Could Tea Bags Be Contaminated?

[ruthla]

I've been using Fitday to track my food consumption since July, when I got serious about weight loss. I just discovered the "journal" feature, which I'm now using to mark when I've had potential gluten reactions and if I'm potentially getting exposed to gluten outside of what I eat (such as cleaning up my kids' dinners.)

Today I took a look at my posts on here, when I posted about potential reactions, and then compared them to my Fitday to see what I ate those days and the days before (depending on whether it was an AM or a PM reaction.)

Last week, I had suspected I was reacting to quinoa, but then I had leftover quinoa later in the week with no reactions, so that couldn't have been it. I took a closer look at what I ate the day before, and basically came up with 3 possibilities:

1) cross contamination from my 13yo's pasta dishes (I'm trying to teach her that dishes need to be in the dishwasher, not the sink.)

2) tea from a tea bag (possible CC?)

3) frozen green beans (CC? do I not tolerate legumes at all, including green beans?)

What do you guys think? Could the tea bag have been the problem? Could it have gotten contaminated in my kitchen somehow in the months since I've bought the box and transfered half of them to a little tin that I keep on my counter? Do you think the tea bags from the original box in my pantry might be safer?

[hathor]

What tea was it? Some flavored teas contain gluten.

[Offthegrid]

I just got glutened. I couldn't figure out what the heck it might be from because I've been so careful, but after seeing this thread I checked into it. It's from a Celestial Seasonings flavored tea (sugar plum spice). The tea was a gift from our new neighbor (we just moved).

It's right there on the label -- "barley." VERY stupid of me not to check the label. Sheesh. Double check that the tea you're using is gluten-free to begin with.

[kbtoyssni]

I would guess it's from the non-gluten-free pasta. Maybe you should start buying only gluten-free pasta to avoid the possibility of CC.

[ruthla]

What tea was it? Some flavored teas contain gluten.

This was boring old black tea. Not even decaffeinated.

I would guess it's from the non-gluten-free pasta. Maybe you should start buying only gluten-free pasta to avoid the possibility of CC.

I had planned on doing that, but my daughter doesn't like the Trader Joe's rice pasta I bought, and I can't eat a whole bowl of pasta anyway due to other health issues. And my parents just gave us several boxes of whole wheat pasta- I'm pretty sure Mom bought it, then Dad didn't like it, so they didn't go out and buy it just for us (at least I HOPE they didn't!!!).

Once I get my food stamps straightened out, I plan to buy as many different kinds of gluten-free pastas I can find, and have DD try all of them to see if we can find one she likes as well as whole wheat pasta. But right now I can't afford to buy any non-essential foods and we DO have free pasta in the house.