Will Other Foods Affect the Villi? - by Kemp Randolph

The following is a March 11, 1998 post by Kemp Randolph Open Original Shared Link.

Celiac.com Sponsor (A12):
According to Dr. Hugh Sampson, Mt. Sinai Medical Center, at an AMA sponsored press briefing on Nutrition, in a list of Facts vs. Fictions, Fiction: Skin tests or blood tests can be used to diagnose food sensitivities. Fact: ...A positive test does not mean a person will react to a food...furthermore these tests do not tell whether a person has a non-IgE mediated sensitivity to food.

He describes these tests only as useful guides and points out that diet testing is the only reliable way to identify a food allergy, preferably where the person does not know whether they have eaten the suspect food.

Q: If I am sensitive to milk and eggs...could they damage my villi in the same way as gluten?

A: Theres a specific note in Michael Marshs book about food allergies causing villi damage. Thats the book On Coeliac Disease, page 155. Table there shows that the Type 3 stage of intestinal response, flat destructive does occur with milk, egg, soy and chicken or fish allergies. It differs from the celiac response in that only 1 or 3 of the 5 stages of lesion connected with celiac disease occur with an allergy.

Whats unclear from this reference and from Medline searches Ive made is whether food allergies in adults cause villi damage. All the references I found were for children. Villi destruction does occur in children with milk allergy, but this like other pediatric allergies, apparently is usually outgrown.