means “Loaf Mass” in the Welsh language.  Sharing bread is a common feature of a Lammas celebration.  What is the  role of baking bread in human culture?  Find a really good bakery in your  area. 

Share Your Summer Bounty

Share Your Summer Bounty

by Judi Gerber

As I have written here before, one of the ways that gardeners can make a difference  is to share their excess produce with those in need, while getting rid of those  crops that they might have too much of, like zucchini or tomatoes.

Not only will you be helping to fight hunger, but you will be helping your garden. How so?  Too many mature fruit will make the plant stop producing, so you want to make  sure to harvest so you can extend your harvest season.

If you want to donate excess produce, you can do so through Ample Harvest. They have created a campaign to get home  gardeners to donate their excess harvest to local food pantries. As the  organization states on its website, “One out of six Americans (including a  quarter of all kids under six) does not have access to healthy fresh food at  their food pantry. The AmpleHarvest.org Campaign is a national effort utilizing  the Internet that enables 40+ million Americans who grow food in home gardens to  easily donate their excess harvest to one of 3,485 registered local food  pantries spread across all 50 states.”

You can find these registered food pantries in your area simply by typing in  your zip code. I was surprised to find about 20 within 15 miles of my zip code.  There is even a special  page for gardeners with tips on what kinds of produce are best to give to  those in need, when to pick them in order to donate them, and other frequently  asked questions. They even have smart phone apps on their site.

Another site that features maps showing food pantries is Feeding America. Here too, you can find food pantries in  your area simply by typing in your zip code.

If you don’t have your own garden, or if you want to do something different  for your summer vacation, you can volunteer with organizations that donate fresh  produce by gleaning excess or unwanted produce.  Traditionally,  gleaning is collecting “leftover” crops from farmers’ fields after they have  already been harvested. After harvest, there is an abundance of high quality,  marketable produce left in the fields that cannot be harvested economically or  does not meet commercial standards.

July 25 – Daily Feast

July 25 – Daily Feast

The haying season is in full swing and trucks loaded with bales of green-gold leave the meadows stirred into action. Killdeer circle overhead, and quail call for a covey scattered by the noise of machines. To all appearances, this is the quiet season – but appearances are deceiving. The end is never the end but another beginning. The grasses drying in the sun have dropped seeds that will sprout again. Tall graceful sunflowers shade the wild petunias that wait for another rain. We finish one thing and begin another – always with a fresh eye for how we can do better. It reminds us that what we want to reap, we must first plant and cultivate and water with love.

~ The Great Spirit has smiled upon us and made us glad. ~

KEOKUK, 1848

‘A Cherokee Feast of Days’, by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Be Cautious of Gluten-Free Labels

Be Cautious of Gluten-Free Labels

by Molly, selected from Experience Life

Think you can have your gluten-free cake and eat it, too? Not so  fast.  Despite the hundreds of products that sport gluten-free labels,  the FDA has no  official standards to regulate the claim. For those  striving to limit their  gluten intake, that lack of regulation can be  frustrating. But for those with  celiac disease, hypersensitivities to  cereal grains, or certain autoimmune  diseases like Hashimoto’s  thyroiditis (in which the body mistakenly attacks the  thyroid), a  “gluten-free” food with traces of gluten can pose a serious health   threat. Fortunately, new rules likely to be unveiled later this year  should  clear up the confusion.

As it stands now, the FDA only requires companies to state whether  common  allergens, such as wheat or nuts, are ingredients in a product.  Labeling  regulations are lax for products potentially cross-contaminated  with allergens  during the manufacturing process — something that  happens frequently in  facilities that process a wide variety of foods.  That means small quantities of  gluten can easily sneak into products  labeled “gluten-free.”

The FDA is currently evaluating the issue. Many experts anticipate  that if  the FDA does adopt new regulations, they will mirror those  governing product  labeling in several European countries, which allow  companies to label  their products gluten-free if they contain fewer than  20 parts per million  (ppm) of gluten. Many researchers assert that  those levels are tolerable even  for people with celiac disease, says  Danna Korn, founder of Raising Our Celiac  Kids and author of Living Gluten-Free for Dummies (Wiley, 2010).

In the meantime, you can eliminate the guesswork by avoiding  processed foods  whenever possible. “The best way to avoid gluten is to  eat products that aren’t  manufactured,” says Korn. “Most natural, non-grain whole foods, such as  vegetables, fruits, meats, legumes and fish,  are  inherently gluten-free.”

 

Take Smaller Bites! Why Bite-Sized Foods Are Better

Take Smaller Bites! Why Bite-Sized Foods Are Better

by Eric Steinman

 

So much of the recent concern and debate over nutrition and obesity has  centered on the issue of portion size. With much of the fast food/junk food  industry marketing bigger is better, it is hard not to conclude that the  opposite might be true – small is preferable. Maybe a slider is better than a  Big Mac, and a bite of chocolate is better than a whole bar. Now, seemingly,  there is conclusive scientific proof that smaller bites are better than a  mouthful.

