This post is all about Gluten Free Difficulties, what products to avoid, managing health and much more.

Disclosure
Published March 4, 2024
This page might contain affiliate links. In the event of a sale, I will be awarded a small commission (at no extra cost for you).

What happened in June

Diagnosis and changes

In June, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Hypothyroidism and therefore a lifelong struggle to manage my hormones and health.

Part of my diagnosis is to live a gluten free and dairy free lifestyle, and to also give up caffeine and alcohol. The later has been slightly easier than going gluten free. Did you know gluten is in just about everything now?

From beauty care products, makeup and ChapStick, to lotions and shampoo. Within the first month, not knowing any of this information, it was a long learning process.

With a day’s worth of searching online, information came out that needed to be shared. I was shocked to find out what was in my products that were used each day.

Gluten products are used in shampoo, conditioner, ChapStick. lotion, foundation, bodywash, dish soap, laundry detergent, and so much more.

What is the list?

What is the list of products used in beauty care products that you need to look out for?

Now, this list is not complete, by any means. It is, however, quite staggering when you think of which products these are hidden in that you use every day.

• Triticum vulgare – wheat
• Hordeum vulgare – barley
• Secale cereale – rye
• Avena sativa – oats
• Wheat germ oil
• Hydrolyzed wheat protein (HWP)
• Stearyldimonium hydroxypropyl – wheat protein
• Colloidal oatmeal
• Hydrolyzed vegetable protein – wheat
• Dextrin palmitate – gluten starch
• Vitamin E – wheat germ oil
• Malt extract – barley
• Beta-glucan – wheat
• Vegetable protein – wheat, barley, rye and/or oats
• AMP-isostearoyl hydrolyzed wheat protein
• Hydrolyzed wheat gluten
• Triticum lipids
• Wheat bran extract
• Wheat germ extract
• Wheat germ glyceride

Avoid Barley products

In addition to avoiding wheat products, needing to be gluten free also means avoiding barley products as well. Barley, hordeum vulgare (Latin) is not always listed as such, and you may need to dig deeper to find out what your ingredients actually are.

Going Gluten Free means you will have to avoid some products and foods that you could enjoy prior to your Gluten Free Difficulties. Some of the biggest barley products include some of the listed below:

• barley extract
• hordeum vulgare extract
• malt extract

Not only do you need to avoid products with barley in food or cosmetics, but there are also alcohol products that contain barley. Some of those include:

• Scotch whisky
• Irish whisky
• Vodka
• Gin
• Some Beers

Avoid rye products

In addition to gluten, wheat and barley, one also needs to avoid products that contain rye or secale cereal (Latin).

Rye, in contrast to wheat, seems easier to avoid, as it is a distinct flavor and product lines. Rye bread is arguably the biggest proponent of rye, and yet there are also some food items that do contain rye.

Below are a few product names that contain or are derived from rye.

• sodium lauroyl oat amino acid
• avena sativa extract

The second biggest next to rye bread or rye flour, is anything that is malted. Malted shakes contain malt ingredients which are derived from rye. In addition to food, cosmetics and more, there are also alcohol products that contain rye. Some of them include:

• American whisky
• Bourbon
• Rye whisky (Canadian)
• Rye malt

Follow me on Pinterest

Follow me on Pinterest for so much more inspiration, recipes, DIY and more. New ideas are added daily, and you will always find my most recent blog posts and favorite recipes.

Avoid oats products

Not all oats are made gluten free. Some are processed in facilities that also handle gluten products, so therefore, you cannot trust that all oat products are gluten free. If you are, for instance, Celiac, you need to be so careful in what food products you consume, making sure they are 100% gluten free.

When looking at a product that DOES contain oats, make sure it has the GLUTEN FREE label, otherwise, don’t trust it. Having the GF label is a trustworthy way to know that the product is safe to consume or use when avoiding gluten.

Additionally, when looking into food products that are gluten free, make sure you also confirm that they are gluten free and not processed in a facility with gluten.

You may also like…

There are many recipes that can be made Gluten Free. One of my go-to recipes is Gluten Free Pizza Crust. It is fluffy, crispy and so delicious. Check it out by clicking the link below.

Another favorite recipe is Gluten Free Pie Crust, which is a versatile recipe great for many dinners. Pot pie, pies, pop tarts and so much more. Click the link below for the full recipe for Gluten Free Pie Crust.

Why avoid gluten with Hashimoto’s?

In 1870, the modern grain mill was introduced, and a grain mill was invented and used to modernize farming. This grain mill was faster, more accurate, and helped to revolutionize getting more grain straight to consumers.

Another way that this was revolutionary, was it created a finer grain flour, leaching it of all nutrients. Flour was then processed, bagged, shipped and sold easier than it ever has been before.

Within 10 years, all the old mills had been replaced, thus, bringing out the first ever processed foods to the market.

Now, this was just the beginning of processed foods. In the 1950’s, the “Green Revolution” came out and the father of the movement, Norman Borlaug, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, credited with saving one billion lives.

This movement was where the wheat produce was altered, or “improved”. A new, semi-dwarf wheat was created that, combined with fertilizers and pesticides, increased the wheat yield in a spectacular way.

Borlaug was applauded for “solving hunger”, however, this will bring about a staggering result to the United States that we weren’t prepared for. Even though the Green Revolution helped solve hunger, it did traumatic and devastating damage to the nutrients in wheat, thus human nutrition.

According to Dr. William Davis, “this thing being sold to us called wheat—it ain’t wheat. It’s this stocky little high-yield plant, a distant relative of the wheat our mothers used to bake muffins, genetically and biochemically light-years removed from the wheat of just 40 years ago.”

Today, doctors can now connect illnesses, chronic digestive and inflammatory issues, directly to the consequences of altering wheat in the 50’s.

For a more informative read, check out What’s Wrong With Wheat by Grainstorm Heritage Baking.

Hashimoto’s and Gluten

Having Hashimoto’s, which is an autoimmune disease, means many changes in your life. Needing hormone supplements, vitamins, minerals and avoiding certain foods is the #1 way to help manage your symptoms.

Hashimoto’s, by definition, is “An inflammation of thyroid gland, which makes hormones that control many of the body’s functions. It causes fatigue, weight gain, puffy face and slow heartbeat.”

When consuming gluten, or gluten foods, and having Hashimoto’s, your body’s immune system recognizes the gluten as an enemy and will then attack the thyroid instead. This causes massive trauma to your body and immune system, which can lead to some of the below symptoms:

• Fatigue
• Weight gain
• Depression
• Slowed heart rate
• Heavy or abnormal menstrual periods
• Sensitive to cold
• Puffiness of face
• Difficulty to conceive
• Dry skin
• Enlargement of thyroid gland

Avoiding gluten can help your body start to get a fighting chance to calm your immune system down, allowing inflammation to slowly reduce.

Hopefully, some of this information can help you, if you are suffering from thyroid issues or Hashimoto’s, and you can take the first steps in getting your body back on track.

This post was all about how the last few months has been difficult for me and Gluten Free Difficulties.
~Monica

Copyright: All content and photos on Monica's Scratch Kitchen are copyright protected. Please do not use them without written permission. Thank you.