The Safety Of Eating Gluten Free Barley

[sandpiper]

Hi to all,

I would like to ask if anyone here has tried the gluten free products that are made of barley? I understand that if the barley is harvested before it reaches a certain level that it does not contain gluten. Does anyone have more information on this and if so, if you have tried eating barley that is gluten free if there was any kind of reaction from it? Would this fall into the same trial and error of dedicated oats that are starting to come into the mainstream and not being a problem for some of us? How many of you have tried the oats?

I will tell you that I myself have not tried eating any gluten-free barley, but we have a sister who has been following the Hallelujah diet and she is having alot of problems with the D word. She also was dx with small bowel adenocarcinoma cancer last year. I have tried to encourage her to get tested for celiac, for a feel that she could strongly be a celiac/gluten intolerant.

Please let me know what you all think about this. For me this is always a learning disease, I felt like my head had been buried in the sand not knowing about the gluten free barley, ( which puts me at an uneasy feeling of just thinking about eating some).

Thanks to all,

Susie

[HAK1031]

I haven't heard of this, but I can tell you I wouldn't try it. This is like the wheat starch in the UK- it's still gonna have a bit of gluten. I also know that I react to barley worst of all. So this is a no for me.

I have, however, tried the oats. Those are different- oats do not contain gluten. The reason that we can't eat quaker oats or w/e is because they are often grown in the same field as wheat, harvested on the same equiptment, etc. My stomach didn't love the oats (I'm probably not healed enough to have that much grain protein, and avenin (the oat protein) is similar to gluten)

Good luck with your sister.

[blueeyedmanda]

I actually never knew there was gluten free barley products.

[ravenwoodglass]

There is no such thing as gluten free barley as far as I know or have heard. Are you thinking of stuff like the cookies that say wheat free on the label but contain a warning that they have barley? I have never heard of any company stating that a barley product is gluten free, wheat free yes. Even small amounts of barley, such as in cereals, is enough to make us sick. It can be also be hidden in natural flavors and not is not required to be disclosed on labels so IMHO it is one of the most dangerous forms of gluten for us.

[cruelshoes]

I would like to ask if anyone here has tried the gluten free products that are made of barley? I understand that if the barley is harvested before it reaches a certain level that it does not contain gluten. Does anyone have more information on this and if so, if you have tried eating barley that is gluten free if there was any kind of reaction from it? Would this fall into the same trial and error of dedicated oats that are starting to come into the mainstream and not being a problem for some of us? How many of you have tried the oats?

I have never seen any barley product that claimed to be gluten free. Any chance you have a brand name or what the product is? I myself would be extremely dubious of any product or person who claimed that they made barley gluten free by harvesting it at a certain time.

Oats contain the protein avenin, which is technically different from the gluten in wheat, barley and rye. Gluten is a general term that means protein storage. It is gliadin in wheat, horedin in barley, and secalin in rye. Avenin in oats causes some celiacs problems, but not all. There is a small subset of celiacs that cannot tolerate oats in any form, gluten-free or not.

I have tried the gluten-free oats from Gifts of Nature, Bob's Red Mill and Gluten Free Oats. All were quite good. I seem to be able to tolerate them quite well. My son, however, cannot. Because of this fact, I don't eat them very much. But they are a nice luxury sometimes, if one can tolerate them.