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Thank you all for your generous replies re these issues.  As Murphies
law would have it, since all the sharing of info re our initial article
we have also received info from Oz sources. Re: the caramel
coloring, in Aust , at least, caramel "N" or "NDS" (double strength)
is made by the controlled burning  of glucose, however one source
told us it was derived from wheat. Although our basic chemistry
understanding says this seems strange - has anyone else heard of
this too...

The Coke chemist assures us that all their OZ products are GF but
the schweppes rep mentioned the source being from wheat.

Re: McD's Icecream, the Oz recipe is: Skim milk powder, whole
milk, cream, Glucose syrup, flavorings (yet to be determined as
GF) vegetable gum 412 & 407 and sugar.

Re: Constipation, Di responds quite well to the inclusion of
slippery elm in my diet when constipated. Slippery elm powder
is derived from the inner bark of the tree "unlmus fluva" and
it's major benefits include neutralizing stomach acidity, aid
milk digestion, buffering against irritations & inflammation of
mucus membranes & to assist digestion. It produces much less
bulkier stools. During weaning Kimberly,  would get constipated,
but by including a teaspoon of this powder into the apple sauce
she ate, this solved her problem. For those of you with this
problem, definitely worth a try ! (ie:tastes like cardboard but
non-the-less it works...)

Cheer for now from Oz !

John & Di Bohmer.
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