Show HN: Does your food have gluten? | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Does your food have gluten?

glutenchecker.link

Hey folks!

About a couple of months or so ago, I finally figured out I’m gluten intolerant after months of chasing random symptoms and getting nowhere. After a wild goose chase (started this via Djokovic's Serve To Win book) finally found out I was highly gluten sensitive/intolerant.

I had to rethink everything I ate. Grocery shopping turned into ingredient detective work, and eating out became a gamble. I quickly realized I needed something to make this easier and built GlutenAI. It’s a super simple tool to check if something’s gluten-free. Type in a food or product or even a common recipe name, and it’ll let you know if you’re good to go or should steer clear.

Would love to get y'all's feedback on this and let me know what else you would like to see here : https://www.glutenchecker.link/

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My mom is celiac, so I am familiar with what products contain gluten.

I think there needs to be an "check the label" response for some searches.

A few products I tested that I know can have gluten, but don't always:

soy sauce: There exists gluten free soy sauce. some restraunts carry it. the app said soy sauce contains gluten.

"oat" and "oats": The first time I hit it, it responded with "contains gluten, b/c there is a chemical similar to gluten that can trigger celiac disease". Then I clicked 'Search' multiple times and it gaves responses ranging from: "Gluten-free, but oats can be contaminated with gluten in processing." to "Oats are naturally gluten-free, but they are often processed in facilities that also process wheat."

"tomato soup": This returned gluten free, but you have to ask if flour was used as a thickener in basically all soups (example recipe: https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/classic-tomato-soup.ht...)

having it change answers each request makes me trust this less. I'd at least add a cache to keep the responses consistent.

Appreciate the honest and thoughtful feedback - I'll work on bringing up a cache that will help it push towards a more consistent response. Super helpful, thank you once again. May I shoot you a message when the next version is ready ?

sure! my contact is in my profile.

There are actually 2 alternatives: can the ingredient be withheld or can the ingredient be replaced.

In the case of a Caesar salad, croutons can be withheld and the dressing can be withheld or replaced. But the tool only occasionally emits a response that warns about both the cruotons and the dressing.

Maybe better prompting or Chain-of-thought prompting could help provide better alternatives?

my first job when I left school 50 years ago was as an apprentice baker

I still make sourdough today

The protein content on the label of a bag of flour indicates the gluten availability, hence I use a 12-14% protein flour to make sourdough.

Simply put by the head baker who trained me, the gluten is the glue that binds the dough

I only buy flour from Shipton mill . Gluten is a protein

Gluten is not a lectin. Gluten is a form of protein that is typically found in grains like wheat, barley, and rye.

Lectin is a type of protein found in a wide variety of food items, including some grains and legumes.

Gluten free baked foods are difficult to make even for me

a replacement protein for bread is Whey protein powder isolate that body builders use. this is the trick to get beautiful looking sourdough, basically replacing one protein with another protein

I make gluten free breads, cookies and pancakes with these flours

coconut flour, buckwheat flour, brown rice flour, quinoa flour, brown rice flour,white rice flour, oat flour, tapioca starch, millet flour and sorghum flour.

"Gluten-Free: Licorice candy is a type of confectionery that is made from the roots of the licorice plant. Licorice roots are naturally gluten-free."

NHS: "Liquorice and liquorice flavourings – Liquorice is manufactured using liquorice root and wheat flour and therefore it is not gluten-free"

"Gluten-Free: Imitation crab is typically made from fish or shellfish, which are naturally gluten-free."

meanwhile:

"Wheat starch is a particularly common ingredient in imitation crab, serving as a binder to hold the fish paste together. This starch, however, contains gluten, making the product unsuitable for those with celiac disease or gluten intolerance."

Also WTF: "Gluten-Free: Twizzlers are made with wheat flour, which does not contain gluten."

I suspect I have this problem too, any chance you could describe your symptoms a bit? I get digestive issues but no heartburn, and then my airways get inflamed..

I switched to almost exclusively veggies, meats, and gluten substitutes. I feel significantly better, but still struggle

TLDR: please take down this website, before it gives out false medical information to someone and they end up getting hurt.

I was diagnosed with celiac disease over ten years ago. Since then I've been making every effort to avoid gluten. While I've been mostly successful, it hasn't been easy. As you're well aware, gluten's in many foods, frequently in hidden ways. Much like you, I've had to pour over ingredient lists. Of course, because many facilities cross-contaiminate, checking ingredients isn't sufficient, so I've had to call and email manufacturers.

I think it's wonderful that you want to make this process easier--it's well due for an upgrade! That being said... this ain't it.

As a sibling comment already noted, this tool is already giving wrong answers (oats are themselves gluten free, but are frequently processed on the same production lines as wheat which can lead to cross contamination, so it's essential to check with the manufacturer). Caching a wrong answer won't help--the answer will still be wrong!

In many ways I'm very lucky with my celiac disease. Mood swings, joint inflammation and pain, brain fog, and other symptoms will hit me soon after I've been "glutened" which, while unpleasant, at least lets me know that I've _just_ eaten something that I shouldn't have. For others, their symptoms won't hit until later, forcing them to become detectives and figure out what glutened them, when all they want to do is rest and recover.

The long-term consequences of (repeated) glutenings for someone with celiac disease are dire--including malnourishment, anemia, and cancer.

"GlutenAI"'s wrong answers pose a danger to the health of your users. There are many things you might do to help people with celiac disease or gluten intolerance. Making a thin frontend for an LLM isn't one of them.

Tldr: gluten is a lectin, lectins bind to minerals

Gluten and glutinin are part of the lectin group. Superfood marketeers call it phyto nutrients but these chemicals are meant to protect the plant and when you keep eating the same veggies, seeds, tubers for years you will end up with deficiencies.

Lectins in particular are meant to pull in nutrients so the seed can become a plant. As far as I understood, the minerals are then chemically bound and certain enzymes are needed to splice them. If you don't have those, you're peeing out your nutrients.

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