Does Quantity Matter?

[Super Bellybutton]

Will 40 grams of gluten affect the same person just as .5g would?

I know there are some people who are severely allergic to peanuts and can actually die to some who have mild skin reactions...but is this true for gluten?

[AndreaB]

Don't know about a gluten allergy. I would assume it would be the same with peanuts or any allergy. With gluten intolerance or celiac it doesn't matter whether it is a little or a lot. Your body will react whether it is obvious to you or not. I was one who didn't have any obvious symptoms but now if I get glutened I feel it the next day. This just happened last night and is the second time this month I've gotten glutened.

[lonewolf]

I think you're going to get a lot of "YES" answers on this one. I'm actually suffering from being glutened right now and it's from some type of cross contamination, so a very little bit. But, I still have a similar question. Everyone insists that a crumb is just as bad as a whole loaf of bread, BUT, if you want to be tested you're supposed to eat the equivalent of 3-4 slices of bread a day for 6 weeks or more. My question is why couldn't you just eat a crumb a day if there really is as much damage done with a crumb as with a whole loaf. Either way, I'm not eating a crumb (purposely), a slice or a loaf.

[tarnalberry]

Lol... quantity matters in everything, at the bottom of it. Drink only one glass of water in a week in the sun and you'll be dead. Drink 10 gallons of water in an hour, and it'll kill you too. Toxicity is always dose dependent.

One molecule of gluten will be insufficient to cause any real damage that your body would notice in any way. It'd be "in the noise". (It would very likely cause the autoimmune chemical reaction to occur, but just one 'cascade'.) But 0.5g is much much more than one molecule. The current European CODEX standard is 200ppm. That doesn't tell you how much you can eat of that item (I think they usually say something like two or three servings of CODEX compliant items a day? from which you could calculate it). The Canadian standard is, I believe 20ppm. The US doesn't currently have a standard.

The thing to remember is that contamination will happen. So, whatever allotment you've got goes for minor contamination - and some people will notice even minor contamination.

At the end of the day, though, this is all a chemical reaction in the gut; and damage is not determined by noticed symptoms.