Elimination Diet Question
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Elimination Diet Question
During the elimination diet phase can you have rice milk?
Hi Leann,
I apologize for not noticing your question until Lynn responded to it. Lynn's answer is pretty much on target. The problem with rice milk (if you're referring to Rice Dream, rather than home-made rice milk) is that it contains a tiny amount of gluten that's introduced by a malting process that's part of the manufacturing process for Rice Dream. Malting always involves barley, which is a source of gluten, similar to wheat. And unfortunately, our legislature (in their ignorance) forgot to include barley (and also rye) in the labeling restrictions that apply to wheat. Both barley and rye (and also oats, for most of us) cause the same reactions that are caused by wheat, for people who are sensitive to wheat gluten. The amount of gluten in Rice Dream is below the 20 parts per million (ppm) upper limit allowed for gluten-free labeling, so the manufacturer can still label it as "gluten-free", but an elimination diet should avoid gluten 100%, in order to ensure that remission can be attained as quickly as possible.
And as Deb pointed out, rice itself is acceptable for most people, and it can be part of what is known as the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, and tea), but some of us have problems with applesauce, and others have problems with bananas. IOW, sometimes the elimination diet has to be customized to suit the individual, to be sure that everything in the diet is safe.
Tex
I apologize for not noticing your question until Lynn responded to it. Lynn's answer is pretty much on target. The problem with rice milk (if you're referring to Rice Dream, rather than home-made rice milk) is that it contains a tiny amount of gluten that's introduced by a malting process that's part of the manufacturing process for Rice Dream. Malting always involves barley, which is a source of gluten, similar to wheat. And unfortunately, our legislature (in their ignorance) forgot to include barley (and also rye) in the labeling restrictions that apply to wheat. Both barley and rye (and also oats, for most of us) cause the same reactions that are caused by wheat, for people who are sensitive to wheat gluten. The amount of gluten in Rice Dream is below the 20 parts per million (ppm) upper limit allowed for gluten-free labeling, so the manufacturer can still label it as "gluten-free", but an elimination diet should avoid gluten 100%, in order to ensure that remission can be attained as quickly as possible.
And as Deb pointed out, rice itself is acceptable for most people, and it can be part of what is known as the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, and tea), but some of us have problems with applesauce, and others have problems with bananas. IOW, sometimes the elimination diet has to be customized to suit the individual, to be sure that everything in the diet is safe.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
