Hashimotos Thyroiditis: Let’s Go Gluten Free Series #5 – Hidden Gluten in Non-Food Products?

One thing about a person who is on the GAPS Diet like I am, is almost all potential toxins are removed and that includes soaps, make-up, shampoos, etc. leaving me less likely to have a ton of info on this topic to share. But I have researched and come up with some good resources to get you started. And the more I worked on this post, the more I realized how many products I really do still use!

First, let’s see if we can determine whether it’s important to go gluten-free with our cosmetics and self-care products. This video does a wonderful job of explaining why this might be very important. There is an advertisement at the end of this educational video I am not affiliated with. However, the lessons it teaches are extremely well communicated.

There are a few products I do use which I have listed on my Hashimoto’s Resource page. In particular, is the DermOrganic shampoo/conditioner/oil treatment kit that was recommended by my hair stylist that I love and has lasted me for over a year now! Some other resources which recommend gluten-free cosmetics are below. I wish I had these resources months ago as looking all over the net for one particular gluten-free cosmetic was not a fun project!

• Best Gluten Free Cosmetics Brands List by gfreek.com
• 10 Gluten Free Cosemetics under $10 by glutenfreemakeupgal.com
• Red Apple Lipstick – Gluten Free, Parben Free: Safe
• Afterglow Cosmetics – Certified Gluten Free
• The Celiac Diva talks about Gluten Free Makeup.

Hopefully, that will get you started.

Regarding other products to think about, many stores including Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s have a list you can get at the front of the store to help you find products that they have determined to be gluten-free. In fact, Trader Joe’s publishes their’s online here and Whole Foods has one here. This helped me a lot when it came to hand soap, dish-washing soap, toothpaste, and even shaving cream for my husband! (Remember you are being exposed to what someone else is using if you are getting real close to them!)

One of the things I had to learn to think about more was that I needed to make sure my hand soap at home was gluten-free. And now if I am out in public, I don’t assume the hand soap I use is gluten-free so I take precautions before eating finger foods after washing my hands like using a napkin as a barrier just in case. If you shop at a popular store, it is possible you can get a gluten-free list at their customer service department or online.

And don’t forget another very important area – your medicine cabinet! Izabella Wentz has a great page on her blog which shows the medications that are gluten-free and some to watch for that are not! This is an essential area to go through as I was occasionally reaching for medications before I went on the GAPS Diet (the GAPS Diet is very strongly against medications during detox especially) and found out after I took them that they were not gluten-free.

Like I had you do in Part #2 of this series, when I had you assess, not replace, all the kitchen tools you regularly use; this week think of the non-food products you stock and use regularly in your home. This goes for cleaners that could be inhaled. Yes, a sensitive individual can get a reaction from this too. You usually don’t know if you are one of them until you eliminate all the possibilities, then re-introduce later to assess whether you have symptoms to air-borne gluten. I just play it safe. If I am getting symptoms in the home, for me, unfortunately, it is usually a smell of someone else’s use of a chemical or perfume. Not sure how gluten related it is but even at my level of gluten cleanliness, things get into the home through others that might be giving me reactions. In fact, just last week my daughter bought a new shampoo she loved. After the first time she used it, we knew it was bothering me. I tried to tolerate it, after all who wants to limit the freedom of others in the house so much, but it appears she won’t be able to use it anymore as it is giving me symptoms that are beyond the threshold of tolerance for my body. So this is another difficult area of gluten exposure and/or multiple chemical sensitivity. I am interested in learning more about this and know that Dr. Kharrazian has much to say about it in his new book “Why Isn’t My Brain Working?: A Revolutionary Understanding of Brain Decline and Effective Strategies to Recover Your Brain’s Health” which is next on my list to purchase as this is the next big area of study for me!

I know it feels like going gluten-free is like peeling an onion at this point, but there is just no easy way around it. It’s just not enough to go gluten-free with your meals without being sure it is out of your medications, cosmetics and other points of entry. You will find that once you clean out your home and make it gluten-free, it will be easier to filter all new purchases before they come in, keeping your home as safe as it can be for you from then on.

Also, remember, being gluten most of the way is not being gluten-free at all. It needs to be completely eliminated from every part of your life you can control (for the sensitive individual) but for sure, all food or anything near your mouth must be truly gluten-free. This is one problem I have with the term “Gluten Free Diet” as it is not taken seriously enough. That’s why I tend to say “Truly Gluten Free” because for me, and many others, it must be a lot more than a “mostly” gluten-free diet especially if you want to see remission of Hashimoto’s. For those of you who would like to learn the details as to why ONE exposure to gluten can launch an autoimmune attack against your thyroid and how significant this can be, this video by Joe Rignola is fascinating and with the help of diagrams, I have an easier time understanding this connection. You might too. It is 20 minutes long so watch it when you have time but I guarantee, the more you learn about the attack going on inside you, the more you will want to be sure gluten is not allowed in, even once, as far as you can help it, from now on!

The whole “Let’s Go Gluten Free” series can be found here.