June 5, 2025 • 12 mins
That wooden spoon in your drawer might be making you sick. When I was diagnosed with celiac disease, I learned the hard way that gluten can hide in more than just crumbs—it sticks to wood, plastic, nonstick pans, and even toasters. In this episode, I share the common kitchen tools that can cause hidden gluten exposure and what to replace them with to stay safe. If you're still having symptoms on a gluten-free diet, this might be the missing piece.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carrie Saunders (00:00):
Quick reminder before we get started on this
episode this podcast is based onmy personal experiences and
isn't medical advice.
Today we're talking aboutsomething I didn't think much
about at first, but it turns outit made a huge difference for
my family's health, and that'sthe kitchen tools we use every
day.
If you've been diagnosed withceliac disease or are highly
(00:21):
sensitive to gluten, you mayneed to replace the items in
your kitchen yes, even if theylook clean.
I know it might sound dramatic,but once you understand where
gluten hides and how hard it isto fully clean off, you'll see
why this step can make a hugedifference in your health.
So let's get started.
Welcome to the Gluten-FreeEngineer Podcast.
I'm your host, k Saunders.
(00:43):
In 2011, I was diagnosed withceliac disease, a moment that
changed everything, but I wasdetermined not to let it hold me
back.
With my two engineering degrees, I set out to reverse engineer
the gluten-free lifestyle,breaking down recipes, safety
tips, travel hacks andeverything in between to rebuild
a life I love.
Whether you have celiac disease, gluten intolerance or simply
(01:05):
choose to live gluten-free, thispodcast is for you.
Join me each week as wesimplify the gluten-free
lifestyle, make it fun and provethat you don't have to miss out
on anything.
Welcome back to the show.
We are talking today aboutsomething that often gets
overlooked your kitchen tools,specifically why you might need
(01:26):
to toss out things like cuttingboards, pans and, yes, even your
toaster.
If you've been diagnosed withceliac disease, I know it can
sound very dramatic, but onceyou understand what gluten hides
and how hard it is to fullyclean off, you'll see why this
step can make a huge differencein your health.
So when you're celiac, even thetiniest crumbs of gluten can
cause damage to your smallintestine.
(01:47):
This isn't just about avoidingslices of bread.
It's about cross contact aswell.
Certain kitchen tools arenearly impossible to fully clean
once they've come into contactwith gluten.
This means that even if theylook clean, microscopic gluten
proteins may still be hidinginside.
One thing that surprises a lotof people is that gluten just
(02:08):
doesn't rinse away with soap andwater.
It's a sticky little proteinthat cling to porous surfaces
like wood, plastic and scratchednonstick pans.
Even a trace amount left behindcan trigger a reaction.
If you're celiac and I foundthis out myself as well To truly
clean something of gluten, youneed to scrub it thoroughly,
sanitize it many times withalcohol, and sometimes that
(02:30):
isn't even enough, especially ifthere are tiny scratches or
grooves where gluten can hide.
That's why in many cases it'sactually safer and less
stressful to just replacehigh-risk items and have a
gluten dedicated free set.
Whenever I first talked to adietician when I found out I had
celiac, one of the things shestressed was to make sure I
(02:51):
removed all wooden things frommy kitchen.
It was something I hadn'treally thought of, but she
insisted I got rid of them andwhat I also found was that
nonstick items also were aproblem and had little grooves
and kept that gluten stuckinside.
So let's do a thorough list ofthe top kitchen tools to replace
.
So I alluded to this already.
(03:12):
Cutting boards are a definitething you want to replace,
especially wood and plasticcutting boards.
They can develop grooves.
That is where gluten can hidefrom the knife that you're using
on the cutting board, and evenscrubbing doesn't always get it
out.
It's just not very safe.
So if it was used for regularbread or gluten-filled foods,
(03:33):
it's a really good idea to startfresh, and many times you also
want to be looking at woodenspoons and utensils along the
same lines.
Wood is porous and absorbswhatever it touches, especially
from like pasta and things incontaining gluten.
So you need to be tossingwooden utensils that you use
during your gluten-filled days.
(03:54):
Before you found out, you hadceliac disease.
