Need Your Advise...

[L.A.]

I'm considering taking a probiotic and wondered what brands are gluten-free--having a bit of a time searching this on the web. I live in Canada so would prefer a brand I can actully get. Ideas any one?

[dally099]

hi i take the following brands, Trophic digestive enzymes (over the counter at every drug store), Soloray Pancreatin 1300 digestive aide (organic stores carry this one), and Webber Naturals makes an entire line of probiotics, i take Acidopholis, and this is available in any drug store, hope this helps,

[JNBunnie1]

I'm considering taking a probiotic and wondered what brands are gluten-free--having a bit of a time searching this on the web. I live in Canada so would prefer a brand I can actully get. Ideas any one?

Hi LA, I take Garden of Life's Primal Defense. You can get most stuff way cheaper at Vitacost online, including lots of other supplements, but for this stuff it's better to buy in bulk because it's cheaper. I think it works fabulously, I'm much healthier than before, but if you're also looking for something that you take a lot of after a stomach illness, I'd get a gentler probiotic as well, because this stuff is pretty strong. You can look at the description at GardenofLife.com.

[Lisa]

Don't take it if you have a problem with dairy. I'm still recovering after taking only 3.

[Ursa Major]

I take the Genestra Brand. It's guaranteed not to contain any common allergens, including dairy, gluten and maltodextrin. All the other brands either contained dairy or maltodextrin. It's the only one that didn't give me a negative reaction.

[L.A.]

Thanks for the input--much appreciated I'm off shopping. L.A.

[lorka150]

I take Bio-K (the dairy free version). But you're already gone

[Hoolie]

Natural Factors is a popular brand in Canada and they are very clean. I looked at the label and it does not say Gluten Free so you might have to call them. All Pioneer vitamins are Gluten Free. Enzymedica makes a probiotic call ProBio that is Gluten free and shelf stable. I buy it online.

Hope that helps,

Hoolie

[Leslie-FL]

Enzymedica makes a probiotic call ProBio that is Gluten free and shelf stable. I buy it online.

I'm resurrecting another old thread.

I've been taking the Enzymedica ProBio for a few months, and also for a few months, I have been trying like crazy to track down a mystery source of gluten that I keep reacting to. I've been miserable.

Well, on Monday, I didn't take the ProBio, just because I forgot, and I didn't have any reaction. I took it yesterday, had a reaction, skipped it this morning, no reaction.

I went to their web site and did the live chat and the person I chatted with did say it is gluten free, but didn't know the answer when I asked if it is produced on equipment that is used to produce anything that is not gluten free. I asked if she could email me with the answer and she said yes. I'll post here when I hear back from her.

Part of me hopes that is the problem, since I have been trying for soooo long to figure it out, but part of me hopes it isn't that, since I just bought the big, $40 bottle.

[ive]

I wonder if it is Enzymedica. It looks like I reacted to their V-Gest Enzymes, it was in the very beginning of my gluten-free diet. I send them an e-mail asking about the possible cross-contamination and that is what I got for a reply:

After processing the enzymes are tested to make sure they are free of any contaminates and and do not contain any gluten.

It looks like all of their enzymes are gluten-free, so I don't know where cross-contamination can come from.

I took V-Gest for a week, kept reacting, thought that may be I react to digestive enzymes in total (like die off or something like that), so I decided to stop them because I actually became quite worse while on them. I did get better when I discontinued. However in 2 weeks after that I started taking another digestive enzyme and I can take it, I have to divide the capsule in half, but I do not have symptoms of glutening as I had when I was taking V-Gest. If I take too much of the enzyme I have stomach pain, but not glutening symptoms as with V-Gest.

At the same time it looks like many members here take Enzymedica enzymes without any problems. So may be you and me react to their product formulations or something in their ingredients. It is strange. It is on my mind to try V-Gest again someday, but I felt so miserable that week that I am not planning to do it anytime soon.

Hope that helps. Please let me know if you get a reply from them about cross-contamination.

[ive]

Natural Factors is a popular brand in Canada and they are very clean. I looked at the label and it does not say Gluten Free so you might have to call them. All Pioneer vitamins are Gluten Free. Enzymedica makes a probiotic call ProBio that is Gluten free and shelf stable. I buy it online.

I e-mailed Natural Factors about their Probiotics in February 2008 and this is what I got:

While Natural Factors makes every effort to ensure that our raw materials do not contain gluten, it is possible that some products may. Also, suppliers do change from time to time, so we therefore, recommend that if a person is highly sensitive to gluten, to check with us if the product they are planning to take contains gluten.

We have confirmed with our Quality Control Department that 'Super Strength Cal'dophilus' (code 1821-90 caps, 1822-120 caps), do not contain gluten.

This is dairy-free probiotic, and it contains maltodextrin, however it says wheat-free on the bottle, so I assume it is from corn. My husband is gluten-intolerant as well, he takes it every day and is fine.

[Leslie-FL]

Thank you, ive. I wonder if, when they say they are tested, they mean they are tested to be under whatever ppm is considered safe (I forget what the number is). Maybe a lot of people don't react to amounts that small, but you and I happen to be two people who do? That could explain why a lot of people have no problem with the enzymes.

The reason I am wondering that is that I have reacted to two food products in the past that said they were tested to be below the accepted amount. One was cookies and one was crackers, both made by different companies.

[ive]

Maybe a lot of people don't react to amounts that small, but you and I happen to be two people who do? That could explain why a lot of people have no problem with the enzymes.

The reason I am wondering that is that I have reacted to two food products in the past that said they were tested to be below the accepted amount. One was cookies and one was crackers, both made by different companies.

It might be the case. Unfortunately I am very sensitive too. I try not buy products that are produced on the shared equipment. I even reacted to vitamins that were gluten free but produced on the shared equipment.

