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If you have found this page through a search engine then you have probably already learned that you are allergic to both wheat and maize. You have undoubtedly been suffering with some type of extreme allergic reaction, chronic illness, or auto-immune disorder for months, if not years. It is quite a shock when you discover that you or a loved one has an intolerance to both wheat gluten and maize, as these two ingredients are a staple in the modern American diet.
As a multiple allergy sufferer this poses quite a challenge for you when it comes to ingredient purchases and meal preparation.
I have devoted a special section of this website for people allergic to both wheat and corn, hoping to spawn a community of readers that will interact together with tips and recipes to share.
When I first began converting my kitchen I searched countless websites and found many focused on celiac’s disease, corn allergies, or combined celiac and milk intolerance, but I could not find a site that focused specifically on avoiding wheat and corn. I recently joined a forum for celiacs and met some great people with good advice for newbies. Some of the members I met in the forum are also either allergic to corn or very intolerant of it and they had some really good advice to share. It is difficult to stick to a gluten-free diet, but for those who also have to avoid corn as well, eating can become a real problem.
- For a listing of ingredients that contain corn you must visit: www.cornallergens.com
- For a listing of ingredients that contain wheat visit: Ataxia Alternatives
- Here is a great general site about gluten intolerance: gflinks.com
Condiment and Extract tips:
People with corn allergies have to be careful of extracts. Suzanne offers us some great tips:
“First, you need to be sure you are using a pure extract and not a sweetened one. Second, extracts are made from alcohol derived from corn. My allergist said they would not provoke an allergic reaction but many people who are corn free are not convinced. An alternative is to make vanilla sugar by putting a vanilla bean in granulated sugar. You could just leave the extracts out of the cookies if you want to be sure.”
Basic Shopping tips:
Suzanne says: “I have found that generic brands often seem to have the least added ingredients. For example, Rosarita refried beans have cooked beans, water, less than 2% of: canola oil, salt, distilled vinegar, chili pepper, onion power, spices, garlic power, and the dreaded “natural flavor”. Safeway brand fat-free refried beans have pinto beans, water and salt. For the chili I buy generic canned tomatoes which have no extra ingredients. I am a highly reactive celiac and all these recipes are ones I make frequently.”
*Suzanne was tested for corn allergy because she suffered from chronic hives and angioedema. She now avoids corn as much as possible even though her allergy test came out negative. Suzanne says:
“Corn permeates the food system as much if not more than wheat. I recommend the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma for a real eye-opener on the role that corn plays in our food chain.”
Here is another source for maize-free confectioner’s sugar from Kristine: allergygrocery.com
Curt also says that San-J makes a wheat-free soy sauce.
Curt also says a food co-op it will often be better than a grocery store, even on that specializes in organic foods. He offers the following links:
Connie says that the Food Allergy Kitchen can be a great resource when you are getting started: Cooking and Baking Substitutions for Corn, Grain Allergy Info, and info about how to handle Holidays.
Here’s a great resource for finding Gluten-Free companies and their certified products (Gluten-Free Certification Organization (list of 20 companies and their products): gfco.org/products.php
*remember to always check the ingredients on gluten-free products to make sure they are also maize-free.
Check out our list of favorite healthy commercial snack products too.
Tags: Allergic, Allergic Reaction, Allergy, Autoimmune Disorder, Celiac, Chronic Illness, Corn, Corn-free, Diet, Gluten, Gluten-free, Intolerance, Recipe, Shopping Tips, Wheat, Wheat-free
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- Joel Stein of the L.A. Times Insults Parents of Allergic Children
- Thrive Allergy Expo at McCormick Place in Chicago
- Finding Green Gluten and Corn-free Cosmetics and Personal Products
- Gluten-free and Corn-free Products We Use
Meet the Author
My 16 year old son was recently diagnosed with severe allergies to corn and sesame seed. We also discovered that he test positive to mild allergies to wheat, peanut and walnut. For years he has suffered from headaches, fatigue, aching joints, Candida overgrowth in his intestines and mouth (Thrush), IBS, Esophagitis and Reynoids (sp) Syndrome. He always feels sick. His GI issues have been treated for a few years, but the other symptoms were always explained away.
