Allergic To Unifiber?

[AllergicToEverything]

I recently discovered that I am gluten intolerant. One of my many symptoms was occasional "itching attacks", where my skin starts itching like crazy (especially on my back) and raised lines appear where I've scratched. I've been trying to be gluten free for the past month, but continue to have these random bouts of itching. In an attempt to deflect away from her cooking , my wife pointed out that it seems to be happening after I drink my twice daily dose of Unifiber. But it happens only occasionally. Does this seem likely? The Unifiber website claims that it's gluten free, even though it contains maltrodextrin. Is it possible that I could be allergic to some other ingredient?

Bruce

[T.H.]

Do you get a rash, or just the itching? With a rash, it could be dermatitis herpetiformis, which is a gluten caused rash. Some folks might get itching from gluten with celiac disease, but if itching is the primary symptom, I'd start looking at allergies first, yeah.

If lines are appearing where you've scratched, that could be something from hives, which, could be from an allergy to something. It could be an allergy to grains from the grass family (which includes gluten AND other grains) or wheat/gluten grains, or it could be to something else entirely.

Re: the gluten free status of unifiber? Here's a good way to check that out. Go on the website, get the phone number, and call them up. Ask the following questions:

1. Is this product gluten free?(let's assume yes, but this can change and sometimes the website lags behind the actual product ingredients)

2. Is it processed on a gluten free line? Is it made in a gluten free facility?

3. Is it tested for gluten? If so, how frequently? (every batch, weekly, monthly?)

4. And...how sensitive is the test used to test for gluten? You may have to ask this question a few different ways. What's the gluten ppm cut off, what's the detection level for gluten for this test, etc...

When I've been calling companies that do supplements, vitamins, protein powders, and such, more often than not, the company didn't actually test for gluten. It just didn't add any gluten on purpose.

However, I ask question #4 because at least a quarter of the time, I am assured that they test for gluten and then it turns out that they do NOT test for gluten at all. The person I speak to doesn't know how sensitive the test is, so they HAVE to talk to someone more knowledgeable, and that is where they find out for certain if the product is tested.

The most annoying is when I'm assured that they don't test for gluten because it's gluten free so there couldn't possibly be gluten in it. Uh, yeah...that's what my mother-in-law said about her cooking, too. But as we all know, just 'cause they didn't put any in there on purpose doesn't mean it didn't get in there on accident.

If there IS gluten in the unifiber, I'd suspect gluten cc before the looking at the maltodextrin, honestly.

However, all that said? I notice it had xanthan gum - this is known to cause issues with a number of people, including gluten intolerant folks, so you might want to look at that, as well. You can buy xanthan gum by itself, usually, so you could test that out on its own, too. :-)

[AllergicToEverything]

Thanks Shauna!

As I said, I'm pretty new to this. I appreciate the advice.

Bruce