Can Milk Contain Gluten?

[Marz]

Post title should rather be "Can/Would companies add gluten to milk without declaring it on the label?", since I know milk is naturally "gluten free"

There is a certain brand of milk that they use at work, that always hurts my stomach and makes me feel ill. At home I always use "Clover", which is a slightly higher quality milk, made by a much bigger company. The one at work is a cheaper, smaller business. Clover milk is perfect, no problems whatsoever. Just tried a half glass of milk this morning and feeling great. The half glass of "work brand" milk yesterday made me double over with pain.

Could they possibly be adding some wheat starch to improve their protein nutritional profile? (That would be very dodgy though), or maybe they're just slack and are getting some gluten contamination somewhere (Anywhere from milking the cows to transport to packaging..?)

I'd love to order some test strips to check it out, and send them a very snarky letter about the quality of their milk, possibly blow the top off their little enterprise if they're adding stuff to their milk.

Anyone else had problems with specific brands of milk??

[mushroom]

Hmm, you must have left SA to be getting Clover milk It is a good product, used to use it. I have not heard of any additives to milk other than Vitamin D. There are of course the pasteurization and homogenization processes, both of which for me ruin milk - we used to be able to get raw milk in Sonoma. As for contamination, who knows.... do you know where the milk comes from?

The only other issues with milk I know of is if the protein in it is A1 or A2, A2 being the preferred by the cognizanti. There is some controversy going on about that down here in New Zealand with some dairy farmers trying to build up solely A2 herds. Most milk is a mix of 1 and 2. Fonterra, our big dairy conglomerate, would rather this subject were not discussed (their milk is mostly A1).

[gabby]

Is it possible to buy a fresh, unopened package of the type of milk you use at work (like buy it from another store). Then take it home, and use it. If you get sick from the milk, then there's something in the milk that doesn't agree with you. If you don't get sick when you use it at home...then the culprit is likely cross-contamination from people at work possibly having gluten on their hands and then touching the milk carton.

Hope this helps. Good luck in figuring out your mystery...

[ravenwoodglass]

Is it possible to buy a fresh, unopened package of the type of milk you use at work (like buy it from another store). Then take it home, and use it. If you get sick from the milk, then there's something in the milk that doesn't agree with you. If you don't get sick when you use it at home...then the culprit is likely cross-contamination from people at work possibly having gluten on their hands and then touching the milk carton.

Hope this helps. Good luck in figuring out your mystery...

This was what I was thinking. I wonder, if the milk is open in the work fridge, if someone is slurping it down from the container after eating a gluten food. Some folks have really nasty habits when no one else is looking.

[Pac]

This was what I was thinking. I wonder, if the milk is open in the work fridge, if someone is slurping it down from the container after eating a gluten food. Some folks have really nasty habits when no one else is looking.

I was thinking exactly the same.

On the other side, I too get sick from some milk brands while others are perfectly ok.

[dilettantesteph]

I am very sensitive and I do find one brand of milk and cheese I do well with and the rest I can't tolerate. Gluten is in breast milk, I wonder if it could be from diet?

[lovegrov]

Cow's milk does not contain gluten. Cows have a different digestion system than humans. I've never heard of anybody adding gluten to milk and if they added wheat in the U.S. it would have to be listed.

richard

[cassP]

I am very sensitive and I do find one brand of milk and cheese I do well with and the rest I can't tolerate. Gluten is in breast milk, I wonder if it could be from diet?

i agree with this post. i mean i really hope it's not true.. but i did read recent articles suggesting it could be possible for gluten to be in some dairy- because it has been found in breast milk. i hope it's not the case- i do buy grass fed dairy products when im at whole foods- but they dont have grass fed everything.. or when im out like at starbux, i cant get grass fed & hormone free... maybe i should just get over my dairy addiction :/

[Marz]

This was what I was thinking. I wonder, if the milk is open in the work fridge, if someone is slurping it down from the container after eating a gluten food. Some folks have really nasty habits when no one else is looking.

Gosh, I hope not! But I guess I'll try it if I can find a small container of the brand.

[Skylark]

There is no gluten in milk. Different breeds of dairy of cows make milks with slightly different casein profiles and if you're a little sensitive to alpha-casein (really common in celiacs) you might find some milks agree with you better than others.

[dilettantesteph]

There is no gluten in milk. Different breeds of dairy of cows make milks with slightly different casein profiles and if you're a little sensitive to alpha-casein (really common in celiacs) you might find some milks agree with you better than others.

