Still sick after Going Gluten Free

Many people will go about 6 or so months to up to 2 years of being gluten free and then start getting worse again.  They will get the issues with bowel, back pain, leg cramps, stomach cramps ECT. 

There can be many reasons for this to occur, lactose intolerance, leaky gut syndrome, Cross contamination and pancreatic Enzymes issues.  

Sneaky Gluten Containing Foods (repost)

Sneaky Gluten containing foods:  

Everyone with Celiac knows to avoid things with wheat, barley or rye.  However, there are things that are sneaky.  Foods such as the basic soy sauce contain large quantities of gluten.  

 Sauces: For soy sauces, use ones marked gluten free or ones that have never contained them.  La Choy Soy sauce doesn't contain gluten and costs the same as regular soy sauces. Watch things like Worcestershire, Teriyaki, BBQ, ketchup, mustard, liquid smoke and many others.  Some do use gluten while others do not. Also watch flavored Mayo's.  

Flavoring: Vanilla, Almond, lemon and such can contain gluten.  Carefully read the ingredients.  It does not need to be marked gluten free but it does need to be checked.

Tea: Yes regular in a bag or loose leaf tea may contain gluten.  Why? This is a question that has never been answered for me.  I found this one out the hard way. Watch Celestial seasoning and Bigelow as they have gluten in some of their flavors.  

Candy: Everyone should know to stay away from anything with cookies in it.  However, licorice, some caramels, hard candies and those types should be checked.  For example Werther's original do contain gluten and should not be eaten by those with celiac.  They hide it in the type of syrup used.

Ice Cream: Blue bunny and some others contain gluten and should be watched carefully.  The only ones nearly guaranteed to not contain gluten are Sherbet and Gelato.  Avoid anything with cookies or cookie dough, also some candy bar flavors.

Alcohol: Everyone should have figured out that most beer contains Gluten; however did you know that flavored vodka can have gluten in it as well.  It is true that most distilled alcohol is gluten free but that doesn't mean they cannot add it for flavor later.  Also avoid wine coolers and flavored beverages as they tend to use malt.  

Restaurant Series #2 Jason's Deli

Jason's Deli was one of the first places I went to when I became gluten free.  I remembered that they had a gluten free menu and I was right, they had a great one with so many options. However, there is a large issue with this location and it's one they will bring up themselves. 

Gluten Free at a Salad Bar

When one thinks of a salad bar, it is often assumed that the salad bar is gluten free.  This is not always the case.  Cross contamination with items such as croutons or other "toppings" is not as rare as one would hope.  Not only that, but many salad dressings are not gluten free.  This does not mean that you have to give up salad bars.

Is your pet food affecting your life?

Cat boxes or poo patrol can be bad enough but is your pets' food making you sick?

For people who are highly sensitive to gluten I bet some of you didn't think to check what you are feeding your pet right?  If you have pets like my two cats they will eat the kibbles just about anywhere.

 This is behavior that comes from having more than one pet or having a pet that is used to being around other pets.  When there is a shared food bowl or a perceived shared food bowl often times the animals will take what they want and move it elsewhere to eat.  The can leave crumbs everywhere.  We used to have a very large, very dominate male cat who owned the food bowl.  Only he could eat there, that didn't stop the rest of the cats from being able to eat, just they couldn't eat in front of the bowl.  Now even after we lost my big boy, the other two cats still act the same. They take the food and eat it everywhere else.  I have found little cat food bits on the table (which they are not supposed to be on.) on the counter-tops (same as the table) on the couch and loveseat, even in my keyboard (am I still confused to this one.)  This got me thinking.  Not only is the food around the house but it is also in their mouths so what I am feeding my pets.  Yep that's right gluten, one of those things that I can't have and I am feeding it to my cats. 

Looking at cat food A lot of brands contain either corn gluten or wheat gluten as filler.  The reason being is it is a cheap source of protein.  I wondered how good for my pets this food really is?  I looked and found that cats and dogs should not have almost any carbohydrates, they need protein.  Well how well does that stack up with the food I have been feeding them?  This is the ingredient list from my cat’s dry cat food as pulled from the web site.
ground yellow corn, corn gluten meal, chicken by-product meal, soybean meal, beef tallow (preserved with mixed tocopherols), soy hulls, brewers rice, animal digest, turkey by-product meal, salmon meal, ocean fish meal, calcium carbonate, potassium chloride, dehydrated alfalfa meal, phosphoric acid, choline chloride, brewers dried yeast, salt, titanium dioxide (color), vitamins (vitamin E supplement, niacin supplement, vitamin A supplement, d-calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate [source of vitamin B1], riboflavin supplement [source of vitamin B2], pyridoxine hydrochloride [source of vitamin B6], menadione sodium bisulfite complex [source of vitamin K activity], vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement), minerals (ferrous sulfate [source of iron], zinc oxide, manganous oxide, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite), taurine, yellow 6, red 40, yellow 5, blue 2, rosemary extract.

So not Gluten Free and it looks so appetizing, I would probably not buy this to feed to my family why my pets?  So if you have reaction at home, check the ingredients on your pets' food.  Even wet foods have gluten in them.  If your pet food is not gluten free it may be the cause of the continued illness.  This could be a source of cross contamination. Just another small thing to think about in the long journey of being completely gluten free. It looks like I am in the market for a new pet food brand.