I am sure this topic has been addressed over and over but I may have missed it. I read that Blue Cheese and Rouqfort are not gluten free. However, when I read ingredients labels I often do not see gluten listed?

Does it depend on the brand? If someone has some knowledge of whether some household brands are gluten free, I'd be so very grateful.

It's not safe. I believe, and someone I am sure will correct me if I am wrong, that the blue cheese is formulated or grown on gluten sources. I have never heard of a blue cheese that was safe.

I have a different opinion.

If the cheese is a US product and it does not list wheat (required by law) then it should be gluten free. Many, many veined cheeses are started with a synthetic base now. I am sure that there are cases when the starter is wheat based, although it should be listed on the ingredients.

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Post #4 |

This message was posted: Jan 29 2007, 11:41 PM

Many bleu cheeses are started on an artificial culture now. As for the ones started on bread, some do indeed question whether any gluten would transfer. Second, the amount of culture is so tiny compared to the final result, even if the entire culture were gluten (which it wouldn't be), the gluten level still couldn't be measured.

I'm not saying that anybody should adopt my stance, but I just don't worry about bleu cheese any more.

richard

Things sure do change the minute you turn your back.
Lisa is correct, many do now use a synthetic product to grow the mold. I would make sure that the one I was using does by calling the company or checking their website first to make sure.

Most cheese that is aged is fungal and filled with active fungal spores. Blue cheese is one of the worst. It is taking active fungus into an already compromised immune system. Things will get worse.......... please reconsider.

Moldlady

PS If you have to eat a cheese gouda would be the best source as it has no carbs. It can still spoil however so put it in the freezer and then when getting ready to use it, put it in the refrig to thaw slowly and you will notice no change in its behavior.

and ???
the very air we breath is filled with fungus spores. Some are good, others bad any many indifferent.
Without fungi in your body you would not be here to post.
Most antibiotics are based on fungi .. without them most of us would not be here at all.
Many species of penicillin are actually very good pro-biotics.

Again, fail to see any relevance as to why a cheese with no carbs is better than any other? Its 40 something percent fat ..?

Regarding blue cheeses, specifically Roquefort different cheeses use different methods.
Carles uses a rye starter = bad
Soceite' uses natural penicillin in the cave walls
Baragnaudes uses a different strain of penicillin occurring naturally in the walls of a different cave system

Thus the actual 'brand' of Roquefort matters if you are worried about gluten being carried forwards

For any celiacs with a casein intolerance then the only blue goats cheese I know of is Sainte-Maure de Touraine
I personally don't eat pasturised cheeses and don't think they are very good for anyone.

gfp,
Sorry you don't agree but fungus is a major germ that causes many diseases and people that are already sick need to stay away from active form of fungus in the home and in the food. Talk to any vet and they know what moldy food (i.e.,aged cheese) can do to animals and birds. It makes them very sick or kills them.
Antibiotics when first used actually killed the first person who was used by causing liver damage. After that, they used much less mycotoxin.
To a person who already has fungus on board systemically, antibiotics will put them over the edge. Very dangerous stuff and that's why you have to have a prescription in order to take it. Prescription drugs can be very dangerous.
Spores are in the air but in a dilute proportion compared to the high concentration in damp homes and flooded areas of the ground.
moldlady

Again, its the type of spores that matter ... fungus isn't a germ but a 'Kingdom' comprising millions of species. Not all fungi use spores to propagate either. Some are good and others bad like bacteria and some will actively kill other bad fungi and others make you ill. Different fungi have been a part of both human and animal diets for millions of years (or if you prefer since creation), either as a primary food or as parasites on our common food. All organic fruit has fungi ... and humans have been eating that for years.
Many people here swear by pro-biotics .. interestingly many of them the very bacteria that we have deliberatly eliminated from our diets. So saying all bacteria is bad or all fungi is bad is not correct. We would die without them. Without mitochondria which are a modification of symbiotic bacteria we and the whole animal kingdom could not convert food into energy. Without numerous fungi and bacteria in our guts we can't digest food properly etc.
Hence it is good to be specific about avoiding molds and bacteria. They have been with us for as long as man has been on earth and our very existence depends upon them. So there are specific fungi which are pretty much deadly and others which make us sick but there are also many that are actually beneficial.

Without antibiotics (which I won't argue are overused) our average life expectancy would be much lower. Sometimes when you get ill they are about all is going to keep you alive. I prefer to avoid them when possible but if I had a life threatening illness (or even something persistent) I'm hardly going to refuse based on them being fungi.

