Beer okay after all?

[MarieK]

I have only been diagnosed for about 5 months, so I'm still learning.  I haven't had any beer except gluten free beer in since dx.  However, a friend of mine who has had celiacs for decades was recently drinking a regular beer, and when asked, he said that the process of making the beer made the gluten in it no longer a problem for celiacs.  I found this article online about it.  Has anyone else discovered that they can (or can't!) drink regular beer?  Almost all the other articles say celiacs cannot have regular beer.  I guess I could just try it and see if I get glutened, but I wanted to ask all your advice.

https://www.craftbeer.com/attachments/0001/6865/Celiac_Disease.pdf

[TexasJen]

48 minutes ago, MarieK said:

I have only been diagnosed for about 5 months, so I'm still learning.  I haven't had any beer except gluten free beer in since dx.  However, a friend of mine who has had celiacs for decades was recently drinking a regular beer, and when asked, he said that the process of making the beer made the gluten in it no longer a problem for celiacs.  I found this article online about it.  Has anyone else discovered that they can (or can't!) drink regular beer?  Almost all the other articles say celiacs cannot have regular beer.  I guess I could just try it and see if I get glutened, but I wanted to ask all your advice.

https://www.craftbeer.com/attachments/0001/6865/Celiac_Disease.pdf

The article is interesting theoretically but I am not sold...

First of all, the article is clearly biased.

Secondly, it is constructed like an academic article might be but it is clearly more of an editorial type piece. 

Third, there is absolutely no scientific evidence presented in the article. 

Here's his summary, "

"Based on the discussion above, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that barley (as beer) is infinitely less potent for triggering celiac disease than wheat (as bread); unfortunately, such argument alone will unlikely carry sufficient weight with clinical professionals and the FDA.  "

So, what follows is - since barley is less potent, it should be safe. That'd be like saying, I'm only going to have 1 bite of cake so I'll be fine.  That is extremely flawed (and in my opinion) dangerous logic. He even admits that most physicians are not going to buy his line of reasoning. 

As he points out, most of the gluten is probably removed. However, since there is no current formal testing/certified gluten-free status, I wouldn't drink beer ever.  As not fun as it is, there are lots of other options when it comes to alcohol: wine and many hard liquors including my favorite - 100% agave tequila.

[cyclinglady]

TexasJen expressed my thoughts exactly.  No beer for me.  I do not care for gluten-free beers (have not tried them all), but prefer wine (vodka too which is distilled and not brewed like beer)!  Nothing, I repeat, nothing is worth getting glutened over.  I wonder with the gluten free craze, if beer sales has dropped?  

As far as your friend, he might not be experiencing any symptoms.  Ask when he last had his antibodies tested.  

[Onesweetphish36]

I would love to tell you that it is safe....but it's not. I am a beer girl. Not being able to have it has been the hardest part about my diagnoses. Gluten removed beers are not safe either. Most gluten-free beers are awful. I did find one made by Uinita which is really good. I get it at bevmo. One night a few weeks ago I was at a party drinking my Uinita beer and I accidentally took a big drink from a regular ipa and was like oops!! Should be ok...just one drink. Well the next morning I had the worse hangover of my life and I'm 35. I was literally too sick to get out of bed for almost 2 days. 

If you have Celiac you absolutely cannot have regular beer. Even if you don't get as sick as I did you are preventing yourself from healing and doing lots of damage. I am new to this too my diagnoses was October 2016. But please take the lesson I learned. 

[Jmg]

 

It's seemingly not unusual to find some people who either make up their own rules or decide that they don't apply to them. A diagnosed celiac I spoke to prior to my endoscopy surprised me by ordering a regular lager. He said it was ok for him as his 'stomach had healed'... 

Well that approach is not for me, even if I were still drinking (I'm on an extended break). The risk of hidden damage taking place, delayed auto immune reactions etc. mean that I wouldn't enjoy the drink even if I chose to have it. But each to their own...

4 hours ago, TexasJen said:

what follows is - since barley is less potent, it should be safe

Just on the barley point, I had a reaction post diet to a small amount of barley malt in a cereal. It was a new rash on my elbows that I'd not had before I went gluten free, it may have been DH, I do know when I removed the barley source from my diet it went away.

Obviously every person has to take their own decisions and own the consequences. I wasn't diagnosed as celiac but I still wouldn't dream of drinking a gluten beer, much as I loved it, even a supposedly 'low' gluten choice like Corona, but others do, read the comments in the page I linked to. However you're only 5 months in to your diet so my advice would be to keep strictly gluten free, don't take unnecessary risks and explore some of the naturally gluten-free free alternatives like cider, wine and other gluten-free beers.  Maybe you'll find you don't miss gluten beer as much as you thought?

[Ennis-TX]

There are many articles on beers and even "Gluten Removed" beers not being safe for celiacs and still containing over the 20ppm amount. I would say your celiac friend might be a silent celiac, of those those who has symptoms less pronounced and almost unnoticeable. The immune system I bet is still tearing up his insides when he drinks those, he should have this antibody numbers checked if he needs proof.

If  you need something to drink there are plenty of hard ciders available, I used to drink rum or vodka in a coke or root beer every evenings at first myself. Due to some other issues I do not drink any more.  Honestly even before being diagnosed beers always made me throw up and really sick so I sorta stayed away from them.

