Why do companies never know what's in their products?
Posted by Allison Tilt on Tuesday, April 20, 2010
I have two issues with the companies I've been researching during this project.
First, most companies today have lists of their vegan or nut-free products, why not wheat? Honestly, they should know EXACTLY what's going into their products. It's a challenge to look at cosmetic labels when more than half of all of them are crazy scientific names I barely understand. If I'm lucky the derived product will be in parenthesis. Unfortunately, that's "if I'm lucky". When I get the chance, I want to develop a scientific list of products that you could just bring to the store with you when you needed to. Yet, I'm a busy college student--it could be months before I have the time to even start that, let alone finish it. The same concept goes for sitting in the store staring at confusing labels. When I got shampoo shopping for example, I want to be "in, out, gone". Is that really too much to ask? Everyone else can do it!
Secondly, I'm frustrated by corporations' definition of "Celiac". According to their corporate physicians, no reaction could occur without ingestion. Yet, if you're reading this blog you are part of the Celiac population that reacts in such a way that even slight skin contact could cause issues. For example, I always had this weird rash on my arms and shoulders that looked like a combination of eczema and poison ivy. My dermatologist constantly was giving me lotions and creams to try to clear it up. It was itchy and embarrassing and I was a teenage girl- it was a disaster. Yet, after about 6 or 7 months on a gluten-free diet it magically disappeared. Turns out some of the products I was putting on my skin like lotions, body washes and even sunless tanners were creating Celiac reactions in my skin. Same thing happened with shampoos--I always had an overly itchy scalp. I was one of those kids that was just itchy--but no product meant to ease the itchy would help. Why? I was reacting to wheat products in the lotions!
Case in point--just because main-stream literature about Celiac disease suggests it is solely a disease that messes with your digestive track doesn't mean it's true.
First, most companies today have lists of their vegan or nut-free products, why not wheat? Honestly, they should know EXACTLY what's going into their products. It's a challenge to look at cosmetic labels when more than half of all of them are crazy scientific names I barely understand. If I'm lucky the derived product will be in parenthesis. Unfortunately, that's "if I'm lucky". When I get the chance, I want to develop a scientific list of products that you could just bring to the store with you when you needed to. Yet, I'm a busy college student--it could be months before I have the time to even start that, let alone finish it. The same concept goes for sitting in the store staring at confusing labels. When I got shampoo shopping for example, I want to be "in, out, gone". Is that really too much to ask? Everyone else can do it!
Secondly, I'm frustrated by corporations' definition of "Celiac". According to their corporate physicians, no reaction could occur without ingestion. Yet, if you're reading this blog you are part of the Celiac population that reacts in such a way that even slight skin contact could cause issues. For example, I always had this weird rash on my arms and shoulders that looked like a combination of eczema and poison ivy. My dermatologist constantly was giving me lotions and creams to try to clear it up. It was itchy and embarrassing and I was a teenage girl- it was a disaster. Yet, after about 6 or 7 months on a gluten-free diet it magically disappeared. Turns out some of the products I was putting on my skin like lotions, body washes and even sunless tanners were creating Celiac reactions in my skin. Same thing happened with shampoos--I always had an overly itchy scalp. I was one of those kids that was just itchy--but no product meant to ease the itchy would help. Why? I was reacting to wheat products in the lotions!
Case in point--just because main-stream literature about Celiac disease suggests it is solely a disease that messes with your digestive track doesn't mean it's true.