Glutened By Flavored Coffee? Anyone Had This Problem?

[moose07]

I recently bought a different type of vanilla flavored coffee than I normally get. The box said nothing about any allergies so, stupidly, I figured it would be ok. However, now I'm thinking it glutened me. This whole week I've had headaches. This use to happen to me before going gluten free and usually lead up to a massive migraine. Anyways, I at first was thinking the headaches were just the stress of starting grad school but the headaches just kept getting worse as the week went by. Today I have GI symptoms, body pain, of course a terrible headache, I'm breaking out, and nerve tingling/pain. All of these are typical of a gluten reaction for me. The only thing I can think of it the different brand of coffee. I've gone over anything else that could have done it and this is the only culprit. After looking it up I found a site that said Folgers (the brand I bought) flavored coffee's may have barley malt in them but because it's such a small amount they of course don't have to disclose this info.

 

What I'm wondering is in anyone else has had this happen? I'm also curious about if people have reacted differently to barley gluten than they do to wheat gluten. I know if I get CC'd by wheat gluten my reaction to it is fairly quick and extreme where as this reaction and one other time I got CC'd by barley, the reaction took days to happen and was rather tame. Or if maybe because the barley in the coffee flavoring is so tiny it took a while to build up in my system and cause a reaction? Thanks for any help!

[shadowicewolf]

Gluten is gluten, regardless of form.

 

That being said, its kind of disturbing that the company has a "may contain" statement without fully disclosing it. I even went searching on amazon to find a better image of the coffee in question and it was still confusing.

 

This being said, I am also fully not convinced that the coffee had the gluten in it to begin with. It says "natural and artificial flavor" on the images i've seen. Generally speaking, when barely malt is in something, it is clearly listed because it is a rather expensive ingredient when you compare it to, say, cane sugar.

 

Are you certain that coffee itself is not giving you the issue here? It can be rather harsh on a person's system.

[moose07]

I drink other types of coffee without any problems.

[IrishHeart]

   from the website:                Do Folgers products contain gluten?

Coffee is not a source of gluten, and our Folgers roast and ground coffee items are produced in a dedicated facility where no other types of agricultural crops are handled or processed; however, due to the use of common equipment within the agricultural community to harvest, store and transport crops, our roast and ground products may contain trace amounts of grain-based ingredients.

Additionally, our Open Original Shared Link products may contain added ingredients that are not gluten free. 

 

 

My honest opinion? I would not drink it.

 

It does not seem to matter if it is wheat or barley gluten for me.....it all makes me sick.

 

Green mountain flavored K cups are G F, if that helps.

[moose07]

Yeah that is what I found, another website I think it was a Gluten Free GiGi website that said she had contacted Folgers and they told her about the barley malt being a source of flavoring. I also normally drink the green mountain k cups but the store was out so I bought something else. Big mistake I guess.

[IrishHeart]

Sorry, Kiddo.

Happens to us all at some point or another.

 

Drink a lot of water to flush your system, maybe try charcoal tabs for a day or so.... and just try to get extra rest..

Your body took a hit.

I had migraines all of my life, so I know how horrid they are. 

 

Hope you feel better soon! 

[dilettantesteph]

Gluten is gluten, regardless of form.

 

That isn't true.  Barley gluten and rye gluten have different chemical structures and even different names (hordein and secalin).  I don't know if reactions are different or not.  Looking at it as a chemist, it could fit the binding site differently.  They are different when it comes to detection methods.  This mentions it a bit, but you would have to do more searching for more information.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19763549

[shadowicewolf]

That isn't true.  Barley gluten and rye gluten have different chemical structures and even different names (hordein and secalin).  I don't know if reactions are different or not.  Looking at it as a chemist, it could fit the binding site differently.  They are different when it comes to detection methods.  This mentions it a bit, but you would have to do more searching for more information.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19763549

...yet it is still gluten and it still causes reactions.