Barley Grass and Colon Cleanse

Are you wondering what does Barley Grass and a Colon Cleanse have to do with one another?  Well this past Monday I decided that going on a Colon Cleanse would be a great way to detoxify my body now that I believe my intestines are completely healed.  I went to CVS and looked at all of the colon cleanse products of the shelves…all of which seem to say the same things.  I finally ended up with this stuff called “Dual Action Cleanse” that claims to Flush out excess waste, Remove Toxic Buildup, and Relieve Temporary Constipation.  My husband had previous used this particular one and said he felt great after taking it after 1 month- and even lost 5 pounds!

So What’s in them?

The first bottle is called “Total Body Purifier“  to clean and stimulate your digestive system with special herbs.  The second bottle is called “Colon Clear Formula” which cleans your colon and remove toxins.  So I read the ingredients and besides a bunch of herbs there wasn’t any clear indicators for wheat…plus at the bottom in bold said Contains: Soy (normally where wheat or gluten would be listed).

What I did.

Monday morning I took one of each pill with a full glass of water and a meal (Chocolate Chex).  I didn’t really notice any difference after the first 30 minutes, but then all of a sudden my stomach cramped and I couldn’t even sit myself up I was in so much pain.  Then I felt like a could throw it back up like something was burning in my throat and my mouth was filling with saliva (like when your about to throw up-gross I know).  After laying down for 4 hours in terrible pain it worked but I still had pain for another hour.  I ended up eating some eggs and drinking water- which helped and my stomach felt somewhat better.

I again took them with dinner because I read online that some people feel sick for the first few days when they start to take them and that the body has to adjust to it.  Again 30 minutes later I started to feel awful, only this time it was 10 times worse, it hurt to breathe, I could not sit up my stomach was cramping, felt like I had a fever and I felt so dizzy like I could pass out.  I described to my husband that it felt like I had just eaten a loaf of bread that had wheat in it.  I spent hours in the bathroom and laying down in bed feeling so horrible.  About 7 hours later I ate some crackers and water which seemed to help but my stomach was extremely bloated and it felt like someone has punched me in the stomach over and over again.  Least to say I did not take them the next morning.

Barley Grass?

This brings me to the Barley Grass part of my post.  I looked at the bottles and read them thoroughly (I will admit I did somewhat “skim read” ingredients in the store) and I found it listed Barley Grass Powder as an ingredient.  And I though “huh, Barley isn’t gluten free…so what is Barley Grass Powder and why isn’t it listed as gluten??”.  I Googled “barley grass power (leaf) does it contain gluten”.  And most everything pointed to Barley Grass being Gluten Free.  Finally I looked up “does barley grass contain gluten” which gave me some conflicting answers.

On natural-nutrition-for-health.com they have an article about how Barley Grass in in fact Gluten Free because Barley Grass power is harvested before the grain stalk has started to develop- therefore making it gluten free.  However Celiac.com has a forum where someone asked the same question and people seemed to say that it is not gluten free because there was such a risk for contamination.  Also on neurotalk.psychcentral.com and on their forum someone with the user name aklap (the last answer) gave alot of great links of how Barley Grass is in fact not gluten free.

Conclusion.

Overall I have concluded that Barley Grass is not gluten free, even though colon cleanse companies claim otherwise.  Also on a side note- the same goes for wheat grass in what research I found.  Now of course there were those (very few) who said they were Celiac and they felt fine after eating barley grass.  But I would seriously beware of the stuff.  I found it to not be a pleasant experience and a lesson to not skim long labels