They Put WHAT In Body Wash?????

I want to talk about something many of us probably don’t think about.  It’s the fact that when dealing with food allergies, it’s not just what we eat that can cause problems for us; our personal care products can also cause trouble.

Case in point:  I was at the store looking at body washes and saw one that looked a little more “natural” because it didn’t appear to have much – if any – dye in it. (It was a Softsoap Luminous Oils Body Wash.  Sorry, I don’t remember which specific one it was, I only took a picture of the ingredients list and didn’t even think to take a picture of the front of the package.)   I flipped open the top to smell it.  Okay, I could handle that smell on my body.  Now, look at the back for ingredients.  Holy Crap!  They actually put nonfat dry milk in this body wash!!!

I have to be honest; the fact that they put milk in a body wash is not a surprise to me.  Several years ago I read an article on the practice of different food products being added to some of our personal care products.  After reading the article, I read over the ingredients on my body wash, shampoo, conditioner and hand and body lotions.  The body wash, shampoo, conditioner and hand lotion were good – as far as I could tell. (I will note here that the FDA does not require manufacturers of cosmetics and personal care items to list if they contain a top 8 allergen www.kidswithfoodallergies.org. )  My body lotion was another story.  I gave away 6 tubes of very nice body lotion – which contained milk – to 2 of my sisters.  I then went to the health store and picked up a vegan body lotion, “Nature’s Gate” Lotion – Vegan / Non GMO Fragrance Free.  www.naturesgate.com.   Lesson learned there.

Next fact:  Not every package – whether food or personal care product is going to list the food ingredient as obviously as the Softsoap product did.  (Thank you Softsoap for at least making it easy for me to see you added milk to your product; not that I’m thrilled about it.)  There are so, so many ways to say wheat or milk or egg, etc…I cannot even begin to tell you right now.  Luckily I’ve found someone that has put together a short list.  www.kidswithfoodallergies.org .  If you go to their home page, then to their menu, click on Living With Food Allergies, then click Allergens.  They list 7 allergens.  Click on the food you want to research and they will give you instructions on how to read a label for that specific food and will also list some of the ways you may see it on an ingredient list.  While this list does not cover all of the ways to say, for example:  milk; it does give you an idea of what to start looking for.  Over the years I’ve checked out a lot of sites trying to find all of the many ways you can say milk, egg or wheat.  I am working on compiling that list and hope to get that to you soon.

Last thing I will mention is that the FDA also does not require that prescriptions and over-the-counter medications list if they contain a top 8 allergen, such as milk.  I discovered this the hard way 2 different times last year after taking prescription antibiotics.  After taking the prescription medicine for 7 days, I started going into what I recognized as my “dairy migraine” symptoms.  It starts with lower neck pain, my ears “feeling” plugged and ringing in my ears.  Then I go into a migraine.  A day and a half into it, I put two and two together.  As I lay in my bed with a throbbing, blinding headache, my neck and upper back going into spasms, feeling nauseous, aching all over and running a low grade fever I talked with the pharmacist who told me – after she did some research – that my antibiotic actually contained LACTOSE.  She told me, the drug manufacturers put it in to help it “go down a little easier” when we swallow the tablet.  Seriously, they do that.  Well, I stopped taking the medication and rode out my migraine for another day and a half.  The fever and nausea passed.  My neck and upper back spasms settled down after 5-6 days, the achy feeling after about 2 weeks.  Two months later I was put on a preventive medication and 9 days into it the familiar symptoms kicked in.  I called the pharmacy and was told after they looked into it, that this too contained lactose.  I asked her to please list all of my food allergies in ALL CAPS in my file.  I now research every medication before I will start taking it.  My pharmacist is also very diligent about watching my prescriptions.  Find a pharmacist who will actually take the time to look into this for you.  If they can’t be bothered, find another pharmacy.

I’ve added 2 pictures at the bottom of this post.  These are just to give you an idea of what you are going up against when reading labels for personal care items.  The first is of the body wash containing milk.  The second is of a lotion which contains wheat germ.  I gotta be honest, I wasn’t 100% sure about wheat germ. I figured I would never want it in anything I eat or use because my problem is actually with wheat, but I wasn’t sure about the gluten.  I came home from shopping and looked it up.  I’ve put what I found under the picture of the lotion for those of you that have a problem with gluten.  (Picture quality not the greatest, I was standing in the store aisle taking these pictures.)

nonfat dry milk on the last line of ingredients

Does Wheat Germ Contain Gluten? | LIVESTRONG.COM

https://www.livestrong.com/article/248866-does-wheat-germ-contain-gluten/

Gluten is a protein that naturally occurs in wheat, rye and barley products, and it can cause intolerance in some individuals, leading to various symptoms of illness. … To do this, it’s critical to know which foodscontain gluten, and wheat germ is a food that must be eliminated in a gluten-free diet.

Thanks for stopping!

Brenda