Now toasters is another thing.
Crumbs are galore and toastersas I'm sure you if you've ever
tried to clean a toaster.
It is pretty much impossible toclean a toaster.
You can't clean out every nookand cranny.
Those gluten crumbs will stickto the sides where the toast
touches, and so if you want toshare a toaster you can use
(04:18):
toaster bags.
But honestly, a dedicatedgluten-free toaster is much
safer because then you don'thave, you know, extra little
crumbs running around.
I'm sure you've tried to clean atoaster and seen how impossible
it is to clean a toaster.
So when we go on vacation webring our own toaster, or
sometimes in like a condo, likewe have a Marriott vacation club
(04:39):
.
So many times there, if weforgot that toaster, we've asked
them for a brand new one andthey had absolutely no problem
giving us a brand new one, andthen we hid up high, so our kids
didn't actually get itaccidentally.
Get it the gluten-filledtoaster.
Now nonstick pans.
I alluded to this a little bitago.
That was something that was alittle bit surprising and
something my dietician didn'tthink of at the time.
(05:00):
I'm sure dieticians now mightbe thinking about this more.
But at the time she didn'tmention to get rid of my
nonstick pans and I kept findingthat I was getting gluten
whenever I would cook my ricepasta in our old pans and I kept
trying to figure out how am Igetting this?
And then I remembered what shetold me about wooden items and
nonstick items and being anengineer, I know what those
(05:23):
nonstick pans do over time isthey get these little cracks and
crevices in it and it justhides the gluten.
So it was pretty easy to figureout.
Once I switched to a stainlesssteel pot to cook pasta in that
I didn't feel bad after that.
So I knew it was the pans andreally we shouldn't be using
except lute before Most peopleknow now, nonstick pans aren't
(05:46):
the best thing in the world foryou either.
So switching to the stainlesssteel pots and pans is much
better for our health.
We found in cast iron also canhide gluten in it too.
So I want you to be verycareful if you have old cast
iron pans.
Now these I have found arepossible to clean.
(06:08):
But you really got to bethorough and kind of dramatic
about it and really grindingdown the surface of the cast
iron pan and it generally won'thurt it.
Most cast iron pans are verythick, so you need to grind down
the surface, get rid of, youknow, the first whole layer and
then re-season your pans andyou're probably okay.
But again, use this as cautionand with your doctor's advice.
(06:30):
But I have restored oldnonstick pan or old sorry cast
iron pans that were like familyheirlooms and been able to eat
safely in them and honestly,when we first did this I would
just cook my husband's stuff init the first like say 10, 20
times um, just to get you know,cook off not really cook off,
cause it doesn't really cook off, but kind of cook off as far as
(06:53):
pool the um potential littlebit of remaining gluten out of
the pan by cooking food in it.
Um, and he wasn't celiac orthat responsive at the time.
So use your own discretion whenit comes to cast iron, but I do
find that that can be one.
If you're really diligent andreally careful, you can get that
cleaned out for you.
(07:13):
Now, colanders and strainersthose meshes or tiny holes can
really trap gluten, especiallyfrom pasta, especially, I find
if it's a metal, one that hasthe metal weaving in it, the
gluten can hide in those littlecracks that are in between where
the metal weaves together.
So you're going to want to makesure that you are replacing
(07:34):
your colanders and strainers.
And then we also want to belooking at shared spices or
condiments.
We've talked about this alittle bit on the podcast before
, but if you have like jellyjars or peanut butter jars or
mayo jars, those are reallygreat places for gluten to hide,
especially if you're in ashared kitchen because of
somebody gets some mayo out,puts it on bread and says, oh, I
(07:56):
don't have enough mayo, andthen dips the knife back in to
get more mayo.
They've just put a little bitof crumbs back into that jar.
Same thing with jelly, peanutbutter, et cetera.
So we want to make sure weeither have squeeze bottles
where we can for sharedcondiments or label them, which
is even better, label themgluten-free for the ones that
(08:17):
are gluten-free set.
So this is something you'regoing to want to be diligent
about as well.
It's just so easy to crosscontaminate with shared
condiments.
