Gluten In Other Products Besides Food?

[Skittles]

Do we only have to watch out for gluten in the things we ingest? Anything else like make up or creams?

[BabsV]

Anything that you ingest should be gluten free.

I've heard some doctors say to not worry about shampoo or cosmetics (except for anything you put on your lips because that will end up in your system) but I am much more cautious. I mean, I sing in the shower so shampoo/conditioner/soaps have a chance of getting in my mouth where I'd swallow them. Also, I feel better being cautious and using only gluten-free cosmetics, lotions, etc. Gluten made me a very very very sick person so I am not taking any chances that traces of it are going to sneak into my system if I can avoid it!

[Gemini]

  On 5/30/2012 at 11:51 PM, Skittles said:

Do we only have to watch out for gluten in the things we ingest? Anything else like make up or creams?

It is a personal choice issue, not a medical necessity. It all depends on your personal habits and whether you feel that they will contribute to ingesting gluten into your GI tract. I am a bath person and rarely take showers anyway.....much easier to not ingest soap in a bathtub vs. a shower.

I do not screen make-up and I am an extremely sensitive, diagnosed Celiac. Except for lipstick, lip products and body/hand cream, I have never found it necessary to give up the expensive make-up I use because of ingestion worries. You will also find that the pricier make-up generally does not contain gluten anyway, as wheat is a cheap filler. I've been doing this for 7 years and feel great and have extremely low antibody counts whenever I am re-tested. It can be done without too much problem but it all depends on how comfortable you feel about it.

[woodnewt]

  On 5/30/2012 at 11:51 PM, Skittles said:

Do we only have to watch out for gluten in the things we ingest? Anything else like make up or creams?

Pretty much need to watch out for anything that could end up in your mouth.

Going to emphasize dish washing soap, the kind you buy at the health food store in particular. Be wary of anything that says plant protein or extracts - it may be from vital wheat gluten.

[Mom-of-Two]

You need to watch your lotions in particular- think about putting it on your hands and then preparing a salad or cutting veggies- that type of thing.

Chap sticks or lip balms for sure, but I find it easier to just check my personal products- Dove products are gluten free, their body wash and shampoos, deodorants. Check your toothpaste!

I prefer to keep it all gluten free, just easier to rule out any potential issues. It's not too difficult really, and if you can't get your answer online, I have called and emailed about products.

[Skittles]

  On 6/5/2012 at 11:55 PM, woodnewt said:

Pretty much need to watch out for anything that could end up in your mouth.

Going to emphasize dish washing soap, the kind you buy at the health food store in particular. Be wary of anything that says plant protein or extracts - it may be from vital wheat gluten.

wow I never even thought of dish soap! Thanks!!

[Gemini]

  On 6/5/2012 at 11:55 PM, woodnewt said:

Pretty much need to watch out for anything that could end up in your mouth.

Going to emphasize dish washing soap, the kind you buy at the health food store in particular. Be wary of anything that says plant protein or extracts - it may be from vital wheat gluten.

I have never seen any dish washing soap that contained gluten. They may exist but I have never seen one. Also, do you not rinse your dishes well after washing or do you let the soap dry on the dish? That would be the only issue with dish washing detergent being a problem for a Celiac AND it would have to contain gluten.

This is a common sense issue more than anything else. Dish washing detergents for hand washing of dishes or the dishwasher are just not a concern, unless you do the above.

[woodnewt]

  On 6/6/2012 at 3:53 PM, Gemini said:

I have never seen any dish washing soap that contained gluten. They may exist but I have never seen one. Also, do you not rinse your dishes well after washing or do you let the soap dry on the dish? That would be the only issue with dish washing detergent being a problem for a Celiac AND it would have to contain gluten.

This is a common sense issue more than anything else. Dish washing detergents for hand washing of dishes or the dishwasher are just not a concern, unless you do the above.

This is not a common sense issue. You would think it is but it's not. No one really suspects dish soap, and if gluten is in the dish soap, every day exposure WILL happen. I want people to be aware of this because I don't want anyone else to go through what I did because of dish soap.

The "cross contamination" issue that caused me to become extremely ill and lose over 40 lbs nearly three years ago was from dish washing soap. I am not the only person in my household with celiac disease, and another family member became even more ill than I did. At the time we knew something was wrong, but couldn't figure out what it was other than it felt like we were being poisoned, but there was NO gluten in any of the foods we were eating. We cut our diet cut down to nothing but fresh bananas, olive oil, and fresh meat at one point, and STILL weight loss, classic digestive symptoms, and worse. I was losing weight at 3-5 lbs a week, nonstop. This went on for almost 3 months until I was skeletal. Then I started going through all of our non-food products. The brand of dish washing soap we had switched to 3 months prior, and had been using exclusively for all those three months, listed plant protein on the label - when I looked up the ingredients on the company's online website - I discovered that the plant protein was sourced from wheat gluten. I don't know if the company has since changed their product label to list "gluten" as an ingredient instead of "plant protein" but I sure as heck hope they have.

