My neice who has coeliac disease was having some wotsits so I told her she can't as it's made in a factory etc etc...
She said Yeh but it hasn't got gluten in it...and that I'm being too strict with the diet. She has no problem after eating the stuff. Is she right? Am I being abit too strict
Are the crisps labeled “gluten free”? If so, factory or not, they have to be.
I eat ready salted only, however as the flavored ones have monosodium glutamate, quite often under the guise of “natural flavor”. This gives me a headache.
Some factories process other food products that may contain dairy, nuts, seafood, gluten, etc. and they are supposed to provide an allergy caution on the label in a that case.
Another thought is, do wotsits contain anything like marmite or yeast extract, quite often the yeast come from baking industry and contains gluten. I was under the impression that marmite was good for me but I was having gluten reactions.
Quite often the reaction doesn’t come till 3-6 hours later with another bout 24 hours later. If your niece is not with you then, you may not know.
Best be over cautious.
The crisps aren't labelled gluten free as I mentioned above.
Hi Sid,
My understanding is that Walkers have an issue with cross contamination at factory level.
As you say, Wotsits are not suitable for diagnosed Coeliacs - due to not being able to meet the below the less than 20ppm standard. The packets say “made in a factory that handles wheat, gluten.....[etc]”.
Personally I have never touched any of Walkers Crisps for this reason. There are lots of other brands that are much safer, such as Seabrooks etc.
Depending on her age (i.e. if she’s an adult) perhaps try to come to an agreement with her. Get her to contact Walkers and ask if their crisps meet the standard for being Coeliac friendly. If they say yes, tell her that you won’t say anything more and she can eat as many packs of Wotsits as she wants any time she likes. I think she might have a surprise though! Doing something like this will help her understand how to protect herself and make good food choices in the longer term.
If memory serves me correctly, there are definitely gluten free Wotsit style crisps on the market that she could indulge in instead. Sorry I can’t name the brands because I’m dairy intolerant so have to avoid all cheese flavoured crisps! (With the exception of the vegan brand sold in Holland and Barrett’s).
Unfortunately despite your best efforts, you may still have to allow her to make some bad choices in life.
I don't think you're being too strict - there's quite a lot of people who ignore "may contain" warnings, or who eat in restaurants that offer gluten free options that aren't prepared separately, but they really shouldn't. It's not just that they're probably still doing damage to themselves, they undermine the credibility for those who insist "may contain" is a problem.
Chances are, food with "may contain" warnings are being overly careful, but it's not worth risking.
Is she recently diagnosed, and does has she had any blood tests recently?
She's been diagnosed a few months ago
Ok, so her doctor/gastro should run another antibody test on her soon, and that will show if she still has antibodies in her system. If she's been eating "may contain" foods, it's possible her antibodies will still be elevated and the gastro will have a word with her.
I told her she might not get symptoms like she said but it's damaging her insides isn't it?
Yes, it would be.
My theory is that she's probably feeling 80% better for having cut out mass gluten sources (bread etc), and she's adapted to 20% ill as her new normal, because she doesn't know what 100% feels like (if that makes any sense whatsoever!)
Hopefully her blood tests will show the whole picture, and she should be due one soon.
Kettle crisps are gluten free,
It's a risk not worth taking, sometimes they do sometimes they don't. Pom Bears are similar and GF. If she gets ill with Gluten she will learn.
Exactly what I said to her but she said I'm fine when I have them. I thought 🙄
GF is the tip of the iceberg. I started with it 5 years ago. Now I won't bore people but I have lots of other things now. Once you have a warning. Take care or you will pay a heavy price.
It's not proven yet, but I have researched this to the hilt and I am convinced a bacterial infection is the cause of GF and IBS which effects and leaves breathing, heart and mental problems. No proof exists yet but as science moves forward we will find out.
There's a few suggestions on triggers - gut candida, SIBO, virus, food poisoning (parasites).
If you have a lot of food intolerances, what you often find is that cutting out the trigger foods and following a gut healing protocol (with lots of fruits and veggies and probiotics) will allow you to reintroduce the trigger foods eventually. It's because your gut resilience has broken down, and is allowing food particles to enter the body (it's called leaky gut). If you consider a leaky pipe, you know to stop putting the trigger substance through it, until it's been fixed. Same with the gut. Only fixing it takes longer 
I laughed when it was first put to me. I'm not laughing now.
Laughed at what may I ask?
When your 6ft 6" fit and well - you feel ill health happens to other people. I was referring to being told no more wheat - I laughed at the advice - I thought I had the flu at the time - fish n chips - Beer - Chinese takeaways - cakes biscuits - crusty bread - etc, etc I had taken these for granted for years were now banned, Things changed I was ill for 3 months and lost 6 stone in weight. I couldn't talk, walk or even think - it was though I was drunk. When I stopped eating Gluten I was able to talk again and walk within 10 days. Now 4 years later I am still very sensitive to any gluten. Ignore it at your peril.
It affected you that badly? And stopping eating gluten stuff made u so much better? That's amazing how in only 10 days felt so much better
That's right - but I have developed other issues over the last 3 years. Which all started with the Gluten issue.
Although we all have umbrella diagnosis of GF. Each of us react differently to similar triggers. Often things are okay until they get it wrong.
Who buys them for her?
Its tough.
She might be right, or not. Some people can actually eat quite a bit of gluten without having any damage done. This is shown in studies where participants eat a certain amount of gluten each day, where biopsy is done afterwards.
But then again, there's a lot of people who seem to think that they are all good, but prior to these controlled studies the biopsy show bad damage.
Some even have such bad damage that they are terminated from the study. Yet have no symptoms.
Perhaps she needs to be informed of the consequences that untreated CD can bring, together with a check as suggested above. Antibodies and biopsy.
Perhaps she's not fully aware of what CD is doing with her body when digesting gluten.
Coz giving her proper information is all you can do. The choices are still hers to make.
It is probably difficult to motivate oneself to stay GF if one has no symptoms. I doubt I would be able to try to stay 200% gf if I had no symptoms.
You can have coeliac without symptoms. Don't trust crisps unless specifically labeled as GF. I have found crisps/snack crisps to be the worst source of sneaky gluten, so avoid and avoid. But at the end of the day, you can't police your nieces diet if she is grown up enough to make those choices, so if she still eats them, even with advice, not much you can do.
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