Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Anti-panicked or utterly confused?

It's a toss up really. Tonight's Anti-Panic session on celiac disease went rather well. I connected with other parents and we chatted about our paranoia of cross contamination. I'm told that although my paranoia will likely always be there to a certain degree (a good thing I think!), it will subside as I find my own ways and my own groove. It was helpful to know that I wasn't alone in my feelings. Especially about playdough.

It was set up with poster-boards of labels. I took pictures (which I'll put up tomorrow) of "safe" products. I found it interesting that Linda, the leader, calls things "celiac-friendly" as opposed to gluten-free unless they are labelled that way. We talked about labelling laws and how they have to get better - and how gluten really needs to be included in the list of common allergies to have it labelled on the package.

We also talked about the huge difference in acceptable levels of gluten in Canada vs the USA. Here in Canada, an acceptable gluten level is 20ppm. In the USA? 200ppm. That's 10 times the amount! Why is that? Apparently (I have no proof here, this is total hearsay), the WHO is trying to make a standard level and that level would be 200ppm. I wonder what affect that would have? It will certainly make me think even more (I don't think I've used my brain this much since university) when reading labels..

If anyone actually reads my blog, what do you think about the difference? Does that make you uncomfortable?

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