I was sure he must be from an auto-immune disease and finally insisted that he be tested. He tested negative for everything but the food allergies. My doctor feels that most of his symptoms could be the result of his newly discovered allergies. I wish I had discovered them years ago. I am anxious to make the necessary changes to his diet to see if he’ll begin to feel better. I am overwhelmed though by the difficulty of finding products that are corn and wheat free. I was told to go with rice products, but most of them contain corn or sesame. I work full-time and my husband suffers from mental illness and is not able to help me with the kids. I rarely have time to cook during the week.
My son works part-time and is out with his friends alot. His diet recently has consisted of hot dogs and soda at the gas station! I made a trip to Trader Joe’s today and found some corn free snacks to get him started. I’ve tried to explain to him that if he wants to feel better he’s going to have to make some serious changes to his diet. Is it realistic to expect him to change his diet without forcing the rest of the family to conform to his new food restrictions? Will removing some of the corn from his diet but not all make a difference? For example, I’m assuming that a chocolate chip cookie contains more corn syrup than corn starch (without even considering the wheat). If I find cookies with natural sugar but still containing corn starch is that helpful? I feel like it’s going to be impossible to cut both corn and wheat out of his diet without making it a full time job! How is he supposed to eat when he’s out or at school? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!! I’m at my wits end.
Julie,
Your son is really going to need to go cold turkey to feel better, just my experience. Corn is tough but not impossible to avoid if you know what you can have. We have a wheat and corn free house. All the members do not eat that way exclusively, but the food in the house is all safe for our allergic son. We eat a lot of whole foods and organics. I will tell you that my son’s severity to corn has lessened over the last three years and I attribute that to strict avoidance. The longer you avoid the allergen the lower the antibody levels drop, and they drop slowly, over time. They do not fluctuate with every meal. It takes years to get them to go down. So if he eats just a little every day then it does nothing for his intolerance as the antibody levels will remain high. Many celiacs test positive for gluten antibodies up to two years after they remove it from their diets. I think corn is the same, to be honest.
He is going to have to want to do it. At his age he should be able to do his own shopping too. Does he drive? Trader Joe’s is great for gluten labeling, but corn is tricky. If the family doesn’t want to conform to the diet, maybe you could clean out a cabinet for your son.
Your son is not alone. Many folks are finding they are allergic to corn. There may be a support group at his school for allergies. You may want to look into a local MOCHA group too. (Mothers of Children Having Allergies). Your son will need a local support group of peers. Maybe call the school nurse and have a chat? My son has friends at his school with food allergies and it helps that he knows he isn’t alone.
In our house we are careful with our meats and do not buy meat that is fed from feed lots as they are mostly corn fed. We buy organic free range eggs and chicken. When the corn allergy dx was first discovered we didn’t do these things and I thought that might be extreme but now feel it was worth it.
Some things your son can do are eating at home before he goes out, keeping a bag of non-perishable snacks in his locker and the car for food emergencies– (Larabars, etc…), and learning to cook. He’s 16, and will need to do this for survival when it’s time for him to move out, possibly when he starts college, and it will help you tremendously with your schedule, etc… In our house our son eats a big breakfast before heading out the door. He usually eats leftovers at lunch time (we rely a lot on crockpot cooking).
There are some new gluten free ready made products now available that are also corn free. We are fortunate to have a good celiac store near us and they are always finding unique products. I have used frozen apple pies, frozen individual soups, and frozen ready to use pizza dough. But remember, if candida is a problem then the pizzas and pies are not ideal.
I downloaded an applet on my iphone recently that helps me to keep organized with gluten and corn free products we buy from various stores. It even allows me to photograph the item for easy reference. This helps me when I have to send someone else shopping for me. This is just an idea I though I would throw out.