There are some blue cheese salad dressings that list wheat as an ingredient. I avoid those of course. Otherwise, all the research I've done leads me to believe it's safe.

Any blue cheese I'm likely to buy is made by modern methods, not started on bread in a damp cave. And even if it was, the bread doesn't reproduce and spread all over the cheese.

I love blue cheese salad dressing, but am not fond of the kind available in jars at the store. I like the fresh made stuff at Central Market. When I was a teen, my Mom would send me to a BBQ restaurant called Bob Whites in Dallas to get their blue cheese dressing. We've always been demanding of quality blue cheese.

best regards, lm

gfp,
Fungus is a germ and it is classified in its own kingdom because it does not make its own food.. It lives off of other organisms. It is parasitic and saprophytic and takes nourishment from living organisms that it feeds on in order to stay alive.

It kills farm animals and birds and plants and crops. For example, the banana crop in the tropics is going extinct because of fungus and growers are increasingly concerned. They are genetically modifying it in order to be more resistant to the fungus that over takes the fruit. The latex content is one way to help the banana resist the ravages of the fungus. For some people sensitive to latex, they should be made aware of the increased amount of latex in bananas.

What is good about fungi? It digests anything and everything that has died so that these things are turned into soil and recycled nutrients.

To anyone that already has a compromised immune system to breathe in or eat more fungus spores or mycotixins can be serious.

Some good bacteria can produce hydrogen peroxide that will kill off bad bacteria and fungus.
There are some 400 specific species of fungi that can invade, grow, and eventually kill man.
Do a search and read for yourself: Dr. A.V. Constantini

Antibiotics are named because they are anti life. They kill bad bacteria and also good bacteria in the living organism. It does save lifes in the short term, but down the road there are problems. The fungus inside the body was not killed and it begins to overpopulate because there are no more probiotics (pro life), left to defend against disease.

moldlady

No its a classification of life on earth.

IT is not IT, IT is millions of species....
I am intolerant to gluten in wheat, its a plant should I avoid all plants?

Can be, it can also save your life....


This leaves several hundred million of species of fungi that do not....
The point is that a campaign against a whole Kingdom is just pointless. Tigers are dangerous so should we avoid all animals? Quite a few species of fish are very toxic.. should we avoid all fish?


Again I'm missing the point. Yes death is simpler, no problems later but I'll take life and deal with the possibility of problems later.


The problem with this is because we have no pro-biotics in our diet.
People evolved for millions of years eating natural food loaded with bacteria and fungi.
On balance the two balanced and the pro-biotics controlled the fungi and the funghi controlled the bacteria.

Fast forwards to the 20C and we remove/process the bacteria from our foods ... water and most other sources.

Excluding the 400 or so really bad fungi there are millions of ones which are pretty much neutral to our health and many common ones which are fine so long as they are controlled by the bodies borrowed defenses (probiotics). Overuse of antibiotics has its own consequences .... but this doesn't mean all fungi are bad for humans.

Modern diet and over sterilisation has as much to do with this as any general fungi are bad. Even many of the pro-biotics on sale are simply replacements for ones we have developed naturally in our diets. Man has been eating/milking sheep and goats a lot longer than cows... and big surprise intolerance to goat and sheep milk is far lower than cows.. but also sheeps and goats stomachs contain a natural pro-biotic missing in cows so goat and RAW sheep cheese made with rennet from their stomachs actually has a probiotic.

It would seem that backing off on our current phobia about ALL bacteria being somehow bad (when you would be dead within a week without them) is as misguided as your 'apparent war on fungi' ... Yes some fungi are bad.. some are VERY VERY BAD as are some bacteria.
It is however my belief that just as cutting out ALL fungi from our bodies is just as bad as cutting out ALL bacteria.

gfp,

I don't have a problem with your choices. But I don't want people to think that fungus is harmless.

Plain and simple, there are 400 species of fungi that are pathogenic to man kind. They live off of living things because they do not make their own food. That is why they are in their own special kingdom.

To continue to eat fungus or breathe it in can seriously disease an already compromised immune system. These fungi can start out as "harmless" and then morph into something that is harmful depending on the health of the organism.

Any food that has been fermented or predigested by fungus will have mycotoxins imbedded in the organism. Use caution.

Do a google search "A.V. Constantini" and there will be a wealth of info. that I will not put people though. Discover the truth.