Open Original Shared Link

After the dish soap and all dish scrubs were replaced, the weight loss stopped. This 3-month nightmare took me nearly a year to recover from, and frankly, based on the way I have to eat now to feel "normal," I would say I have not truly recovered.

I wash ALL my dishes well and rinse in hot water until they are squeaky clean. There is never any visible soap residue on any of the dishes. Traces of the gluten were somehow getting into our food.

The concern is VERY real.

[Skittles]

  On 6/8/2012 at 8:25 AM, woodnewt said:

This is not a common sense issue. You would think it is but it's not. No one really suspects dish soap, and if gluten is in the dish soap, every day exposure WILL happen. I want people to be aware of this because I don't want anyone else to go through what I did because of dish soap.

The "cross contamination" issue that caused me to become extremely ill and lose over 40 lbs nearly three years ago was from dish washing soap. I am not the only person in my household with celiac disease, and another family member became even more ill than I did. At the time we knew something was wrong, but couldn't figure out what it was other than it felt like we were being poisoned, but there was NO gluten in any of the foods we were eating. We cut our diet cut down to nothing but fresh bananas, olive oil, and fresh meat at one point, and STILL weight loss, classic digestive symptoms, and worse. I was losing weight at 3-5 lbs a week, nonstop. This went on for almost 3 months until I was skeletal. Then I started going through all of our non-food products. The brand of dish washing soap we had switched to 3 months prior, and had been using exclusively for all those three months, listed plant protein on the label - when I looked up the ingredients on the company's online website - I discovered that the plant protein was sourced from wheat gluten. I don't know if the company has since changed their product label to list "gluten" as an ingredient instead of "plant protein" but I sure as heck hope they have.

Open Original Shared Link

After the dish soap and all dish scrubs were replaced, the weight loss stopped. This 3-month nightmare took me nearly a year to recover from, and frankly, based on the way I have to eat now to feel "normal," I would say I have not truly recovered.

I wash ALL my dishes well and rinse in hot water until they are squeaky clean. There is never any visible soap residue on any of the dishes. Traces of the gluten were somehow getting into our food.

The concern is VERY real.

Well thank you very much for the info Woodnewt.. I would never have thought of that but really it does make sense!

[cblackb1]

  On 5/30/2012 at 11:51 PM, Skittles said:

Do we only have to watch out for gluten in the things we ingest? Anything else like make up or creams?

I check everything and am completely gluten free. My dogfood for my dogs is gluten free as well as their treats, my makeup and shampoo/ laundry detergent. Why take the risk??

[Gemini]

  On 6/8/2012 at 8:25 AM, woodnewt said:

This is not a common sense issue. You would think it is but it's not. No one really suspects dish soap, and if gluten is in the dish soap, every day exposure WILL happen. I want people to be aware of this because I don't want anyone else to go through what I did because of dish soap.

The "cross contamination" issue that caused me to become extremely ill and lose over 40 lbs nearly three years ago was from dish washing soap. I am not the only person in my household with celiac disease, and another family member became even more ill than I did. At the time we knew something was wrong, but couldn't figure out what it was other than it felt like we were being poisoned, but there was NO gluten in any of the foods we were eating. We cut our diet cut down to nothing but fresh bananas, olive oil, and fresh meat at one point, and STILL weight loss, classic digestive symptoms, and worse. I was losing weight at 3-5 lbs a week, nonstop. This went on for almost 3 months until I was skeletal. Then I started going through all of our non-food products. The brand of dish washing soap we had switched to 3 months prior, and had been using exclusively for all those three months, listed plant protein on the label - when I looked up the ingredients on the company's online website - I discovered that the plant protein was sourced from wheat gluten. I don't know if the company has since changed their product label to list "gluten" as an ingredient instead of "plant protein" but I sure as heck hope they have.

Open Original Shared Link

After the dish soap and all dish scrubs were replaced, the weight loss stopped. This 3-month nightmare took me nearly a year to recover from, and frankly, based on the way I have to eat now to feel "normal," I would say I have not truly recovered.

I wash ALL my dishes well and rinse in hot water until they are squeaky clean. There is never any visible soap residue on any of the dishes. Traces of the gluten were somehow getting into our food.

The concern is VERY real.

