If Symptom Free Do I Still Need To Be Very Careful

[Glacier Guy]

I was diagnosed nearly 7 years ago, and have been on what I think is a strict diet. On ocassion I eat things that I think are gluten free, but not 100% sure. If I don't have symptoms, is the food okay, or do I need to do further research before eating foods. I have heard that some people are very sensitive and others are not. I have seen where instructions say, "if you are a very sensitive Celiac, then avoid this food." Does that mean if we are not as sensitive as others, we can eat those foods.

I'm also curious as to what damage is done if we do get some gluten. Is the damage the same no matter how much gluten we may eat?

I hate to act so naive, but I thought I was luckly that I don't get deathly ill if I get some gluten, but maybe I'm not so lucky. It may be that I'm not as careful as I should be.

Thanks so much for any information you can provide.

[AndreaB]

Tom,

If you were diagnosed Celiac or gluten intolerant than you need to be gluten free for life, even if you have not symptoms. You will still do damage to your intestines if you are celiac, you're body will stick attack the invading protein from the gluten. If you were gluten allergic than you could try little bits of gluten to see if you still reacted but allergies are different to intolerances in that allergies can (but not always) be forgotten by the body.

[Ursa Major]

Tom, some people don't get any apparent symptoms at all when eating gluten, but the damage to their intestine is still occurring. I think it's almost better if you get really sick when eating gluten, because it will make you more careful, and you'll always know when you've eaten something wrong.

Since tiny amounts of gluten don't make you sick, you just have to make sure you really read labels and are diligent about avoiding cross contamination. Obviously, your villi have healed, but your celiac disease can never be cured, and you can NOT get careless, unless you want to get sick again, or maybe get cancer of the digestive tract somewhere.

We have debated here many times whether the amount of gluten matters or not. We really can't answer that, and neither can the experts it seems. What has been documented is, that the villi will get damaged each time we eat gluten, and it takes about three weeks to heal from each of these episodes. So, if every three weeks you ingest gluten, you'd eventually be really sick again, and your villi would be destroyed, in my opinion.

So, enjoy your good health, and don't get careless!