ML

Seriously, if one has continual infections of throat, nasal cavities, bladder, etc. and many antibiotics have already been taken, the culprit is probably fungus that is causeing the repeated infections. This can get really ugly if left untreated.

ML

That is the problem, its like saying animals are harmless. Obviously tigers and snakes are quite dangerous...and many animals have poisions which are toxic.

There are probably a LOT more, and many yet to be discovered but that still leaves hundreds of millions...

I still don't get it... do cows make their own food? Fish ? Chicken ... ?? They all live off other living things..

The same can be said for many bacteria ... however the way you write this makes it sound like if you have a compromised immune system eating mushrooms will morph into something harmful. There are so many species of fungi that are as different and even more so than a elephant and a shrew ...


Many of these mycotoxins are actually very useful which goes back to my original point. You seem to regard ALL fungi as bad... yet they have a natural place in the ecosystem.
The gut and colon are a micro-eco-system. Less is known about fungi than bacteria in the gut but little is known of the bacteria ... so that is not saying so much.
As with all eco-systems however evolution has provided the system that works... hence some fungi control harmful bacteria and some harmful bacteria control harmful fungi.
Obviously this isn't a perfect system... however it is well known that mammals without gut flora make less use of food and pass more harmful waste than those with.

The real problems tend to occur when we artificially remove part of an eco-system, be it in a single gut or a forest.
Removing all fungi will allow proliferation of types of bacteria, removing all bacteria proliferation of certain fungi.
Our understanding of the relationships is so poor that about the only thing we can say for certain is messing about with the balance will usually have adverse effects.

We obviously need to avoid the 400 or so species which are known to be pathogenic but removing all fungi is more likely to have a detrimental effect even if we could.
The reality though is if you eat, breath and live in the fresh air then you are going to be breathing in fungi spores and bacteria. Obviously we want to avoid those with pathogenic effects, be it bacteria spores like anthrax or fungal spores like candida but since many non-harmful fungi actively kill off those with pathogenic effects cutting them all out artificially is only making a problem that didn't already exist.

gfp,
Please give it some thought and investigate what I have said. It took me a year to accept this fact so I was exactly where you are at one time. I too was a skeptic. Over that year's time I checked everything I read with the "fungus-link" and after a year, I was convinced that fungus can invade our bodies (plants and animals too), and can cause real disease.

WE cannot be tested for it specifically so we must do what we can to avoid further exposure to high amts. of spores and fungal toxins. Once it is in our bodies systemically, it is very difficult to get rid of completely. But, if kept under control, our immune systems will rally and keep it in check. As you said, we will never be rid of fungus completely... but we can keep it in check.

Seriously, if one has continual infections of throat, nasal cavities, bladder, etc. and many antibiotics have already been taken, the culprit is probably fungus that is causeing the repeated infections. Mayo Clinic printed up an article on this in 1999 but it did not make front page.
This can get really ugly if left untreated.

ML

I just recently discovered we can have most blue cheese. I just picked out my favorite blue cheese dressing and checked to make sure it was gluten free.

On the issue of the fungus. We could all just get where we don't eat anything at all. Just because a some people have an issue with a food, it does not mean that no one should eat that food.

Every item of food we eat carries the risk of bacteria or fungi, especially fresh fruits and veggies. All aged cheese is done so through either bacteria or fungus, that is the aging process.

I imagine that more people die in car wrecks every year than have a deadly fungal infection. I don't quit driving because some people die in wrecks.

We really cannot quit living all together because of all the risks we face in life. I can't think of many things we do that aren't frought with risk. I pick and choose the ones that I feel I need to focus on. Fungi are way down on the list for me, and I would guess that is true for most people.

BTW - the Mayo Clinic determined that it is airborne fungi that cause the sinus problems. It would be pretty difficult to avoid that without special masks.

WW,
That's correct about the Mayo Clinic sinus/fungus link to repeated infections. I'm glad you read the article without me even referencing it.

The blue cheese thing with ingested fungus is not a good idea if anyone has digestive problems. I f you have never had any digestive problems then your body is able to tolerate the load.

There are many people out there that have digestive issues due to antibiotics killing off all the normal flora of good human strain bacteria. If the intestines are still in the healing process, then live fungus is not a good thing. Many people however have compromised immune systems and autoimmune system diseases that should not increase the load of active fungus or mycotoxins in their food or air or water.

Travel at your own risk.........

ML