Gluten Free in Japan: What to Eat/What to Avoid
Special thanks to Blogger Sofia, living in Kyushuu, who provides useful information on living Gluten Free on her blog
Eat: (generally homemade)
-For carbohydrate/energy: potatoes, sweet potatoes, nagaimo, satsumaimo, carrot , rice if you are not sensitive to rice (my husband was a Crohn's sufferer and his sole trigger was rice! Gluten causes inflammation for his sinuses and ears though...)
-All vegetables, cooked without gluten containing products
-onigiri
-If you are certain it's 100%, you may tolerate buckwheat noodles which are sort of a grey brown color, however wheat is typically added to these
Avoid:
-Soy Sauce, and Tamari (Tamari is in theory a light soy sauce that is brewed wheat free, however my husband just went tonight and our local supermarket's version contains wheat! how do you explain wheat-containing tamari is kind of ridiculous... but whatever...)
-All packaged food. It's impossible to know the origin or process involved in creating "artificial" ingredients
-Sauces (which generally will have soy sauce or MSG ingredients)
-Yakisoba Noodles, Udon Noodles, Ramen noodles
Eating out in Japan:
Avoid: Takoyaki, Okonomiyaki, All Noodles and probably all fast foods, Crepes, Udon, Yakisoba
Seek: Sashimi, Sushi, onigiri, simple grilled fish (at my local mall instead of the food court I go to the supermarket deli and eat fish that's grilled without discernible sauce such as soy sauce, and grab some steamed vegetables, pain in the butt I can't just go and chow down happily, or am an inconvenience to a group)
HOPE: if your symptoms stabilize on the gluten free diet, depending on severity, it is possible to cheat once a month, or with certain foods, weekly or even daily. Just bear the initial waiting period of going gluten free until symptoms stabilize. I saw improvement in the on a diet that was reduced gluten and not 100% gluten free.
CHARACTERS TO KNOW:
麦・むぎ mugi wheat -- I think this basically includes all wheat products which may contain gluten, make sure the ingredients on anything packaged don't contain this
醤油・しょうゆ shouyu soy sauce
化学調味料無添加 かがくちょうみりょうむてんか kagakuchoumiryou mutenka Without Artificial Additives
味の素 あじのもと ajinomoto MSG
Good luck on your journey!
Shopping for those in Japan:
Wheat/Gluten Free Tamari: http://store.alishan.jp/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=23_70&products_id=123
Western Import Shop (Items generally avaliable within 5-7 days in Japan): http://www.fbcusa.com/cs/index.php
____last updated: 12/12/2011
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