Nothing Rhymes With Xanthan Gum

As my lovely Sweet Roast digs deeper into the roots of livin’ and cookin’ gluten-free I’ve made a discovery. Aside from my earlier discovery that eating healthy typically costs more, I’ve also determined that the gluten-free pantry now contains substances, powders and ground up bits of things that sound as if they were leftovers from a bad science experiment. There’s amaranth flour (a plant variety grown for food), quinoa (edible seeds from a plant), sorghum (a cereal grain), soy and xanthan gum (a food thickener). There’s a bunch of hyphenated terms as well. I’ve learned over the years that unless the hyphenated term is sports related, as in face-off or kick-off, it’s likely not going to be a lot of fun. There’s lactose-free, gluten-free, sun-dried and old-fashioned. My favorite pantry hyphen so far is non-aluminum, double-acting baking powder. If that’s not out of someone’s science project then I’ll eat some dirt. At least I won’t have to read a label to determine if it’s good for me as it’s bound to be all natural. I’ve probably been eating my share of the non-aluminum, double-acting stuff and didn’t even know it. No wonder I’ve been feeling so (fill in the blank). It’s because of the non-aluminum, double-acting baking soda in the (fill in the blank) I’ve been eating and chasing down with a huge glass of lukewarm, partially-clear, acid-free, possibly chemically-enhanced tap water. It makes me wonder what flavours xanthan gum comes in and if it’s any good for blowing bubbles.