Most of you lovely people who read my blog on a regular basis will already know that I am gluten intolerant. I mention it here and there but I try not to 'go on' about it too much because I don't want a defunked set of genes to define me or my health. That being said it is a major part of my life that I have just learnt to live with. I have to check the ingredients of everything I buy to eat or drink, and I mean everything. If I am eating out somewhere I have to check how meals have been made and exactly what is in them, some places just hand me this massive allergy book of their food that I have to wade through and try and work out exactly what is safe-ish for me to eat. If I don't stick to being gluten free I get really ill, I get stomach cramps that are so painful that I can do nothing but lie on the bed and cry, I get numbing bouts of exhaustion, my whole body aches, I feel uncomfortably full even when I haven't eaten followed by feeling starving even though I don't want to eat. Then I get this weird brain fog so it is really hard for me to concentrate and I get cranky because everything is an effort. Plus a myriad or other symptoms. I'm sharing this here because I just want people to know that people aren't gluten free because it is the cool new diet, it isn't a lifestyle choice, its choosing between health and illness. (If it was a choice I would eat pork pies, black pudding, chelsea buns, oh the mouth watering list goes on).
With all this in mind I bought some new Ecover washing up liquid at the weekend, I had just finished a bottle of the camomile scented one (this one has no wheat in it) and I was super happy with how long it lasted and how well it washed even the dirtiest of pans. I picked up the lemon and aloe vera because it was the only one the shop had. At home when I was waiting for the kettle to boil I absent mindedly read the ingredients and stopped dead when I read WHEAT PROTEIN! This spread a mild form of panic over me (I'm sure people with food intolerance/allergies with be able to relate to this). Wheat protein in washing up liquid, I would never have thought of reading the ingredients on such a product. I searched the internet to try and find out if it was still safe for me to use and couldn't really find an answer. I was mostly met with the reply of 'As long as you don't eat it haha', well thanks for this lighthearted approach to my possible foreseeable future on the toilet, but I am going to wash plates, bowls, eating utensils with this washing up liquid and if it has a lot of wheat protein in then it could cause me problems.
So as a last resort I emailed Ecover for some help with this issue and they were really quick at replying and were pretty helpful, this was the reply that I got:
Good Morning Kirsty and thanks for your email
We do use wheat protein in our Lemon & Aloe washing up liquid but you would only really have an issue with this if you ingested the product as it makes up 0.04% of the product. Our Camomile and Marigold and Grapefruit & Green Tea washing up liquids don’t contain any wheat protein
I have a severe gluten allergy myself and I am fine with the lemon & Aloe but if you want to be extra sure then we would recommend rinsing the plates after washing.
After reading this I think that I will use this washing up liquid as it does only have a tiny amount in it, but I will keep an eye on my health and just see how it ticks along. I haven't been too well lately but I think I may have tracked it down to some cheeky barley malt in Vimto... Ooops.
Hope this post helps people who might also be worried about this (I hope I wasn't the only one lol).
Much Love.
xkx
