Glutened by *straw*berries?

[Kat18]

I've already had a very bad experience with strawberry picking before I knew I had celiac disease. It was a few years ago, I was helping at a school with the children picking strawberries at some farm around London. The strawberries were on beds of straw. (I only just found out that is why they are called straw berries. It keeps them dry and the little ones protected.) We took a bus back and after 20 or 30 minutes my eyes were swollen, red & I couldn't stop sneezing. I assumed I was allergic to hay/straw because it had happened before at a farm, but not as bad. Sometimes I eat strawberries and I'm mostly fine, but sometimes I feel very sick. I just found out that hay can be wheat without the grains and that some growers continue to use this. A few days ago I ate about 6 strawberries one day and the next day another 6 and then got very very ill. I had D, stomach was having a fit gurgling, headache, depression, anxiety, pain in various places. I still thought it might be allergy to strawberries but now I'm suspicious it was gluten. Has this happened to anyone here? There is one older thread about it on here. I'm barely starting to feel better. Oh and I had to keep going to sleep, like I was drugged. And could hardly talk sometimes but felt at the same time this feeling of doom and futility. It was pretty scary.

I had strawberries last Spring that were local organic strawberries and it seemed okay. I wonder if they were not grown in straw. That's why I'm suspicious it was gluten because sometimes I CAN eat them. And apparently gluten is very hard to wash off of produce. I could try growing some and see if I can eat those. I think I wont buy random ones though and would have to know the grower and that they don't use straw. It's so sad because I love them in this time of year and in the summer. I mean I can live without them but it would be nice to still be able to eat some.

[Ennis-TX]

I posted about this a few weeks ago, it is so hit or miss with strawberries, someone else mentioned that it is also in part due to the amount of pesticides they use on them.

Mushrooms are also hit and miss like this as they are commonly grown on gluten grains that are covered in the spores from the mushrooms   I found one local brand I do not trust at all but have had decent luck with another and not getting glutened. They did some iffy studys on both these topics with mixed results. Seems no one really cares about testing maybe glutened produce if they naturally are gluten free. Most assume "Oh just wash it off there is no gluten in that kind of produce"  with little to no concern to the growing environment or treatment of the "Naturally gluten free" foods before it lands on your plate. You can not always wash off everything on a pours surfaced fruit, or veggie. very frustrating dealing with this kind of stuff.

[Kat18]

Ennis_TX  I'll find your post on this. If I understand right a food allergy or sensitivity is to a protein in that food. So if I am sensitive to strawberry proteins it shouldn't really affect me with one kind of strawberry but not another. Why am I okay with some strawberries but react violently to others? If they are grown in straw then I imagine not every single grain of wheat was removed from the stalk. There could also be wheat grain powder from the machines that harvest the wheat. I think it would be pretty aggressive in the wheat field unless they hand harvest each grain of wheat. It honestly possibly explains to me this sometimes extreme reaction I have to strawberries.

I need to read more about mushrooms because I've had a similar thing, sometimes no problem sometimes feel extremely ill. Oh yeah, and I'm onto that "naturally gluten free" phase on products & general thinking. Gluten is obviously very sticky so they would need to test produce before and after washing to see if it all gets washed away. Or to maybe confirm that it can get gluten on it from the environment it was in. Then we could know which produce is more likely to have it. As you say they don't want to do this tho. No money in it? Threat to the produce people? Do you think I'm paranoid?

53 minutes ago, Ennis_TX said:

  very frustrating dealing with this kind of stuff.

Couldn't agree more.

[Ennis-TX]

4 minutes ago, Kat18 said:

Ennis_TX  I'll find your post on this. If I understand right a food allergy or sensitivity is to a protein in that food. So if I am sensitive to strawberry proteins it shouldn't really affect me with one kind of strawberry but not another. Why am I okay with some strawberries but react violently to others? If they are grown in straw then I imagine not every single grain of wheat was removed from the stalk. There could also be wheat grain powder from the machines that harvest the wheat. I think it would be pretty aggressive in the wheat field unless they hand harvest each grain of wheat. It honestly possibly explains to me this sometimes extreme reaction I have to strawberries.

I need to read more about mushrooms because I've had a similar thing, sometimes no problem sometimes feel extremely ill. Oh yeah, and I'm onto that "naturally gluten free" phase on products & general thinking. Gluten is obviously very sticky so they would need to test produce before and after washing to see if it all gets washed away. Or to maybe confirm that it can get gluten on it from the environment it was in. Then we could know which produce is more likely to have it. As you say they don't want to do this tho. No money in it? Threat to the produce people? Do you think I'm paranoid?

Couldn't agree more.

Your not paranoid but I have 2-4 others who hark on me that I am crazy for saying this stuff about produce. I AM SO HAPPY, to have found someone else who gets these random minor gluten issues from them. It is always minor for me just nausea, tiny bit of cramping and sometimes vomiting, and slight fog and numbness. Never that MAJOR OMG going to die straight gluten poisoning. So I ASSUME it is just some minor CC from not being cleaned properly. Just so annoying with how hit and miss it is and how it sends me running around checking everything to see what made me sick.

[Rhotitar]

Yes strawberries and mushrooms are sometimes cross-contaminated. Strawberries because they are grown on beds of wheat straw and mushrooms are grown on rye or other gluten grains. Here is an article explaining it on strawberries Open Original Shared Link and mushrooms Open Original Shared Link

Thankfully the organic strawberries I buy seem to be grown on plastic as they cause me no ill. Mushrooms on the other hand is another story I have gotten sick on mushrooms that I have purchased at two separate stores from different companies one was organic one was not. So I am cutting out mushrooms. I have to note that I am very sensitive so others might be able to get away with just washing them. 

[kareng]

6 hours ago, Rhotitar said:

Yes strawberries and mushrooms are sometimes cross-contaminated. Strawberries because they are grown on beds of wheat straw and mushrooms are grown on rye or other gluten grains. Here is an article explaining it on strawberries Open Original Shared Link and mushrooms Open Original Shared Link

Thankfully the organic strawberries I buy seem to be grown on plastic as they cause me no ill. Mushrooms on the other hand is another story I have gotten sick on mushrooms that I have purchased at two separate stores from different companies one was organic one was not. So I am cutting out mushrooms. I have to note that I am very sensitive so others might be able to get away with just washing them. 

Commercial strawberries are grown on plastic covers mounds of dirt.  Even if they were grown on straw - it would have very few seeds and the seeds could be washed of the strawberries.

[Victoria1234]

43 minutes ago, kareng said:

Commercial strawberries are grown on plastic covers mounds of dirt.  Even if they were grown on straw - it would have very few seeds and the seeds could be washed of the strawberries.

Great article with cool videos about commercial strawberry growing... Open Original Shared Link