[Angela1733]

I used to think that beer was okay. I wouldn't have any symptoms after having a few. After months of believing this and regularly drinking regular beer, I began to notice symptoms that would best be described as Multiple Sclerosis. I was experiencing numbness and tingling down my arms, fatigue, problems walking, loosing balance, brain fog and other cognitive symptoms.

Anyway, stopped drinking regular beer and all of my symptoms went away within weeks. I've had to learn to like wine. 

[apprehensiveengineer]

Yikes... beer was actually the thing that made me suspect I had celiac in the first place, so this article isn't even anecdotally reasonable. I noticed that I would have beer, any amount and the next day I would have what I thought was a terrible hangover. Then I realized this didn't happen when I drank other types of alcohol...

Anyways... I'd be careful about accepting any kind of advice about what foods or products are safe unless it comes from someone who is not trying to sell it to you. This goes doubly if the advice giver is not regulated healthcare professional (MD, dietician, pharmacist etc.) or some other kind of expert like a research scientist. Lots of people have opinions, but unless they have to deal with the consequences of that opinion it's not worth much to me.

[Pegleg84]

Absolutely not!
While barley seems to contain less gluten than wheat, and a sip of beer might not pack the same punch as a mouthful of bread, it is definitely not safe. Nope. No way. Even if you're not reacting to it, it's doing its damage.

Trust me, I LOVE beer. It was the hardest thing to give up and the last thing with gluten I ever consciously consumed. My partner is a huge craft beer snob and wouldn't I love to be able to try them all. Nope. No way. Not even a little bit worth it.

There are lots of good gluten-free beers out there (not the gluten-removed ones), and it's getting better all the time. Look for Glutenberg (Montreal), Groundbreaker (Portland), and Ghostfish (Seattle) which are gluten-free craft breweries doing amazing things. Depends on what style you like, but Greens (Belgium) and New Planet (Colorado) also make good stuff.

[aliciahere]

I'll just leave this here:

http://gluteninbeer.blogspot.ca/?m=1

 

The study OP originally posted didnt actually test the beer, it's just a theory based on the beer making process. Fermentation will destroy gluten if it's done properly and for long enough. 

 

The blog I posted here tests the beer, but who knows if it's consistent between batches. I would love to see more studies done on this. corona and/or coors light tested lowest ppm, which is also consistent with what I have heard.

[Jmg]

Thans for posting that, it included a link to this article from Kevin Seplowitz which Scott published on this site:

https://www.celiac.com/articles/798/1/A-Word-on-Gluten-and-Beer/Page1.html

It's over 10 yrs old so things may have changed but it makes interesting reading:

Quote

the idea that a barley based beer can be considered gluten free based upon the lack of testing is very difficult to fathom. It should be understood that a company using an assay test for gliadin to test for hordein will not return accurate results.

Quote

Although commercial assay tests for hordein are not available there is conclusive evidence that the brewing process does not degrade hordein to non-toxic levels. A research study in Australia on improving beer haze shows that hordein is still present in beer after the brewing process 

 

[Ennis-TX]

It's been brewed from wheat, non distilled, and contains gluten some hydrolyzed some not. As a celiac with a autoimmune disease that attacks your gut, organs, etc. for weeks/months after exposure. WHY WOULD YOU EVEN RISK THAT!

There are plenty of other alcohols out there and even beers made from other grains not just wheat. What is the obsession with eating the brand that contains wheat?! There are ciders, that taste similar to beer also, I always used to drink mixers like a bit of rum or vodka in a cola, root beer, etc. myself. Even to this day I make a non sugar or alc. version of this on Fridays for myself just for nostalgia. I mean even if I miss booze the fact it causes my gut to hemorrhage is enough to stop drinking all together. >.> it is amazing what I can do with Mineral Water, root beer extract, rum emulsion, and monk fruit extract. Taste like root beer and rum.

Anyway back to the subject for those of us like me hyper sensitive, we can tell you beer contains gluten from experimenting, I used to try beers and I tried a bunch before my diagnosis. THEY ALL MADE ME VOMIT, corona, bud, Coors, blue moon, several others offered to me in HS and College. I just played it off as "I am more sophisticated then that" And drank hard distilled liquors and wines back in the day.

PS be careful for flavored liquors

[RogerHagerty]

I was diagnosed with celiac back in 2013. I first avoided all beers, then tried gluten free beers and finally while over in Ireland last year drank some Guinness beer. I was fine with it (in moderation), but as with all things, your tolerances may be different. 

[Ennis-TX]

15 hours ago, RogerHagerty said:

I was diagnosed with celiac back in 2013. I first avoided all beers, then tried gluten free beers and finally while over in Ireland last year drank some Guinness beer. I was fine with it (in moderation), but as with all things, your tolerances may be different. 

Gluten beer even in moderation, even if you do not feel it will flare your antibodies in the background and keep on causing damage for weeks after even a sip.

As a fellow Texan and I know you can get in the DFW area look for Austin East Ciders in whole foods and HEB Hell just saw the huge variety pack for $17 at whole foods on park lane in Dallas. They are gluten free and do not even contain gluten grains. My beer drinking friends find them acceptable and I serve them at my house to guest (I can not drink for other reasons).
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[RogerHagerty]

Thanks for the info and tips on beers. I don't drink a lot, but am always interested in options. I'll still have my occasional Guinness, as I love it, and have never felt anything but a warm glow after drinking one. As always, and with anything with gluten, your mileage may vary, just as mine does.

Thanks again!