Twenty Questions..

You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocket ship underpants don’t help.
― Calvin (from Calvin and Hobbes)
Have you ever had one of those weeks? Yes? Well me too, and this has been one of them. So when I saw this box of Yogi tea announcing “Kava Stress Relief” I thought this is exactly what the doctor ordered.

 

I’m usually a pretty savvy consumer. Especially since my celiac diagnosis. My radar is always on high alert for wheat, barley and rye. Must stay away from wheat, barley and rye. So yesterday was day 3 of my Kava Stress Relief regime and I was noticing a pattern…while my mind felt a bit more relaxed, my stomach on the other hand was doing some talking back. At first I thought I had been gifted the stomach bug that has made it’s way through several of the classrooms at school. But after 3 days I knew this was something different. As I reviewed my food intake and checked off everything that I had been eating, there was only one new thing in my diet: Kava Stress Relief tea. I flipped that pretty little innocent-looking packet over and there it was: barley malt. Oh for cryin’ out loud.

There may or may not have been a blue streak of bleeps come out of my mouth.  I simply could not believe it.  Who would ever think that something as harmless as tea could be a land mine?  Lesson learned.

This sent me down the path of:  if even certain tea bags are not safe, what else am I missing?  All I need is a topic and a search engine and I can get lost for hours.  And sure enough, here is what I found as potential hidden sources of gluten:

The Troublesome Twenty
*Artificial color
*Baking powder
*Caramel color/flavoring
*Citric acid (can be fermented from wheat, corn, molasses or beets)
*Coloring
*Dextrins
*Diglycerides
*Emulsifiers
*Enzymes
*Fat replacers
*Flavorings
*Food starch
*Glucose syrup
*Glycerides
*Maltodextrin
*Modified food starch
*Natural juices
*Stabilizers
*Starch
*Wheat starch

One of the few things I remember from my high school Latin class is caveat emptor.  Buyer beware.  I’m going to take this a step further.  If you have celiac disease, buyer be very, very aware.