What Contains Gluten?

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What Contains Gluten? The Answer May Surprise You

What contains gluten? Your cosmetics, perhaps? Before we dive into this one, I want to give you a little background as to what gluten is and why it's something to be avoided in your cosmetics.

First off, gluten is a protein in wheat which has many negative health effects for people who are gluten sensitive or have Celiac Disease. 1 in 3 people may be gluten sensitive and not even know it! It can cause so many problems that many people who remove it from their diets see incredible improvements.

For a list of the symptoms of gluten intolerance please see this article: Gluten Intolerant. You've probably been hearing a lot lately about gluten, gluten-free foods, and the like. It's getting a blt of attention lately, especially since Dr. Oz mentioned it on his show. And we all know how most people take what Dr. Oz says as the word of God!

Let me tell you a bit about my journey and how I came to be gluten free. Throughout my life I consumed a great deal of carbs in the form of wheat and grains, such as crackers, cookies, breads, pastas, and cereal. All my life I've had weight problems as well. No matter what diet I was on, I couldn't seem to drop the extra pounds. Then when I was 25, I decided to go on the South Beach diet. Do you know what that is? It's a diet of no grains or sugar. You eat meats, dairy, and vegetables. After being on that diet and integrating exercise, I lost 60 pounds! What could have been the key?

I'll tell you in a bit....so when I went back to eating wheat (when I say wheat, I also refer to gluten) I gained back some (but not all) of the weight. But it seemed like I gained weight easily even though I thought I was still eating healthy. I guess I wasn't ready to learn the truth yet...

Two events changed the way I eat forever. I went to a holistic M.D. and she told me I had sensitivity to wheat....even after I learned this, I continued to eat wheat products. I had symptoms like fatigue, bloating, gas, and lord knows what else going on inside my body. What would it take to get me to stop eating what?

Wheat is everywhere and it seems if you cut that out, there'd be nothing to eat! I then heard an incredible interview on Sean Croxton's Underground Wellness radio show with Dr. William Davis. If you read my last post on What Causes Wrinkles, you'll remember I referred to Dr. Davis' book, Wheat Belly. After hearing what Dr. Davis had uncovered about wheat and the incredible things it can do to the body, I immediately cut all wheat and gluten out of my diet. What resulted?

Weight gain, fatigue, sneezing, and that nagging pain in my right knee were gone! I've been wheat free for about a year and I'm never going back!

By now, you might be thinking, what the heck does this have to do with cosmetics? Well, I'll tell ya. I made a conscious effort to avoid all gluten in my foods and never once thought about other products I use that may contain gluten. One day when I was washing my hair, I decided to look on the ingredients label. I was using one of my favorite products, Aubrey Organics GPB protein conditioner and saw wheat germ oil on the label...my hair had been kind of limp and dry lately. Was this the reason?

Can wheat or gluten in your cosmetics actually affect you internally? Let's explore this further...

I found this post on The Gluten Free Blogger (insert link: http://theglutenfreeblogger.com/2011/01/17/gluten-in-cosmetics/) that said for even people with Celiac Disease, gluten in their cosmetics should have no effect on them because the gluten is not ingested. There's been a huge surge of gluten free beauty products lately and this is all for nothing? I don't know if I quite agree with this one.

I've heard that people who are gluten sensitive cannot even be around wheat especially if it's in powdered form, like flour, because it can be inhaled and cause problems that way. What carries more risk is things like lip glosses or lipsticks, since we unconsciously lick our lips and end up eating our lipstick while we eat. It's also been reported that those of us who are gluten sensitive can develop rashes or skin irritation if we use lotions with gluten, so it's also best to avoid those.

So I've concluded that maybe the wheat germ oil in my conditioner didn't affect me the way I thought it had...but I still gave it to my friend to be on the safe side. If you are gluten intolerant like me or have Celiac Disease, your best bet is to check your products to see what contains gluten and chuck it if it contains any form of wheat. If you're thinking well just a little bit won't hurt, think again. For someone who is gluten intolerant, just a speck of wheat ingested can cause problems. Here's a quick list of products to check:

lipstick
lip gloss
toothpaste
body lotion
facial moisturizer
facial cleanser
shampoo & conditioner
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