So then you might feel a littlebit overwhelmed at first on
getting rid of some of thesethings.
Some might be special to you,some might be cooking things
that you've gotten down fromthrough the family, but your
(08:38):
health is really important here.
Find a creative way to eitherdisplay or still have those
items without using them.
If you're celiac, and wheneveryou do this kitchen reset,
you're going to feel a lotbetter and your kitchen is going
to become a lot safer.
Gluten free zone for you, zonefor you.
(08:59):
So I want to have you, if youhave a shared kitchen, encourage
you to have a designatedgluten-free drawer and or shelf
for gluten-free items.
It's really important becauseeven when we get items out of
the dishwasher, they still havelike sometimes you know they
don't fully clean and they'vegot some crumbs on them too.
You can also use color-codedutensils or labels to help if
you're sharing a space.
Buying new pans, cooling racksand muffin tins are very
(09:22):
important.
We didn't really go into themuffin tin thing, but if you
have muffin tins again, you'regoing to want to have
gluten-free versions of those aswell and work on setting
boundaries with your roommatesor your family to make sure that
they understand that you needto be safe and to keep you safe.
So and I'm sure you know, theywill be compliant and help you
(09:43):
out, especially if you explainthe situation and they start to
understand whatcross-contamination is for
celiacs and for those that arehighly sensitive to gluten.
So the more confident you feelin the space, the more happy
you're going to be, and yourbody will thank you.
It will be a lot less stressful.
So take some of these stepsinto account if you need to, and
(10:04):
make sure that you are safe,you are happy and you feel good
while eating gluten-free.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of the Gluten-Free
Engineer.
If you found value in thisstory, please share it with
someone who might needencouragement on their own
gluten-free journey.
For more tips, recipes,resources and even links to my
(10:25):
YouTube channel, head on over totheglutenfreeengineercom.
It's your one-stop hub to makegluten-free living simple, fun
and full of flavor.
And don't forget to subscribeso you never miss out on an
episode and we will see you nextweek.
The Gluten-Free Engineerpodcast is for informational and
(10:45):
entertainment purposes only.
I share my personal experiencesand stories about living with
celiac disease and navigating agluten-free lifestyle.
This podcast does not providemedical advice.
Always consult with a qualifiedhealthcare professional for
medical questions, concerns oradvice specific to your health.
Quick reminder before we get started on this
episode this podcast is based onmy personal experiences and
isn't medical advice.
Today we're talking aboutsomething I didn't think much
about at first, but it turns outit made a huge difference for
my family's health, and that'sthe kitchen tools we use every
day.
If you've been diagnosed withceliac disease or are highly
(00:21):
sensitive to gluten, you mayneed to replace the items in
your kitchen yes, even if theylook clean.
I know it might sound dramatic,but once you understand where
gluten hides and how hard it isto fully clean off, you'll see
why this step can make a hugedifference in your health.
So let's get started.
Welcome to the Gluten-FreeEngineer Podcast.
I'm your host, k Saunders.
(00:43):
In 2011, I was diagnosed withceliac disease, a moment that
changed everything, but I wasdetermined not to let it hold me
back.
With my two engineering degrees, I set out to reverse engineer
the gluten-free lifestyle,breaking down recipes, safety
tips, travel hacks andeverything in between to rebuild
a life I love.
Whether you have celiac disease, gluten intolerance or simply
(01:05):
choose to live gluten-free, thispodcast is for you.
Join me each week as wesimplify the gluten-free
lifestyle, make it fun and provethat you don't have to miss out
on anything.
Welcome back to the show.
We are talking today aboutsomething that often gets
overlooked your kitchen tools,specifically why you might need
(01:26):
to toss out things like cuttingboards, pans and, yes, even your
toaster.
If you've been diagnosed withceliac disease, I know it can
sound very dramatic, but onceyou understand what gluten hides
and how hard it is to fullyclean off, you'll see why this
step can make a huge differencein your health.
So when you're celiac, even thetiniest crumbs of gluten can
cause damage to your smallintestine.
(01:47):
This isn't just about avoidingslices of bread.
It's about cross contact aswell.
