Gluten-Free Supplement Switch

Why I Stopped Taking My Supplements

And what I learned about allergen labels that I wish somebody had told me years ago.

I want to tell you about a change I made, and more importantly I want to tell you what I learned along the way. Because the label thing is going to matter to you whether or not you ever take a single supplement I mention.

For years I took a daily supplement line from a company I've represented for a long time and still believe in. And for years I asked them, politely and then less politely, to make those supplements gluten-free.

Eventually a gluten-free version arrived and I cheered out loud! Gluten free. But not CERTIFIED gluten-free. At the time I told myself that was close enough.

Then I got an email from product support telling me I should check each product listing for allergens. They list the top allergens, they said.

I sat with that for a while. And then I understood the problem.

Here's the part nobody explains

In the United States, food labeling law requires companies to declare a specific list of major allergens. That list is milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, soybeans, sesame, and wheat.

Read that list again and tell me what's missing.

Barley isn't on it. Rye isn't on it. Oats aren't on it.

Wheat is a major allergen, so wheat has to be declared. Barley and rye are not major allergens, so nothing requires a company to tell you about them in that same clear way.

Which means a label can honestly say nothing about wheat and still contain malt from barley. Or barley grass. Or brewer's yeast. Or oats that rode to the mill in a truck that hauled wheat last week.

So when a company tells you to check the allergen list, they're telling you to check a list that was never built for us. It was built for people with wheat allergy. Wheat allergy and celiac are not the same thing, and the label doesn't know the difference.

This is the thing I want you to carry away from this post even if you forget everything else. "No wheat listed" does not mean gluten-free. It means no wheat was declared. Those are two different sentences.

Gluten-free claim versus gluten-free certified

These get used like they mean the same thing. They don't.

A gluten-free claim on a package means the manufacturer says the product meets the FDA standard of less than 20 parts per million. There's no requirement that anybody outside the company checked.

Third-party certification means an outside organization tested it and inspected the facility. The Gluten-Free Certification Organization sets its threshold at 10 parts per million, which is stricter than the federal rule. Other certifiers have their own standards.

Both can be fine. Certification just means somebody besides the company selling it has looked.

For a bag of rice, I'm not going to lose sleep over the difference. For something I swallow every single morning for years, I want the outside eyes.

Two more things that changed my mind

Formulas change

This one bit me before. A product I'd used safely for a long time got reformulated and nobody sent me a letter about it. The label changed. I didn't notice for a while.

Companies change suppliers, change facilities, change fillers and binders and flow agents. That happens quietly and constantly. Whatever you verified two years ago is not necessarily what's in the bottle today.

Small exposures add up

You know this if you live it. It's not always the dramatic reaction. Sometimes it's the low hum. Dragging through the day. Foggy. Achy. Nothing you could point to and say THAT was the moment.

Something you take every day for years is exactly the kind of thing that can hum along under the surface without ever announcing itself. That possibility got harder and harder for me to ignore.

So I stopped. For a stretch there I took no supplements at all beyond my essential oils, which I still use and love.

Where I landed

I prayed about it, plainly and desperately, because I wanted a way to support my own health and my family's health without guessing. And I've since started using a different line of products, which regular readers here have seen me write about.

Now let me be careful, because you're celiac and careful is what you deserve from me.

I'm not going to tell you they're certified gluten-free

I went looking for a company-wide gluten-free certification on the products I now use, and I did not find one. They carry other certifications, and some of those are meaningful, including outside batch testing for banned substances. What I found on gluten specifically is that the oats in their fiber blend are stated to be gluten-free and free from contamination by other grains. That's one ingredient in one product, and it is not a line-wide guarantee.

So I'm telling you exactly what I know and exactly what I don't. I use them. I'm a partner and I earn a commission, so weigh that. And I would still tell you to ask them directly about the specific product you're considering before you order, and to ask again if you reorder a year from now.

I'm not going to hand you a promise I can't back up. Not on this. Not to you.

What to ask any supplement company

Copy these. Paste them into an email. Ask before you buy, and ask again when you reorder.

The questions

1. Is this product certified gluten-free by a third party? If yes, which certifier, and can you send the current certificate?
2. If not certified, do you test finished product for gluten? What method, what threshold, and how often?
3. Is it produced on shared equipment or in a shared facility with wheat, barley, rye, or oats? Ask about the facility, not just the recipe.
4. Does anything in this formula come from barley or rye? Name them out loud, because the allergen list won't.
5. If oats are in it, are they certified gluten-free oats? Purity protocol or mechanically sorted?
6. Have you reformulated this product in the past year? And will you notify me if you do?

Watch how they answer as much as what they answer. A company with real quality control will have these facts sitting right there. A company that gets cagey or sends you back to the label has told you what you needed to know.

Ingredients worth a second look

These show up in supplements and none of them are required to be declared as allergens:

• Malt, malt extract, malt flavoring, maltodextrin from an unnamed source
• Barley grass or wheat grass, which can carry seed and stem
• Brewer's yeast
• Oat fiber, oat beta-glucan, oat flour
• Vague "natural flavors" or "proprietary blends" with no source given
• Starch, dextrin, and flow agents with no plant named
• Capsule shells, coatings, and glazes

None of these are automatically a problem! Plenty of them are perfectly fine. They're just the places where the answer isn't on the label, so you have to go ask.

And please don't panic

I can hear some of you getting anxious and I don't want that.

This isn't a reason to throw out your cabinet tonight. It's a reason to ask better questions, one product at a time, starting with whatever you take every single day. That's the one that matters most.

And if you take a prescription medication, do not stop it over a gluten question. Call your pharmacist instead. Pharmacists are wonderful at this and most of them will happily dig into a manufacturer's inactive ingredients for you.

Faith over fear, friends. Fear says everything is out to get you and you'll never be safe. That's exhausting and it isn't true. Ask your questions, get your answers, and then go live your life.

Why I wrote this

Because I recommended things to people for years in good conscience, and then I learned something that changed my mind. Telling you about it is the only decent thing to do.

If you've been taking a daily supplement and never once asked whether it's safe for you, this is your nudge. Send the email. It takes four minutes.

And if the answer comes back fine, wonderful! Now you know instead of hoping.

With much love,
Steffi

I'm an independent Zinzino partner and an independent doTERRA Wellness Advocate, and I earn a commission on some products I mention. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Nothing here is intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, and none of it is medical advice. I'm a Nutritional Herbalist, not a physician or a pharmacist. Labeling rules, certification standards, and product formulations change, so always verify current information directly with the manufacturer before you buy. Never stop or change a prescribed medication without talking to your doctor or pharmacist.