RogerS
Established Member
1) Wondered why you keep getting reactions even though your diet excludes those food items that trigger the inflamatory response ?
Do you buy gluten-free stuff from shops ? Then take a good hard look at the ingredients and I'll bet that you will see xanthan gum in the listing. There's your culprit and the stuff features more and more in gluten-free cakes and bread etc. If you are coeliac then xanthan gum is not good for you. My missus is severely coeliac and couldn't work out why she kept feeling rough. The only bread she buys is M&S seeded loaf - gluten free. It's her go-to breakfast. So we kept a food diary and traced the culprit to the bread and xanthan gum in it.
We passed this information to a few friends who are also coeliac and been puzzling why they often didn't feel very well. They kept a food diary. Cut out anything with xanthan gum...Hey Presto. Jury is out on guar gum which also features heavily in gluten-free goods but we have our suspicions.
2) So you cut out the xanthan gum but still having problems ? Wheat starch is the next likely culprit. Yes....in theory it has been processed to be gluten-free. But this depends on the manufacturing method and it may still contain gluten. The Coeliac Society have been banging on about how it is OK for ages and refer to a study carried out by a Finnish professor that showed no reaction in coeliacs. Pity they didn't do any due diligence on the study. Like asking how many participants? Was the wheat starch bought at random ? I contacted the Professor and asked him. Had they done so then they would have found out that the study size was about 20 people (IIRC) and that the industry supplied the wheat starch sample. Hardly statistically sound.
3) Last up. I'm hoping you do know that our food regulations are not that tight and that below a certain level then anything containing gluten etc does not have to be on the ingredients list. If you are severely coeliac that limit is set too high.
Next week: Histamine Overload. Never heard of it ? Neither have a lot of doctors.
Do you buy gluten-free stuff from shops ? Then take a good hard look at the ingredients and I'll bet that you will see xanthan gum in the listing. There's your culprit and the stuff features more and more in gluten-free cakes and bread etc. If you are coeliac then xanthan gum is not good for you. My missus is severely coeliac and couldn't work out why she kept feeling rough. The only bread she buys is M&S seeded loaf - gluten free. It's her go-to breakfast. So we kept a food diary and traced the culprit to the bread and xanthan gum in it.
We passed this information to a few friends who are also coeliac and been puzzling why they often didn't feel very well. They kept a food diary. Cut out anything with xanthan gum...Hey Presto. Jury is out on guar gum which also features heavily in gluten-free goods but we have our suspicions.
2) So you cut out the xanthan gum but still having problems ? Wheat starch is the next likely culprit. Yes....in theory it has been processed to be gluten-free. But this depends on the manufacturing method and it may still contain gluten. The Coeliac Society have been banging on about how it is OK for ages and refer to a study carried out by a Finnish professor that showed no reaction in coeliacs. Pity they didn't do any due diligence on the study. Like asking how many participants? Was the wheat starch bought at random ? I contacted the Professor and asked him. Had they done so then they would have found out that the study size was about 20 people (IIRC) and that the industry supplied the wheat starch sample. Hardly statistically sound.
3) Last up. I'm hoping you do know that our food regulations are not that tight and that below a certain level then anything containing gluten etc does not have to be on the ingredients list. If you are severely coeliac that limit is set too high.
Next week: Histamine Overload. Never heard of it ? Neither have a lot of doctors.
