Gluten Free Tips

Inedible Gluten Food Products
Having coeliac condition means that you need to avoid ingesting gluten. Gluten of course is that nasty little substance which is often hidden in food and is contained in wheat, rye, oats and barley. Whilst it can quickly be understood that these grains need to be excluded from your diet often the question is asked concerning inedible gluten food products. By inedible food products we mean, other household items such as soaps, and shampoo, suntan lotions, and cleaning products and cosmetics.

The guiding principle is that you wanted to exclude gluten from your diet. This means that anything containing gluten which has the chance to become part of your meal or get into your mouth, say from licking your fingers, must be treated with caution. Remember gluten can get into your system not only through eating foodstuffs which contain gluten as an underlying part of the meal but also from foods which have become contaminated with the substance. Contamination can result from gluten containing foods and accidentally being included in your food preparation but also by transference from other items which contain gluten.

Working in a kitchen where someone else is using flour could mean that some of the fine particles drift on the air and enter the food that you are preparing. Sharing knives or spoons could also lead to cross contamination of your foodstuffs and mean that you are preparing a gluten based meal for yourself. Eating the evening meal can lead to cross contamination if some foods in one dish contain gluten and, unknowingly, one of your guests uses a spoon which has touched these items to dispense other foods which were previously gluten free!

One real life example away from the dinner table to consider is creating a letter and posting this with a postal stamp. If you lick the envelope to seal the letter or if you lick the stamp before applying it to the letter you may find that you have activated the glue which contains gluten. In these circumstances there is a good chance that you will now have gluten on your tongue. Some people are very sensitive to gluten and this will be recognized immediately with some form of reaction. Other people are less sensitive and may not exhibit any symptoms although of course they have now ingested gluten and this could lead to a stomach upset or feeling unwell.

Another source of hidden gluten in foodstuffs is in shampoo. As there are many shampoos available in the shops it is best to remove the small risk that some of this will get in your mouth by buying a gluten free shampoo in the first place.

Don’t get too hung up with these examples. They merely illustrate hidden pitfalls and areas of the your daily life that you should consider for review to make sure that gluten is not entering your system. Once you have developed your daily habits you will find at things come naturally and you do not need to become neurotic about inedible gluten food products causing you problems.