Cc In Factories

[Canadian Girl]

Hey everyone, been away for a while but I'm back! I have a question, I read in a past post that we can eat items that are manufactured in a factory that says "produced in a factory that also produces wheat...etc.." as long as it doesn't bother us.. However, I don't understand something. Even if it doesn't bother us or give us symptoms.. it could still be damaging our intestines couldn't it?? I find that if I do eat gluten I'll bloat up instantly but nothing serious happens, which i find surprising as both my blood test and endoscopy came back positive. So just wanna know if we can eat things that have this disclosure on them?? thx!

[ravenwoodglass]

If you are instantly bloating you are reacting. I would avoid the foods that do that to you.

[jackay]

If you are instantly bloating you are reacting. I would avoid the foods that do that to you.

If you normally get symptoms from cc and don't when you eat products that are manufactured in a factory that produces wheat, than you should be O.K. If you never had symptoms from ingesting gluten, than you could possibly be damaging your intesttines.

Since you bloat up from gluten, you will know if these products are bad for you.

[Lynayah]

Hey everyone, been away for a while but I'm back! I have a question, I read in a past post that we can eat items that are manufactured in a factory that says "produced in a factory that also produces wheat...etc.." as long as it doesn't bother us.. However, I don't understand something. Even if it doesn't bother us or give us symptoms.. it could still be damaging our intestines couldn't it?? I find that if I do eat gluten I'll bloat up instantly but nothing serious happens, which i find surprising as both my blood test and endoscopy came back positive. So just wanna know if we can eat things that have this disclosure on them?? thx!

You raise a valid point.

I often worry about "silent celiacs" -- those who do not show symptoms of having celiac disease. I worry that when they eat such foods, their upper villi may become damaged, but because they do not show any symptoms, they do not know it.

Worse yet, if they do not have a doctor who regularly checks bloods levels, run additional biopsy, etc., they may NEVER know it -- there are a lot of folks here who are self diagnosed or who have doctors who aren't really up on things.

In other words, these foods may be quietly killing them.

A few months ago, I traveled on a business meeting. Food was served buffet style. I met someone there who had celiac disease -- a man in his, I would guess, late 20's or early 30's -- someone who should have a long life ahead of him.

He was one of those people who do not exhibit symptoms.

So, when it came time to eat, he just went up to a hotel staff member-- not a chef, not a manager (not that the chef and manager at the hotel were knowledgable enough -- for me, they definitly weren't -- I had to eat fresh, unpeeled fruit only, because the hotel WAS HORRIBLE at understanding gluten-free) and he asked, "What has wheat in it?"

Then, he'd eat whatever they said didn't have wheat in it.

AUGH!!!!!!

But, because he didn't have to run to the bathroom and change his pants . . . and because he didn't double over in pain from eating what was almost certainly cc'd food, he thought he was okay.

Oh my gosh, my heart breaks for people such as him. I want to cry just thinking about it.

[Reba32]

There are some labeled Gluten Free foods that also say "produced in a factory that uses wheat..." etc...products that are advertised on this site even and maybe even sold in the Gluten Free Mall.

Personally, I figure if they're labeled Gluten free, with the allergy warning, then the company *may* have them in the same factory, but maybe they produce them on different days after a good clean up, or they're in different parts of the factory. Most of these products that I've tried I have had no reaction to.

However, in products that have the allergy warning that the items are produced on shared equipment I stay away from, because I usually have an immediate reaction.

[rtrheli]

If it says anything about being produced in a factory that produces wheat, I would stay away from that product. You can't count on others to keep things safe. They don't know or understand.

[tarnalberry]

If anyone brings a sandwich into your house, if your family ever brings a hamburger bun in - even in a room that's not the kitchen, then you have shared facilities. There are strict rules about cleaning. Is it possible to get contamination from shared facilities? Yes. ANYTHING is possible.

Realize, however, that virtually EVERYTHING passes through a shared facility at some point - whether it's on a farm, in a truck, in a processing plant, or in a grocery store. (Heck, grocery stores are one HUGE shared facility.) There is a balance that you have to find for yourself.

[Canadian Girl]

can ppl who are silent sufferers actually die from eating gluten and having no reaction? would the intestine eventually shut itself down??

[mopsiecat]

I had been eating buckwheat that I thought was safe and for several years I felt good. Then I started getting celiac symptoms and for a long time could not find the gluten source. I got so sick I went to the doc to rule out something more serious. Finally I emailed the Winnipeg company that packaged the buckwheat and they answered that they used the same equipment for wheat and barley but cleaned the machinery after. But how well were they cleaned I wonder? Sure enough when I stopped using that buckwheat my symtoms disappeared. A good lesson for me; I'm much more careful now.

[tarnalberry]

can ppl who are silent sufferers actually die from eating gluten and having no reaction? would the intestine eventually shut itself down??

Well, the primary cause of death wouldn't be "eating gluten", and it's not an issue of the intestines shutting down. Rather, the autoimmune reaction causes other problems that can cause death. Anemia and osteoporosis (or just frequent infections due to vitamin D deficiency) are certainly not good for the body, other auto-immune diseases are not either, and intestinal cancer and lymphoma can directly lead to death. This isn't a "kills you quickly" disease.

Experiencing symptoms or not is absolutely zero evidence for what's going on "behind the scenes".