Trader Joe’s labels their gluten free well, but not all are corn free, as you know. If you visit www.cornallergens.com and click on the page that lists ingredients that are corn derived you will be able to navigate pretty well on the first shopping trip.
We have had a lot of luck with Trader Joe’s, but we also use our local celiac store a lot too.
Things that you can do in the house for starters: do not buy salted butter or regular iodized salt. Get only sea salt. Try as best you can to eliminate all things with citric acid in them. Try to avoid dairy unless it is on my safe foods list. Dairy in general is loaded with corn by products. Especially shredded cheeses, sour creams, and cottage cheeses. Even regular milk is dodgy. We shred all our own cheese and are careful with our brands. The only ketchup we have found was muir glen. The only mustard was at whole foods. We only use spectrum canola mayo (not the light).
I am not sure if you are aware, but there have been correlations found between celiac/gluten intolerance and depression, ADHD, OCD, and schizophrenia. This might be motivating for your son in light of your family situation.
Wheat, peanuts, and corn are loaded with mycotoxins, and so the allergies to them might be a direct result of the candida/fungal issues he is struggling with.
We eat Pamela’s mini chocolate chip cookies. You can buy them in bulk through Amazon.com. We also get an Allerenergy bar that is gluten/corn free and tastes pretty good. I have to caution that a fungal issue really needs to be treated with a low sugar diet, especially in the beginning. Once the gut has healed then sweets in moderation are probably okay.
Thanks for the suggestions. I did not consider dairy being a problem. Is it because the cows are corn fed? He tested negative to a lactose intolerance, which was a surprise to me. He has never had much luck with dairy. It seems to trigger alot of IBS attacks. Also, why sea salt vs. regular salt? Do you buy the frozen products at your local Celiacs store?
Julie,
Oh my gosh– Dairy…..
Almost all dairy products are infested with corn by-products. You really have to learn your brands and how to read labels.
Here is my ’safe products’ list: http://healthy-family.org/safe-products. It is certainly not complete and manufacturers often change their formulations so do read the label before you buy, but this list was born out of necessity when my son was first diagnosed.
I also thought my son had a dairy allergy problem and was even told by my doctor to take him off of all dairy. Funny thing he improved after that a little bit. A couple years later when we did allergy testing he was negative for dairy. He can now eat any dairy that is also corn free without problems. If it has corn in it he will start grinding his teeth. It is weird. Usually we see it with cheese products more than anything. We only buy organic dairy products. Most cheeses are dusted with corn starch to keep them from sticking to the plastic wrap. Sliced cheeses and shredded cheeses are ‘all’ contaminated as far as I am concerned. We buy blocked cheese and shred it ourselves. We are not in the habit of eating cheeses, though, because we have had such bad luck with it. There was only one brand of cottage cheese (Friendly Farms from Whole Foods) that turned out okay for my son. Ricotta, forget about it. I have yet to find one. Avoid the deli due to cross contamination and only buy in prepackaged containers. We use only Daisy Sour Cream and rely more on kefir than on milk in baking and in our morning health shake. For the longest time my son never even drank milk. He might do it occasionally now.
Salt.
Table salt uses maltodextrin to stick the iodine to the grain. Maltodextrin is made from corn. We only use sea salt at home. I am sure he gets it in minute doses when we eat out or in some packaged foods. So try to think ‘low sodium’ in packaged products and hopefully it won’t be a problem. My son’s symptoms ‘were’ neurological. So we saw the reaction almost immediately after the food. Now it has been so long since we started the diet that he doesn’t react like that anymore. He tolerates more but we still don’t ‘allow’ it because we don’t want him to regress and get sickly and reactive again.
I can get a lot of frozen products at my celiac store. Breads, rolls, donuts, soups, mini meals. I shop at Lil’s Dietary Shop. If you find a store that is willing to order a product for you that is helpful. We have ordered in bulk through her store.