Gluten free Lifestyle
Gluten-Free Essential Oils.
Today has been an interesting one.
Here is why. Today I was presented with the whole concept of Gluten-Free Essential Oils. Now, this is a very interesting concept. I mean who wouldn't want to give it a serious look. I don't know if this is coming from a big company directly or is just something that is made up by one of their distributors, but this person is with one of the BIG essential oil companies. Despite the whole deal of them having their own whoopers to make their claim to fame, I would think that this would be pushing the envelope a touch too much for them. Now if it was with the other BIG essential oil companies, yeah, it wouldn't surprise me one little bit.
Here goes, Gluten-Free Essential Oils. The struggle to understand this; The appearance of a complete lack of understanding of essential oils and Gluten. A quick primer on gluten. Gluten consists of the proteins, Glaidir and Glutenin. These are contained within the starch of the endosperms of grains. Not all grains, but generally grains such as Wheat, Barley, Rye, Oats, some Rice varieties, etc. Gluten is not found in many other plants. Even the fixed oils, aka; carrier oils from plants do not contain gluten. Remember gluten is in the endosperm, ie; the grain that grows from the flower of the plant. Gluten is not found in the leaves, roots, flowers, etc. Only in the endosperm (grain) of some plants, usually referred to as grain-producing plants. To my understanding, there aren't essential oils on the market that come from the grains of the above plants.
Based on most of the ideas out there Gluten is a very bad thing. Of course, many people cannot deal with it in their gut. While I can recognize the fact that many people have a real issue with gut problems that can be traced back directly to Gluten, such as people with Celiac Disease. I honestly feel like the real issue is not directly with the gluten itself but with other things, such as the use of insecticides, herbicides, etc. One of the biggest problem items from all the research that has been done it appears that Glyphosate is a major contributor to the gluten intolerance among most people. So why do they say to cut out gluten? Because that is where the stuff collects. It is much easier to just cut gluten across the board, much like taking the shotgun approach. Plus another factor is that gluten is used in many products as a stabilizing agent in products such as pet foods, imitation meats, ketchup, beer, soy sauce, ice cream, and the list goes on. So the real issue with gluten is far more widespread than just to quit eating bread. Gluten is not required to be listed as ingredients unless it is a stand-alone ingredient, which technicality is easy to get around.
Now coming back to gluten in essential oils. I would love to listen to the lectures on this. Maybe I am out to lunch, but from what I have seen and come to understand, not only on my own assumptions but on many, many good scientists that have done extensive trustworthy research, the answer to that question is this, Wow! Whoever came up with this idea must be smoking some pretty good stuff. I am not a smoker, but if I could get my hands on that stuff that they are smoking, I would consider taking up smoking. To me, when something like this is brought up, it demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of plants, essential oils, and a long list of other things as well.
So how do you deal with the statement/question/whatever of I am going with this company because their essential oils are certified GLUTEN FREE and yours are not... don't waste your time, move on and just realize that they do walk among us, they really do. I could make up some association, and then charge a crapload of money to put my seal on the same company's label and then they would be "Certified Gluten-Free". (Hey, I just had an idea). LOL! All essential oils are gluten-free, there is no certifying concern to certify something that doesn't exist. A little secret, all of these companies that sell essential oils...news flash, their oils are gluten-free as well.
- These essential oils are all Gluten Free.
- There is no certificating agency to certify this unless it is made up in house. Even then there is nothing to certify, refer to the above statement.
- If someone hammers you on this, politely excuse yourself and repeat the 2 above statements to yourself.
Good luck, I wish you well. Please wish me well too, this just isn't computing in my mind. I will soon be in the corner drooling trying to figure out how on earth someone can make these connections come together.
Written by Leiann King.
