Monday, January 19, 2015

Is wheat grass gluten-free or what?





Honestly, I don't find joy telling you or myself to NOT consume something. Life is short and do you really want to be sick and unhealthy your whole life? I don't take those risks. I take other life thrills like bungee jumping, running and hiking 14er mountains and challenging myself when snowboarding, or through regular work day adventures...

 


The word "wheat" makes me cringe, so does barley, ryes, malts, etc. It's their protein, gluten, that makes my world hell.  Yet learning more bout grains, the young wheat grass and other grass such as young barley grasses in their true selves (grasses) probably don't have any gluten proteins present yet what my research shows. They're "so healthy" and I really want to try it, but I'm not ready to risk it. It's the harvesting and equipment that could and likely are contaminating the grasses. Therefore, if any type of tiny, medium to large farmer allows any of these grasses to begin seeding prior to a harvest then this crop will be contaminated with gluten. Plus, nobody tests any of this, instead it's just "gluten-free" because it is gluten-free, which I don't jive with. 
Our world is full of cross contamination, 
deal with it and don't be so surprised all of the time. 
In addition, if these tiny, small or large manufacturer of fresh or produced wheat grass supplements is made in a gluten-containing facility on the same equipment without thoroughly for gluten / protein allergen cleaning agents, once again you have at minimum, traces of gluten contamination if not much more. 
Common sense test says, the risk outweighs the benefits. 
The U.S. FDA put out a guideline for gluten-free labeling, does everyone know this?  So why do we see so many products without gluten-free validation?  I reached out to an Australian wheat grass business who said they do not currently validate the gluten ppm cross contamination, but Celiacs have had success on their product. Unfortunately, that blanket statement is what every business, marketing and scientist without results says and I typically say, "no thank you, go validate your claims." Hey, I'm not perfect, but some stuff is too fishy for the frier, ya know what I mean?  
It's now 2015 and the governmental or 3rd party agencies that are supposed to guide good healthy practices in our world, still fail. We're still far away from transparency that the few require, while the many don't seem to live all that well regardless, considering I see a lot of unhealthy people who eat gluten, every single day. Anyway, it's quite challenging again today, that we live in a world with food allergies, gluten related disorders and auto-immune diseases, and companies, restaurants, etc can still get away with not testing before going to market. 

Remember, eat fresh, research and investigate, but prepare and cook your own food, and wash/scrub everything well. If there is doubt, avoid it and stay in control of your gluten-free lifestyle, especially as a diagnosed Celiac. 

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