Certain kitchen tools arenearly impossible to fully clean
once they've come into contactwith gluten.
This means that even if theylook clean, microscopic gluten
proteins may still be hidinginside.
One thing that surprises a lotof people is that gluten just
(02:08):
doesn't rinse away with soap andwater.
It's a sticky little proteinthat cling to porous surfaces
like wood, plastic and scratchednonstick pans.
Even a trace amount left behindcan trigger a reaction.
If you're celiac and I foundthis out myself as well To truly
clean something of gluten, youneed to scrub it thoroughly,
sanitize it many times withalcohol, and sometimes that
(02:30):
isn't even enough, especially ifthere are tiny scratches or
grooves where gluten can hide.
That's why in many cases it'sactually safer and less
stressful to just replacehigh-risk items and have a
gluten dedicated free set.
Whenever I first talked to adietician when I found out I had
celiac, one of the things shestressed was to make sure I
(02:51):
removed all wooden things frommy kitchen.
It was something I hadn'treally thought of, but she
insisted I got rid of them andwhat I also found was that
nonstick items also were aproblem and had little grooves
and kept that gluten stuckinside.
So let's do a thorough list ofthe top kitchen tools to replace
.
So I alluded to this already.
(03:12):
Cutting boards are a definitething you want to replace,
especially wood and plasticcutting boards.
They can develop grooves.
That is where gluten can hidefrom the knife that you're using
on the cutting board, and evenscrubbing doesn't always get it
out.
It's just not very safe.
So if it was used for regularbread or gluten-filled foods,
(03:33):
it's a really good idea to startfresh, and many times you also
want to be looking at woodenspoons and utensils along the
same lines.
Wood is porous and absorbswhatever it touches, especially
from like pasta and things incontaining gluten.
So you need to be tossingwooden utensils that you use
during your gluten-filled days.
(03:54):
Before you found out, you hadceliac disease.
Now toasters is another thing.
Crumbs are galore and toastersas I'm sure you if you've ever
tried to clean a toaster.
It is pretty much impossible toclean a toaster.
You can't clean out every nookand cranny.
Those gluten crumbs will stickto the sides where the toast
touches, and so if you want toshare a toaster you can use
(04:18):
toaster bags.
But honestly, a dedicatedgluten-free toaster is much
safer because then you don'thave, you know, extra little
crumbs running around.
I'm sure you've tried to clean atoaster and seen how impossible
it is to clean a toaster.
So when we go on vacation webring our own toaster, or
sometimes in like a condo, likewe have a Marriott vacation club
(04:39):
.
So many times there, if weforgot that toaster, we've asked
them for a brand new one andthey had absolutely no problem
giving us a brand new one, andthen we hid up high, so our kids
didn't actually get itaccidentally.
Get it the gluten-filledtoaster.
Now nonstick pans.
I alluded to this a little bitago.
That was something that was alittle bit surprising and
something my dietician didn'tthink of at the time.
(05:00):
I'm sure dieticians now mightbe thinking about this more.
But at the time she didn'tmention to get rid of my
nonstick pans and I kept findingthat I was getting gluten
whenever I would cook my ricepasta in our old pans and I kept
trying to figure out how am Igetting this?
And then I remembered what shetold me about wooden items and
nonstick items and being anengineer, I know what those
(05:23):
nonstick pans do over time isthey get these little cracks and
crevices in it and it justhides the gluten.
So it was pretty easy to figureout.
Once I switched to a stainlesssteel pot to cook pasta in that
I didn't feel bad after that.
So I knew it was the pans andreally we shouldn't be using
except lute before Most peopleknow now, nonstick pans aren't
(05:46):
the best thing in the world foryou either.
So switching to the stainlesssteel pots and pans is much
better for our health.
We found in cast iron also canhide gluten in it too.
So I want you to be verycareful if you have old cast
iron pans.
Now these I have found arepossible to clean.
(06:08):
But you really got to bethorough and kind of dramatic
about it and really grindingdown the surface of the cast
iron pan and it generally won'thurt it.
Most cast iron pans are verythick, so you need to grind down
the surface, get rid of, youknow, the first whole layer and
then re-season your pans andyou're probably okay.
