I know what you mean, but seriously, when you are a veggie or a vegan, you have to be more flexible than others are expected to be, otherwise you will only have veggie or vegan friends. Whether you like it or not, you will inevitably allow yourself to be dragged into maccas or similar meaty places so you are not labelled "too much hard work" and simply have some fries no matter how hungry you are!

Gluten isn't dairy though? How does being a vegan have anything to do with gluten content?

I understand your point, I really do. But there's a certain amount of expectation that one should get from a restaurant. In interviewing a vegetarian for Seattlest last year, I asked about Fast Food, and I was told that in their case, they just don't go, as the Fast Food Industry really doesn't go out of their way to meet the needs of vegetarians, whether they say so or otherwise.

I agreed with her then, and still do today. Fast Food Restaurants cannot be all things for all people. People with specialized diets, whether for political, religious or health reasons, are simply not served by these restaurants. Figuratively speaking of course, as yhey'll gladly sell you anything on their menu. It's the customer who has to compromise their own ethics, as Fast Food corporations tend to have little or nothing in the ethics department.

Isn't gluten wheat? Shouldn't it be fine with vegans?

I can't see how a true vegan can eat fries at McDonalds. I mean, do they have separate fryers for the chicken?

As someone who cannot digest wheat, I am upset but the recent disclosure, through. I do not eat at McD's, but I do rely on restaurants to tell me honestly whether they can serve food me without including wheat.

For me, its not a political choice, I end up on the floor in pain for days if I eat the stuff.

For the most part, eating out is easy, I just pick plain vegetables and fish, no breading, soups or sauces. Just thinking of a french fry, I would assume that a plain old fry would be made of potato and eat it. Now I'm not so sure. . . .

Anne, You're right. McDs is currently being sued separately by gluten-intolerant individuals and vegetarians (one claims the fries contain(ed) gluten, the other dairy.)

Kate, just to make this more interesting - McDs has some sloppy webmastering going on; their own site offers conflicting information on gluten-free offerings:

This is the version is dated 2/20/2006 and is the one you get going through the site's nutritional info menus. Note french fries are not on the list.

This .pdf dated 1/20/2004 lists the fries as gluten-free. I got to it through a Google search and not directly through the McDs homepage but this link isn't a cache -- it is on the McDs site. Still, they probably don't even know it's up there.

And in case anybody's interested, a direct link to yesterday's press release so you can hear the latest claim straight from the clown's mouth.

The odds are looking better for incompetence; McDs media and marketing people don't seem to have their stuff together.

Tom, you might want to consider being more careful around fast food fries (if you even go to such places.)

E.g., even though Burger King's fries don't appear to contain any wheat derivatives, they do contain non-potato products like rice flour. If it had turned out they did have wheat in there too I wouldn't have been too surprised (had 'em lately? They're some kind of bizarre, possibly extruded, coated strip and not the old-school, sliced potato fry you'd make from scratch.)

Given the increasing popularity of convenience foods at casual dining establishments, I wouldn't be surprised if the "fries" at some sit-down restaurants contain more than just the humble spud, too.

I ate at McDonald's for the first time in years about a month ago. I figured that while I was there, I should analyze the flavors of everything.

The fries, which I remembered thinking tasted awesome--tasted really weird. Like, well, like dehydrated mashed potato flakes that had been extruded into a starchy substance, allowed to dry and then fried. They didn't taste potatoey at all. Just kind of starchy, salty and fried.

And the hamburger--you can't taste it. The bun is overly sweetened and the onions, plastic cheese, which was really salty, ketchup and mustard completely cover the flavor of the meat. Okay, the meat-like patty.

I tasted a bit of the meat alone and it tasted salty and sort of greasy, but not meaty.

The only thing I can think of is that folks who eat a lot of McDonald's don't like the taste of either meat or potatoes.....

Barbara, assuming your memory reflects the pre-1990 fries it's right on -- James Beard loved McDonalds' fries, too. They really screwed things up when they switched to vegetable oil. Man, they were great once... now, "meh" is understating it considerably.

Regarding the question as to whether or not gluten should be acceptable to vegans: The specific gluten in question here is found in wheat, barley, rye and various other grains not commonly found in the standard US diet. For those who are gluten sensitive it should not be acceptable in any amount.

For people with gluten sensitivity, especially those diagnosed with Celiac Disease, there is an increased risk of intestinal and colon cancers if the diet isn't carefully controlled. Therefore even amounts minute enough not to cause immediate symptoms can lend to other long-term health concerns.

Gluten is also found in other grains such as corn and rice but the protien components are different thus making these grains not relevant to this conversation.

My 4 year old daughter and I have celiac disease. Essentiallly it means wheat, barley, rye and oats are poison to us. We were not only TOLD that the fries were Gluten Free but it's listed as Gluten Free in our Celiac Support Group's directory of GF products. In McD's old website they did in fact list french fries, grilled chix and some other items as GF but they are no longer listed too. McD's was the ONLY place we could go and have french fries and my daughter could feel just like other kids because they also told us that they had dedicated fryers (there would be no contamination from other breaded and fried products). In case you think we're fast food addicts we're not. We eat very healthy; it is just that we rarely can eat in restaurants and this was like a little treat for my daughter. So...I am trying to find out exactly when this switch took place because my daughter has been getting ill recently. We keep a vigilantly Gluten Free house and I couldn't figure out how she was getting exposed. I wonder if I'll ever find out the truth. McDonalds never responded to my inquiry last week asking when this change in recipe took place. For us this is quite a serious and life-threatening issue. And we wonder if the truth was revealed only because of the new FDA regulations which in fact shut down a bakery that claimed to make wheat-free bread, but were not. Any help gathering info is so appreciated. Thank you to the person who posted the pdf w/ old GF menu. If there's more recent documentation that would be most helpful too. Thanks.