Chocolate Covered Peanuts

[Richie1]

I have been gluten free for about 3 weeks and all of my symptoms have been improving mainly stomach problems i have been having, so today after feeling pretty good all day I came home and ate some chocolate covered peanut ( only a small handful) and a couple of salted cashews now i feel real sick and have bloating , doesn't say they contain gluten am i missing something .

[psawyer]

It's hard to say for sure. Some chocolate contains barley malt as a sweetener.

[rosetapper23]

Yes, it's possible that the chocolate contained barley. I oftentimes shop at a healthfood store that is recognized for its large gluten-free section. However, it also has bins of nuts, grains, and chocolate-covered sweets. One day I looked at what the chocolate contained and was floored to see that every single bin of chocolate-covered berries and nuts contained barley in the chocolate. I mentioned this to the clerk who does the ordering (like, hey, why are you ordering chocolate with gluten when you're constantly advertising your gluten-free products? If the chocolate-covered peanuts were Brach's, then they probably had gluten in them. While you're working to be gluten free, you might consider also giving up iodine for a while, since many of us are sensitive to it. I avoid all salted nuts just for that reason. So, perhaps the chocolate was okay but you're sensitive to iodine (??). Just a thought.

[Richie1]

Yes, it's possible that the chocolate contained barley. I oftentimes shop at a healthfood store that is recognized for its large gluten-free section. However, it also has bins of nuts, grains, and chocolate-covered sweets. One day I looked at what the chocolate contained and was floored to see that every single bin of chocolate-covered berries and nuts contained barley in the chocolate. I mentioned this to the clerk who does the ordering (like, hey, why are you ordering chocolate with gluten when you're constantly advertising your gluten-free products? If the chocolate-covered peanuts were Brach's, then they probably had gluten in them. While you're working to be gluten free, you might consider also giving up iodine for a while, since many of us are sensitive to it. I avoid all salted nuts just for that reason. So, perhaps the chocolate was okay but you're sensitive to iodine (??). Just a thought.

Think you could be right about the chocolate and it could have been the salted cashews as i have had the same reaction to salted pretzels.

thanks

[rosetapper23]

If you intend to avoid iodine, it can be found in some dairy products, iodized salt, seafood, and asparagus. It's not a good thing to totally eliminate it, but it seems as though you might be sensitive to larger amounts, like in salty foods. Do you get a reaction when you eat seafood?

[Richie1]

Don't eat much seafood and can't remember the last time i did really .....But I will definitley be aware of this in the future...

Thanks

[ravenwoodglass]

Iodine is only an issue if you have DH as the iodine will keep the antibodies active in the skin. If you don't have DH don't worry about iodine as it is an important nutrient. Even folks with DH can usually add iodine back in after they have healed for a while.

It is more likely the nuts either had barley or were CC'd.