Question by Shebeth: Is touching gluten a problem when you have celiac disease?
I am a Celiac but the rest of my family isn’t. I’ve never given any thought to handling bread, baking with wheat flour, etc. and have always been sure to wash my hands carefully so that I don’t contaminate my own food. Talking to a friend whose teenage daughter has been recently diagnosed – they won’t let her touch anything with flour, even to the point of asking her to be exempted from art class when they were working with papier mache (flour, water, newsprint). It made me wonder if they are too extreme or if I am not careful enough? Anyone have any knowledge about this? Tx.
Best answer:
Answer by Richard M
I’m also a Celiac and you shouldn;t touch wheat flour or the bread. You need to stay away from the flour because you can also breath in the dust and not even know or realize it. I even toast my bread in a separate toaster so I don’t get any crumbs from any wheat bread. If you should break out with any kind of skin rash it could come from touching wheat bread or using the wrong kind of soap. You really need to be careful with everything. It can be a bummer sometimes, but when you do everything you should, you’ll never have any problems. If you’re new to Celiac you probably won’t have any problems with skin rash until a couple of years. That’s what happened to me. It all depends on how sensitive you are to gluten. Good luck and good living.
What do you think? Answer below!
yeah i defiantly think you aren’t being careful enough. I’m the only coeliac in my family too. but make a point never to touch any food with gluten in it if its unavoidable then i don’t touch it with my hands. I’ve only been officially gluten free for about 10 months but i can already tell when my food has toughed something bad. i often get a little patch of eczema in the same place just below one eyebrow and if something is badly contaminated i get it in the fold at the top of one ear. i never really had any gut problems so its not a huge problem but as I’m longer gluten free I’m defiantly getting more sensitive. i don’t have my own toaster because i don’t often have bread but i have my own cutting board and my own shelf in the pantry but i think cross contamination is still an issue, other people aren’t quite so careful about it as i am but the family (and the whole neighborhood) defiantly knows when someone has used my chopping board.