Beauty Store Business

AUG 2013

For beauty business news, beauty store owners turn to Beauty Store Business. Beauty business trends, beauty business profiles and more!

Issue link: http://beautystorebusiness.epubxp.com/i/141850

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 51 of 135

Gluten-free signage helps customers identify your store as one that is savvy. FREE OF WHEAT, BARLEY AND RYE Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley and rye—as well as in oats, via crosscontamination during processing. Even more simply put, the protein provides for the chewiness found in foods made with these ingredients. Interestingly, it hasn't always been a part of the human diet. "We haven't always had wheat," says Dr. Vikki Petersen, DC, CCN, coauthor of The Gluten Effect. "It's only been 10,000 years, which is really a blink of the eye compared to how long man has been around." As a result, it is not as easily processed by our bodies, as say, fruit, which has been consumed since the beginning of time. "The average digestion process is 24 hours to process something completely through. But then it's in the bloodstream for another three days," continues Petersen. "The ability to really break down that protein into individual amino acids—which you should be able to do—is not happening with gluten. The protein gluten is not properly digested by any human being." For some bodies, the ingestion of gluten triggers an attack by the body on itself—one in which the villi of the small intestine are damaged and/or destroyed. The villi function to bring about the absorption of nutrients in the body. Plainly put, the end result of devastated villi and an absolute inability to absorb nutrients is malnourishment—even including the deprivation of nourishment to the brain, nervous system, bones, liver and other organs, as described in the Mayo Clinic's definition of celiac disease. People with celiac disease also deal with a variety of other cumbersome health issues when they encounter gluten, including diarrhea, bloating, abdominal pain and joint pain. What is the relationship between gluten, people with celiac disease and beauty products? When used in beauty or personalcare products, gluten functions as the glue that helps bind ingredients together. The grains that contain gluten also pack healthful and even healing benefits— for those who can tolerate them. For instance, oats—which have only the potential to contain gluten due to crosscontamination, yet are generally avoided by people with celiac disease, unless labeled "gluten free"—contain antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits that are worthwhile for the skin. "[In the past], we occasionally used oat products where we thought we needed the healing benefits of oat extract in stop-itch cream," says Dr. Linda Miles, DOM, formulator for derma e, an award-winning line of natural skincare products. "However, we have now found other ingredients that will do many of the same things as those possible gluten contributors. [Although], it isn't necessarily so that using an oat extract will definitely have gluten in it," adds Miles. She confirms that derma e products today are 100% gluten-free and recently underwent the Whole Foods Market gluten-free certification process. In beauty or personal-care products, gluten can be found in lotion, shampoo, lipstick and lip care products, to name a few. The danger of these products for people with celiac disease is 50 August 2013 | beautystorebusiness.com that they have the potential for ingestion and therefore the ability to make it to the gut. It turns out that we eat quite a bit of the products we use—whether by licking products off our lips, having products seep into our mouths while washing our hair, or touching our food or mouths with lotion-bathed hands, for instance. Such seemingly innocuous routine experiences pose great potential harm to someone who is gluten intolerant. And, that's aside from the current debate over whether gluten molecules are large enough to be absorbed by the skin—making the case for nonuse of any gluten-containing beauty or personal-care products by anyone with gluten intolerance. The popular consensus on gluten— whether from doctors, scientists and so forth—is that gluten must be ingested to impact someone sensitive to it; it must make its way to the gut. "In your beauty products, you have people who are concerned about wheat grass, barley grass. You have consumers who are concerned about those ingredients if they happen to be in a product; same with oats. Usually in a beauty product, there shouldn't be a problem at all," says Nancy Kloberdanz, executive assistant for the Gluten Intolerance Group, which works to both inform and provide support concerning gluten intolerance. "They have to ingest the ingredient and get it to their gut. You wouldn't expect shampoos to get to the gut, but they can; mascaras can, through the tear ducts. So consumers get concerned." THE DEBATE Some researchers and medical professionals who deal directly with patients suffering from gluten intolerance have a different viewpoint, however. Note that the skin is the largest organ mammals have. "Scientifically, there are certain papers that will say gluten is too big of a molecule, it's not going to make it through the skin, and topical gluten should be fine. And, that 'should' is really kind of an awkward word. Yeah, maybe it should be, but for a lot of people, it isn't," says Petersen. "Researchers are looking at the molecule. They're looking at the protein. I think they're more looking at just the normal diameter pores. But we're not dealing with the normal scheme of things. We're dealing with unhealthy people—[regarding the general population's increased lack of health and weakened immune systems brought on by poor diets; toxins; and the pesticides, hormones and genetic modification in

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Beauty Store Business - AUG 2013