I am sure that there is no gluten in milk within the 20 ppm suggested guidelines. That means that there is no gluten in milk as far as most celiacs are concerned. Based on my reaction I would say that the levels are much less than 5 ppm. I say this by comparing my reaction to milk and cheese to my reaction to an Amy's product which had been tested to below 5 ppm. Are you sure that there is no gluten in milk at very low levels? With the testing limits available currently, I don't know that anyone can definitively say that. Do you know of any studies looking at lower levels of gluten? I would love to know about them.

[Skylark]

I am sure that there is no gluten in milk within the 20 ppm suggested guidelines. That means that there is no gluten in milk as far as most celiacs are concerned. Based on my reaction I would say that the levels are much less than 5 ppm. I say this by comparing my reaction to milk and cheese to my reaction to an Amy's product which had been tested to below 5 ppm. Are you sure that there is no gluten in milk at very low levels? With the testing limits available currently, I don't know that anyone can definitively say that. Do you know of any studies looking at lower levels of gluten? I would love to know about them.

I don't make this stuff up. (Though I did confuse α- and β-caseins.) Here you go. By the way, all you would have had to do to search is type "celiac casein" into PubMed. It's really not hard at all to find literature. I do have the advantage of often being able to get full text because of where I work.

Open Original Shared Link

"Intolerance of celiac disease patients to bovine milk is not due to the presence of T-cell stimulatory epitopes of gluten."

"All assays used detect gluten levels as low as 1–3 ppm in various food matrices [5], [6], [7] and [8]. Nonetheless, no gluten proteins or gluten fragments could be detected above background in any of the bovine milk samples, whereas gluten was easily detected in spiked samples. Thus, no gluten could be detected in the milk from cows fed diets containing large amounts of wheat. Hence, the reported problems experienced by patients with celiac disease who consume bovine milk are unlikely due to the presence of gluten in the milk."

Open Original Shared Link

"Bovine milk intolerance in celiac disease is related to IgA reactivity to α- and β-caseins"

It has been published that there is a high homology of some peptides in bovine β-casein to the gluten peptide, mainly with the amino acid sequence LQLQPFPQPQLPYPQPQLPYPQPQLPYPQPQPF [8]. Thus, the serum IgA response of patients with celiac disease to bovine milk could be related to gliadins and caseins sharing epitopes recognized by antigliadin IgA antibodies, as previously proposed [3].

[Skylark]

Now where this comes in with Marz's original question is that there are two kinds of casein in milk, A1-beta casein and A2-beta casein. A1-beta casein is the kind of casein more likely to make us sick. You can learn more by doing some reading on A1 and A2 milk. Some breeds of cows make more A1-beta casein than others. Goat's milk is pure A2-beta casein, which is why some people can tolerate goat's milk better than cow's milk. (I'm one of those people.)

[VioletBlue]

Actually, if that theory WERE correct, which I don't believe it is, I would think you'd be having a bigger problem with milk from grass fed cows rather than cows feed the generic feed lot mix of corn soy and whoknowswhat. Rye grass is common in most pastures as are certain strains of wheat grass. If the milk could be contaiminated by what the cows eat, you wouldn't want a grass fed cow giving you milk.

i agree with this post. i mean i really hope it's not true.. but i did read recent articles suggesting it could be possible for gluten to be in some dairy- because it has been found in breast milk. i hope it's not the case- i do buy grass fed dairy products when im at whole foods- but they dont have grass fed everything.. or when im out like at starbux, i cant get grass fed & hormone free... maybe i should just get over my dairy addiction :/

[dilettantesteph]

I don't make this stuff up. (Though I did confuse α- and β-caseins.)

Thank you for the citations. Concentrations of gliadin in breast milk was in the range of 5 -1200 ng/ml which would be 0.01 - 2.4 ppm gluten. Open Original Shared Link It would be interesting to see more sensitive tests of gluten in cows milk for comparison.

[tarnalberry]

You really can't compare cow milk and human milk at all. We have two VERY different digestive systems.

[dilettantesteph]

Rye grass is common in most pastures as are certain strains of wheat grass.

I've wondered if ryegrass is the same as the rye used to make bread which contains gluten. It turns out that it isn't.

Ryegrass (Lollum) is the stuff that grows in lawns and pastures, Open Original Shared Link

Rye (Secale cereale) is the stuff that bread is made from. Open Original Shared Link

Good thing. It wouldn't be so good for us if all our lawns contained gluten producing grasses.

[Skylark]

Thank you for the citations. Concentrations of gliadin in breast milk was in the range of 5 -1200 ng/ml which would be 0.01 - 2.4 ppm gluten. Open Original Shared Link It would be interesting to see more sensitive tests of gluten in cows milk for comparison.