But again, use this as cautionand with your doctor's advice.
(06:30):
But I have restored oldnonstick pan or old sorry cast
iron pans that were like familyheirlooms and been able to eat
safely in them and honestly,when we first did this I would
just cook my husband's stuff init the first like say 10, 20
times um, just to get you know,cook off not really cook off,
cause it doesn't really cook off, but kind of cook off as far as
(06:53):
pool the um potential littlebit of remaining gluten out of
the pan by cooking food in it.
Um, and he wasn't celiac orthat responsive at the time.
So use your own discretion whenit comes to cast iron, but I do
find that that can be one.
If you're really diligent andreally careful, you can get that
cleaned out for you.
(07:13):
Now, colanders and strainersthose meshes or tiny holes can
really trap gluten, especiallyfrom pasta, especially, I find
if it's a metal, one that hasthe metal weaving in it, the
gluten can hide in those littlecracks that are in between where
the metal weaves together.
So you're going to want to makesure that you are replacing
(07:34):
your colanders and strainers.
And then we also want to belooking at shared spices or
condiments.
We've talked about this alittle bit on the podcast before
, but if you have like jellyjars or peanut butter jars or
mayo jars, those are reallygreat places for gluten to hide,
especially if you're in ashared kitchen because of
somebody gets some mayo out,puts it on bread and says, oh, I
(07:56):
don't have enough mayo, andthen dips the knife back in to
get more mayo.
They've just put a little bitof crumbs back into that jar.
Same thing with jelly, peanutbutter, et cetera.
So we want to make sure weeither have squeeze bottles
where we can for sharedcondiments or label them, which
is even better, label themgluten-free for the ones that
(08:17):
are gluten-free set.
So this is something you'regoing to want to be diligent
about as well.
It's just so easy to crosscontaminate with shared
condiments.
So then you might feel a littlebit overwhelmed at first on
getting rid of some of thesethings.
Some might be special to you,some might be cooking things
that you've gotten down fromthrough the family, but your
(08:38):
health is really important here.
Find a creative way to eitherdisplay or still have those
items without using them.
If you're celiac, and wheneveryou do this kitchen reset,
you're going to feel a lotbetter and your kitchen is going
to become a lot safer.
Gluten free zone for you, zonefor you.
(08:59):
So I want to have you, if youhave a shared kitchen, encourage
you to have a designatedgluten-free drawer and or shelf
for gluten-free items.
It's really important becauseeven when we get items out of
the dishwasher, they still havelike sometimes you know they
don't fully clean and they'vegot some crumbs on them too.
You can also use color-codedutensils or labels to help if
you're sharing a space.
Buying new pans, cooling racksand muffin tins are very
(09:22):
important.
We didn't really go into themuffin tin thing, but if you
have muffin tins again, you'regoing to want to have
gluten-free versions of those aswell and work on setting
boundaries with your roommatesor your family to make sure that
they understand that you needto be safe and to keep you safe.
So and I'm sure you know, theywill be compliant and help you
(09:43):
out, especially if you explainthe situation and they start to
understand whatcross-contamination is for
celiacs and for those that arehighly sensitive to gluten.
So the more confident you feelin the space, the more happy
you're going to be, and yourbody will thank you.
It will be a lot less stressful.
So take some of these stepsinto account if you need to, and
(10:04):
make sure that you are safe,you are happy and you feel good
while eating gluten-free.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of the Gluten-Free
Engineer.
If you found value in thisstory, please share it with
someone who might needencouragement on their own
gluten-free journey.
For more tips, recipes,resources and even links to my
(10:25):
YouTube channel, head on over totheglutenfreeengineercom.
It's your one-stop hub to makegluten-free living simple, fun
and full of flavor.
And don't forget to subscribeso you never miss out on an
episode and we will see you nextweek.
The Gluten-Free Engineerpodcast is for informational and
(10:45):
entertainment purposes only.
I share my personal experiencesand stories about living with
celiac disease and navigating agluten-free lifestyle.
This podcast does not providemedical advice.
Always consult with a qualifiedhealthcare professional for
medical questions, concerns oradvice specific to your health.
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