Sorry.....unless you are eating soap, it's not an issue. I have yet to see any Celiac organization warn about dishwasher soap and there should not be any soap residue on plates from hand washing or running through a dishwasher. If there is, then better rinsing needs to be done. It is a common sense issue. However, if people want to believe that you can be glutened from dish soap, that's their choice.

I was also skeletal when diagnosed so I was in the same place as you. The company that sells that particular soap does not need to put "gluten" on the label as who would be eating soap? They are not required to label it as such.

[woodnewt]

  On 6/13/2012 at 8:22 PM, Gemini said:

Sorry.....unless you are eating soap, it's not an issue. I have yet to see any Celiac organization warn about dishwasher soap and there should not be any soap residue on plates from hand washing or running through a dishwasher. If there is, then better rinsing needs to be done. It is a common sense issue. However, if people want to believe that you can be glutened from dish soap, that's their choice.

I was also skeletal when diagnosed so I was in the same place as you. The company that sells that particular soap does not need to put "gluten" on the label as who would be eating soap? They are not required to label it as such.

Wow. This response is just inconsiderate and downright vicious. I explained what happened to me and then you attack my integrity? Why? I went through hell, my other family member went through a chain reaction of health issues and HAS NOT recovered - he is still going through hell, and you tell me this is either an in-your-head "if you want to believe it that's your choice" or I must have been washing dishes poorly and "eating soap"?

Please, go use this soap exclusively for washing dishes for all your meals, home prepared 3-4 times a day, all cups, spoons, forks, knives if you feel there is ZERO RISK of any contamination. This is not a one time exposure to soap with gluten but a 3-month constant exposure. It's bad enough to have to deal with CC issues from foods. The company SHOULD put wheat on their label if they are using it as an ingredient; it is deceptive not to. And on a side thought, based on this logic, what about someone who gets an anaphylactic reaction to wheat - as long as dishes are washed well, is it safe use dish soaps with wheat ingredients? I would think not.

[mamaupupup]

I appreciate every personal experience on this forum, including yours, woodnewt. Thank you very much for pointing out the dishsoap issue. I will check ours first thing in the am!

I am all for reducing gluten in as many places as possible. We have tried to remove gluten from every aspect of our children's lives (including toiletries, play makeup, etc.). We feel that if they have a solid "clean" environment at home, the cross-contamination which exists outside our home and often is beyond our control will impact their bodies to a lesser degree.

I hope this one makes you all smile...

On a more amusing note, my husband has a tropical saltwater aquarium. He was a bit annoyed when I asked if the flake fish food has gluten. He thought there was no way it did. A few days later he proudly held up new cans of gluten free fish food declaring that all of his previous fish food does have gluten. He promptly gathered up the old stuff and is passing the contaminated food off to friends for their non-gluten-free fishies. When my husband was out of town, I was on fish duty. As I fed the fish their wonderful pure seaweed and brine shrimp dinner it was a feeding frenzy--it was as if the fish were saying, "This is the BEST fish food I've ever tasted!" They were so so happy -- clearly the fish are less foggy on a gluten free diet! It was a riot, I almost videotaped it!

...and, no, our kids weren't eating the fish food...but they did often pick up the cans of food, help feed the fish, then come to dinner...we always encouraged handwashing, but things slip through the cracks...we are all much more relaxed now that we have fewer points of gluten around...off to check out the soap Thank you!!!

[squirmingitch]

woodnewt, I'm wondering if you use/d the soapy dishrag to wash the counter tops down as so many of us do?

[ravenwoodglass]

  On 6/17/2012 at 11:59 AM, squirmingitch said:

woodnewt, I'm wondering if you use/d the soapy dishrag to wash the counter tops down as so many of us do?

There is also the issue of residue being left on your hands after washing the dishes. How many of us wash our hands with a for sure safe hand soap after washing the dishes. My feeling has always been better safe than sorry when it comes to gluten exposure and since there are so many safe alternatives it just makes sense to me to use one of them.

[woodnewt]

I use paper towels, not soapy dishrags to wipe counters. Also doubt the soap being left on hands was the issue. It would not explain the other family member who does not do dishes. I am not the one who cooks and prepares his food.

Dish soap is supposed to be amphipathic with one end of the molecule hydrophobic sticking to the oils on dirty dishes and the other end hydrophilic being washed away by water. With this dish soap, there were hardly any suds at all. If a person had used this soap at all, they’d understand that it’s not quite like "traditional" (petroleum-based) dish soaps. It's likely the 'eco-friendly' soap residue wasn’t completely washing away despite good dish washing, related to chemical composition.

mamaupupup>> I don't have any fish, but it seems probable that most fish food would be gluten based (most pet foods are). Didn't know gluten-free fish food exists, but it makes sense! What lucky fish you have. I'm sure their fish flakes/bits taste marvelous.