Eating a Gluten FREE diet has become a hot topic lately even for those athletes who are not gluten intolerant or been clinically diagnosed with celiac disease. Gluten, a protein found in rye, wheat and barley, is a common ingredient in many of the foods we eat. Many athletes have found that gluten causes their digestive system to slow down and get backed up and hence refrain from gluten for any pre-exercise meals. Unlike most Energy Bars, EFS bars are 100% Gluten Free, making them ideal as a pre or during exercise snack.
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September 3rd, 2008 at 8:16 am
It is great that your bars are gluten free. However, what about many people with celiac disease that cannot tolerate oats. It may be fine for people that are on a gluten free diet to help with prerace or pretraining issues. I know that oats have been a controversial topic, but are still considered by most to not be gluten free to people with celiace disease.
September 3rd, 2008 at 10:04 am
Julie,
This is a great question and I wish I had clearly defined answer for you. Unfortunately with oats its not black and white and there seems to be some individual variance in response. I do know several individuals with celiac disease that have no issues using our EFS bars. Its our understanding that the gluten-protein found in oats (known as avenin) does not have the same toxic effect as the gluten-protein found in rye, wheat and barley. A Scandanavian study by Dr. Matzais found that patients with celiac disease can consume up to 50g per day for six months with no ill effects. Because of this oats many times are omitted as an ingredient in a gluten free diet, though they do come with caution.
Have you experimented with Oats or tried our bars? Do any of our customers have further insight on oats and their effect on celiac disease?
September 14th, 2008 at 4:46 am
Thanx for the info about the bars. I have been trying to find a great tasting and performance enhancing bar for quite awhile now, having celiac disease. Are the new gels going to be gluten free as well?
September 18th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Moogy,
The EFS Liquid Shots as is the entire FIrst Endurance line of products are Gluten Free. Please do let us know how the First Endurance bars perform for you. When we developed these bars, we focused on truly making a bar that performs WHILE exercising. We even requested that all of our sponsored athletes use the bar while exercising before giving us feedback. This was critical in the development and helped shape the EFS bar as you find it today.