Interesting. Cows and people have pretty different digestive systems so it's hard to go across species. I bet that study is what lead to the cow study. They fed the cows in the study 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% wheat so it really seems like they should have picked up gluten if it were coming through the milk. It's hard to imagine a cow fed 100% wheat wouldn't show some gluten if it were going to come through. I agree it would be interesting to see a more sensitive test, although I think it's hard to get below 1 ppm.

It's also really hard to say whether a reaction that feels like gluten would be to gluten or beta-casein. Do you think you're sensitive enough to react that strongly to gluten below 1 ppm as compared to a moderate reaction to lots of casein?

[cassP]

Actually, if that theory WERE correct, which I don't believe it is, I would think you'd be having a bigger problem with milk from grass fed cows rather than cows feed the generic feed lot mix of corn soy and whoknowswhat. Rye grass is common in most pastures as are certain strains of wheat grass. If the milk could be contaiminated by what the cows eat, you wouldn't want a grass fed cow giving you milk.

is rye grass the same as rye??? because everything ive read says that wheat grass is not wheat. i actually used to consume Kyogreen (a healthy green powder consisting of Barley grass & wheat grass)- the product was labeled "gluten free". i decided to buy plain old Spirulina the next time because members on here said that wheat could still possibly be on the same fields with the wheat grass and get mixed in.

i am definitely open to this "theory" because they found gluten in breast milk. it makes sense to me that grass fed beef & dairy could possibly be healthier than products from cows fed genetically modified wheat, corn, soy, and rBGH.

[Skylark]

Where did you read wheat grass is not wheat? Everything I've read says it's Triticum aestivum, or common wheat. There is supposedly no gluten in the grass but I'm afraid of it. It sprouted from poison.

[ravenwoodglass]

Where did you read wheat grass is not wheat? Everything I've read says it's Triticum aestivum, or common wheat. There is supposedly no gluten in the grass but I'm afraid of it. It sprouted from poison.

Wheat and barley grass are simply wheat and barley that has not formed the seed heads. As Skylark says there is not supposed to be any gluten in it but it is not IMHO safe for us. I learned that the hard way. The ryegrass that is grown as lawns is a different thing than the rye that is grown for it's seed.

[dilettantesteph]

Do you think you're sensitive enough to react that strongly to gluten below 1 ppm as compared to a moderate reaction to lots of casein?

I don't react very strongly to milk, and I do think that I am sensitive enough to react to gluten below 1 ppm. After all, a pretty small amount of something that tests to below 5 ppm will make me sick. If I eat 5 times that amount of something else to get the same symptoms, that item is probably below 1 ppm.

I don't know that there is gluten in milk, or that I react to it, or that it comes from diet or contamination if it is there. I just do what I can to get healthy. These assumptions have been working well for me so far.

I don't think that I am alone in reacting to such low levels. I think that many celiacs sensitive to lower levels of gluten have been diagnosed with refractory sprue. I believe that as analytical testing methods become more sensitive we will be able to do a better job of knowing where low levels of gluten are and these people will be able to get healthy.

[cassP]

hey skylark- this is what i used to drink with my pineapple juice:

Open Original Shared Link

it has all those ingredients, but still says gluten free. i DID switch to plain old Spirulina after reading your guys' comments over the months about concerns over the grasses.

years ago, i DID notice that i would get slight intestinal gurgles when i would drink it- but i was still eating small amounts of gluten back then, and a lot of coffee & dairy. plus it has FOS in it and i have fructose issues. also, back then, i didnt know anything about gluten & celiac at all... i only knew i felt best off grains esp. wheat.

[Skylark]

Well, like I said wheat grass theoretically contains no gluten. The thing that scares me is unsprouted seeds, or grass that gets pulled up by the roots so the seed comes with it. There are so many other healthy things to eat other than wheat grass, why take the chance?

[Skylark]

I don't react very strongly to milk, and I do think that I am sensitive enough to react to gluten below 1 ppm. After all, a pretty small amount of something that tests to below 5 ppm will make me sick. If I eat 5 times that amount of something else to get the same symptoms, that item is probably below 1 ppm.

I don't know that there is gluten in milk, or that I react to it, or that it comes from diet or contamination if it is there. I just do what I can to get healthy. These assumptions have been working well for me so far.

I don't think that I am alone in reacting to such low levels. I think that many celiacs sensitive to lower levels of gluten have been diagnosed with refractory sprue. I believe that as analytical testing methods become more sensitive we will be able to do a better job of knowing where low levels of gluten are and these people will be able to get healthy.

I don't think you are alone either. My own sensitivity comes and goes but I'm not to where I react to 1 ppm. I try to eat whole foods I prepare myself for the most part because of those studies on refractory celiac. Besides, it's healthier anyway. I'm really starting to appreciate how bad processed foods are for us.