gluten-free Green Health Drinks

[tammy]

I am perplexed about the labeling of this and other green food drinks. When I do a search on the internet, this and other green-food drinks state GLUTEN-FREE but they contain young wheat-grass and barley grass.

Has anyone tried this brand? What kind of reaction did this drink cause? Has anyone found a green food drink that is truly gluten-free?

THANKS SO MUCH!

[LivingtheGoodLife]

I am perplexed about the labeling of this and other green food drinks. When I do a search on the internet, this and other green-food drinks state GLUTEN-FREE but they contain young wheat-grass and barley grass.

Has anyone tried this brand? What kind of reaction did this drink cause? Has anyone found a green food drink that is truly gluten-free?

THANKS SO MUCH!

Hi Tammy - I used to drink the green drinks everyday, but stopped shortly after being diagnosed because of the presence of wheat/barley grass. Because of leaky gut syndrome so common with celiac disease, I don't think it's a good idea to expose myself to such a wide scope of foods each day. For eg. I'm now showing a sensitivity to parsley and pumpkin seeds which I wouldn't normally react to and I believe it's because I was drinking Perfect Food every day (contains both). They are certainly tempting though because it's easier for celiacs to absorb nutrients from these drinks. My substitute now is to just juice fresh vegetables. Hopes this helps.

Care

_____________

Diagnosed: December 30, 2005

Gluten-Free: February 1, 2006

[prinsessa]

I don't know about the green health drinks. My son loves them and I don't want him to have to give them up if he has Celiac. I thought that Celiacs couldn't have wheat grass so I'm surprised that they are gluten free. Is it because the wheat isn't dried and cooked? Does that make a difference?

[jthomas88]

I was just looking this up via Google today, and found an explanation. (NOTE: The sites I got this info from are selling wheat grass juice and/or barley juice as a component in their supplements.)

According to several sites, the wheat grass and barley grass does not contain gluten because it's harvested before the wheat kernels (or whatever they're called) are formed, and the kernels are what contain the gluten. Basically, with the grass, you're just getting the greens and that's okay - just like it's okay to eat lettuce or turnip greens.

I'm not sure I'd want to try the grasses version with someone who's recently gone gluten-free, but if you're stabilized you might want to test it out.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

It may be total coincidence, but my DH-like rash (it was never officially diagnosed as DH) occurred right after consuming 4 of those green health-drinks within one week's time (and I'd never tried them before that one week). Before that, I had never had any obvious signs of Celiac.

I liked them, too. But I'm afraid to ever try them again.