When you’re on the gluten-free diet for medical reasons, such as celiac disease, it’s of vital importance to make sure your food doesn’t contain any gluten. Unfortunately, especially with lack of labeling guidelines by the FDA, just because your food is labeled “gluten-free” doesn’t mean that it is. Even when dining out at a restaurant or in someone’s home, accidental gluten ingestion from cross-contamination, despite the best of intentions, can occur. So how can you tell for sure if your food is gluten-free? Well, thanks to Biomedal Diagnostics, the gluten-free community can test their food with the convenient GlutenTox Home Kit.
For celiac patients and gluten-sensitive individuals, staying gluten-free is a health matter. Celiac disease, an autoimmune reaction triggered by gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye, can have devastating effects when untreated, leading to a variety of symptoms and conditions such as migraine headaches, malnutrition, gastrointestinal problems, early menopause, and infertility. Even exposure to the slightest amount of gluten can cause serious health effects.
With the estimated three million Americans with celiac disease and six percent of Americans with a food sensitivity to gluten, which can cause a variety of symptoms similar to those of celiac disease, it’s no surprise that the gluten-free sector of the food industry has boomed. However, despite the fact that gluten-free foods represent the fastest growing food industry in the United States, the FDA has yet to establish gluten-free labeling guidelines, so that so-called “gluten-free” foods may actually contain dangerous levels of gluten for celiac patients. Without labeling standards, celiac patients need to be particularly avid about staying in the know about which food products are safe and which ones to avoid. A user-friendly gluten-free test can empower celiac patients with a method to test their food for themselves at home or while dining out at restaurants, on vacation, or in another person’s home.
According to GlutenTox Home’s website, the GlutenTox Home test kit can detect gluten at 20 ppm (parts per million), the general standard used for calling food “gluten-free.” The test can also be made to detect as little as 5 ppm of gluten for individuals who need to follow a stricter diet. The home test kit makes use of a new antibody called G12, which was developed to recognize gluten, helping the tester to avoid accidental ingestion of the protein in their food.
The GlutenTox Home kit is user-friendly and can be used conveniently in one’s own kitchen or elsewhere. Results will appear within 10 minutes, but can appear within as few as two minutes. The product’s website contains a helpful video demonstrating how to use the test. As a children’s author, I’m often on-the-go or traveling, with little time to spare, and GlutenTox’s Home test kit more than satisfies my needs. On my latest European Book Tour, I discovered the kit and used it many times over the course of my travels. For individuals who are particularly sensitive to gluten or who travel or dine out, GlutenTox’s Home kit is certainly worth a try.
Article Courtesy: Tina Turbin
Resources:
GlutenTox Home: Product http://glutentoxhome.com/en/product.html
University of Maryland School of Medicine: University of Maryland School of Medicine Researchers Identify Key Pathogenic Differences Between Celiac Disease & Gluten Sensitivityhttp://somvweb.som.umaryland.edu/absolutenm/templates/?a=1474
Let Us Know What You Think