Gluten Hazards:

Finding A Potential Gluten Hazard
In Some Hidden Healthy Snacks

Finding potential gluten hazards hiding on your ingredient label on what you thought was going to be a healthy snack can be very dangerous to your new diet. Many common every day items, often that you would never think of, can show gluten peptides because of fillers or maybe just from cross-contamination. The following items need to be checked very carefully for potential gluten hazards before use:

• Birth control pills

• Corn and Rice cereals (wheat is usually made on the same belt)

• Communion wafers

• Over the counter drugs- always talk to the pharmacist about your allergy first to confirm your selection's safety. Many cough syrups, cold pills, vitamins etc. can all have gluten in as fillers but it is not shown on the ingredient label.

• Potato chips

• Prescription medications must be covered with your pharmacist also. Again gluten is a common filler in many drugs

• Vegetable cooking sprays

• Vitamins or supplements from the store

Often, on many of these, the pharmacist, store owner or yourself may have to do some research to verify the safety of these types of products.

Start A New Habit To Catch All Gluten Hazards

But since it is a filler, many times the company will not have it itemized separately on the ingredient label. Check over this list below and if you see it on the ingredient label, call the manufacturer first before use to verify its safety.

• artificial color or flavors

• brown rice syrup

• caramel color

• dextrin

• food starch

• HVP or hydrolyzed vegetable protein

• HPP or hydrolyzed plant protein

• modified food starch or modified starch (usually gluten free if made in the USA) but check anyway to be sure

• mono and diglycerides

• natural flavors

• rice malt or rice syrup

• TVP or textured vegetable protein

• vegetable starch

Each of these above is an additive commonly used in basically anything everyday in the food processing industry. So to prevent a possible gluten hazard from derailing your success on your new diet, the easiest way to safety is to contact the manufacturer and follow their directions to get a correct definition of any of the terms above. Remember though, not every company uses the same product as an additive but they could be using the same name.

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