Researchers at Arizona State University investigated how the size and  number of food pieces affected human satisfaction and the human reward  mechanism. The researchers found that smaller pieces of food are more  “rewarding” and lead to a greater feeling of fullness than one large piece of  food with equal energy values. A food portion cut into multiple bite-sized  pieces may look more voluminous and will elicit greater satisfaction than the  same portion presented as a single large piece. This means that a plate of cute  little pizza slices will be infinitely more rewarding to a hungry person than  just four massive slices of pizza. This is good news for the calorie-conscious  who want to provide a more satisfying dining experience – just cut everything up  into smaller, bite-sized, pieces (if only it were that easy).

While this theory does hold some water, it is not clear whether we are  looking at a future of mini-everything. Sure it would likely be better for  portion control and sensible eating (not to mention a boon to marketers selling  bite-sized pieces at a premium), but we humans are hungry animals with an  unyielding desire for the grand offering.

What are your thoughts on smaller portions of food being inherently more  rewarding than big servings? Have you found this to be true for yourself? What  are some of your favorite small bites?

 

Calendar of the Sun for July 23

Calendar of the Sun

23 Haymonath

Neptunalia

Colors: Blue and blue-green of the sea
Element: Water
Altar: Set with sea-colored cloths, figures of dolphins, the figure of a ship, a compass, and a great bowl of salt water.
Offerings: Sea salt. Face some emotion that seems overwhelming to you.
Daily Meal: Fish. Seafood. Seaweed.

Invocation to Neptune

Great Bull from the Sea
Crashing against the rocks
Master of the waves and depths
Foaming horses champing wild
Break against the yielding shore
And you, Lord of bitter brine,
Sink not our ships as they make their way
From safe harbor to safe harbor.
Show us the depths of our own souls
As you know the depths of the ocean itself,
And give us safe passage there as well.
Save us from the whirlpool and the drowning tides,
Save us from the circling predators
That would drag us to the bottom.
Earth-shaker, loudest voice
In the world between heaven and underworld,
The voice that booms up from the depths
Of every water-borne soul.

Chant:
Earth-Shaker
Storm Maker
Lord of the Wave

(The compass is then passed from hand to hand, and each person in turn says, “Guide me in my navigations, Lord of the Unending Waters, and bring me safe home again.” The bowl of salt water is then passed hand to hand, and each splashes a bit onto their heads. The rest is poured out as a libation.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

8 Ways Acidic Foods Damage Your Body

8 Ways Acidic Foods Damage Your Body

by Michelle Schoffro Cook

In small amounts, acidic foods like sugar, food additives, meat, rancid oils, trans fats, and fried  food can be handled by your body’s detoxification systems like the kidneys as well as its mineral reserves.  But, over  time, acidity can have many damaging effects on the body. The following are  seven ways acidity damages the body, but they are certainly not the only  ones.

1. Excessive amounts of acid deplete oxygen, which is needed by every cell in  your body to function properly.

2. It damages the mitochondria—the cells’ energy centers—so your cells won’t  have enough energy to perform their vital functions properly.

3. Excessive amounts of acidity need to be eliminated or acid will be stored  in tissues and joints, causing damage over time.

4. If not properly eliminated or neutralized, excessive amounts of acid can  damage brain cells and other cells.

5. When acid levels are excessively high it creates a breeding ground for  bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens.

6. Acid can damage tissues, joints, organs, and glands, resulting in any  number of imbalances or dysfunction.

7. It depletes alkaline mineral stores in the body, particularly calcium from  bones and magnesium from muscles.

8. Superfluous acidity overburdens the detoxification organs like the kidneys  and the liver.

Be Cautious of Gluten-Free Labels

Be Cautious of Gluten-Free Labels

 by Molly, selected from Experience Life

 

Think you can have your gluten-free cake and eat it, too? Not so  fast.  Despite the hundreds of products that sport gluten-free labels,  the FDA has no  official standards to regulate the claim. For those  striving to limit their  gluten intake, that lack of regulation can be  frustrating. But for those with  celiac disease, hypersensitivities to  cereal grains, or certain autoimmune  diseases like Hashimoto’s  thyroiditis (in which the body mistakenly attacks the  thyroid), a  “gluten-free” food with traces of gluten can pose a serious health   threat. Fortunately, new rules likely to be unveiled later this year  should  clear up the confusion.

As it stands now, the FDA only requires companies to state whether  common  allergens, such as wheat or nuts, are ingredients in a product.  Labeling  regulations are lax for products potentially cross-contaminated  with allergens  during the manufacturing process — something that  happens frequently in  facilities that process a wide variety of foods.  That means small quantities of  gluten can easily sneak into products  labeled “gluten-free.”

The FDA is currently evaluating the issue. Many experts anticipate  that if  the FDA does adopt new regulations, they will mirror those  governing product  labeling in several European countries, which allow  companies to label  their products gluten-free if they contain fewer than  20 parts per million  (ppm) of gluten. Many researchers assert that  those levels are tolerable even  for people with celiac disease, says  Danna Korn, founder of Raising Our Celiac  Kids and author of Living Gluten-Free for Dummies (Wiley, 2010).

In the meantime, you can eliminate the guesswork by avoiding  processed foods  whenever possible. “The best way to avoid gluten is to  eat products that aren’t  manufactured,” says Korn. “Most natural, non-grain whole foods, such as  vegetables, fruits, meats, legumes and fish,  are  inherently gluten-free.”