[Ursa Major]

This is dairy-free probiotic, and it contains maltodextrin, however it says wheat-free on the bottle, so I assume it is from corn. My husband is gluten-intolerant as well, he takes it every day and is fine.

The maltodextrin could be made from barley. Because wheat free doesn't equal gluten-free, it could still contain gluten. I don't trust anything with maltodextrin myself.

[ive]

Leslie-FL, did you hear anything back from Enzymedica?

I read this topic: Open Original Shared Link and apparently malt diastase or maltase can be made from barley. V-Gest has 300 Dp of Maltase. I wonder if that is why I react to V-Gest. I guess it tests below the 20 ppm or whatever threshold they use to test it, but it's enough for me to react. My current digestive enzyme does not have Maltase in it.

[Leslie-FL]

Leslie-FL, did you hear anything back from Enzymedica?

I read this topic: Open Original Shared Link and apparently malt diastase or maltase can be made from barley. V-Gest has 300 Dp of Maltase. I wonder if that is why I react to V-Gest. I guess it tests below the 20 ppm or whatever threshold they use to test it, but it's enough for me to react. My current digestive enzyme does not have Maltase in it.

I'm sorry for taking so long to reply -- I still haven't heard anything from Enzymedica, and I'm feeling like I likely won't hear from them. I stopped taking the Pro-Bio and have been doing much better (until last night, when I did a stupid thing*). I didn't see any mention of maltase on the Pro-Bio bottle, but if they make them on the same equipment, it could still be a problem. The thing that concerns me is that these are the people who make GlutenEase and they couldn't even answer my shared-equipment question. I realize that GlutenEase only masks the symptoms and does not prevent the damage (I saw evidence of that myself), so it shouldn't be relied on often because it can keep you from knowing if you've been glutened and if you are hurting yourself, but if they make it on the same equipment that they can't answer the shared-equipment question about, it could be causing damage just to take it, in addition to whatever glutening we are trying to relieve symptoms from. I'm going to toss them in the trash.

*Ok, I'll share what the stupid thing was, in case someone who is new to this is wondering if it's possible. lol. At least I could help someone else by sharing, right? I recently (after being gluten-free for over a year) learned that I should have gotten rid of pourous things in my kitchen, like plastic cutting boards, scratched nonstick cookware, etc. Somehow I had missed this the first time through, when I was still learning. I went and bought a new colander, new plastic spatulas and spoons, measuring cups, etc., and forgot to get a new cutting board. Last night, I wanted to cut a potato up to cook it, and I remembered not to use my old plastic cutting board, but I haven't bought a new one yet, so I got out a plate. A plastic plate. I know better than that, but I wasn't thinking. It was a soft plastic, too, and as I was cutting, I was realizing it has knife marks in it already, and I was realizing it probably wasn't the smartest thing for me to be doing. And for some reason, I thought "Ahh, it'll be ok", and then about 30 minutes after I ate the potatoes, I got that familiar feeling in my gut that told me I was wrong. So, out go all the plastic plates and bowls in my kitchen!

Even when I was a kid, I insisted on learning things the hard way . . .

[ive]

Hi Leslie,

In my original e-mail to them I asked about shared equipment too; they completely ignored my question and just wrote that they test their enzymes after processing and they are gluten free.

Also as I wrote in a different topic my V-Gest bottle has statement "Manufactured for Enzymedica, Inc." May be I read too much into this statement but judging by this they might actually outsource the production of their enzymes and that is why they just don't know wheather the equipment is shared with wheat / rye / barley / oats. I might be completely wrong of course, but there are some people who react to Maltase. And I am very sensitive. And I do take different more powerful digestive enzyme without problems now.

Also I found this post before ( Open Original Shared Link):

I used the Tepnel home gluten test kit on Enzymatica Digest Gold and it recorded a strong positive (greater thatn 10%). I am trying to contact Enzymatica to see what they have to say.

I asked eroralaeta if she heard anything back from Enzymedica but she did not get back to me.

[linda7276]

Natural Factors is a popular brand in Canada and they are very clean. I looked at the label and it does not say Gluten Free so you might have to call them. All Pioneer vitamins are Gluten Free. Enzymedica makes a probiotic call ProBio that is Gluten free and shelf stable. I buy it online.

Hope that helps,

Hoolie

Hi I just got my diagnosis....was sick for 40 years, won't bore you all with the details because you all have been through the same thing for some period of time, I'm sure. I spent a lot of time trying to find a vitamin that was gluten and soy free, very hard to do because of the Vitamin E which comes from soybean oil, which is 'supposed' to be ok, I've seen comments where some folks have said they had problems with it so??

I checked out the Pioneer vitamins, and they do say "gluten free" but they list barley grass on the label? HUH? I thought barley had gluten in it? I'm new at this and have been reading all over the web like crazy and this is confusing. Is the barley grass ok? Linda

[Leslie-FL]

Hi I just got my diagnosis....was sick for 40 years, won't bore you all with the details because you all have been through the same thing for some period of time, I'm sure. I spent a lot of time trying to find a vitamin that was gluten and soy free, very hard to do because of the Vitamin E which comes from soybean oil, which is 'supposed' to be ok, I've seen comments where some folks have said they had problems with it so??

I checked out the Pioneer vitamins, and they do say "gluten free" but they list barley grass on the label? HUH? I thought barley had gluten in it? I'm new at this and have been reading all over the web like crazy and this is confusing. Is the barley grass ok? Linda

Linda,

Yes, you definitely want to avoid barley grass. I bought some vitamins a few months ago and was in a hurry and somehow missed the words "barley grass" on the label until after I had taken one, and I had a pretty bad reaction to the one pill. I gave the rest of the bottle away to my sister, who doesn't have a problem with gluten.