Is The Amount Of Gluten Vs Nutritional Intake Relative?

[Guest Damo]

Hi, I'm new to this coeliac/celiac thing having been diagnosed just a few days ago. Unlike your average celiac, I don't really have any concrete symptoms - after eating gluten I don't get sick, get a sore stomach, get diarrhea etc. So my main reason for staying off gluten is to absorb nutrients.

My query is, do villi swell up the same amount regardless of how much gluten you have or is it relative - the more gluten you have; the more flattened the villi.

[Viola 1]

The way I've understood it over the years, from various doctors is ... any gluten you eat, no matter how small will damage the intestine and put you at a much higher risk of cancer and other auto immune diseases.

[tarnalberry]

As I understand it, there have been biopsy proven studies of damage to the villi from as little as 10mg of gluten. (For comparison, a slice of your average, wheat-based, bread would have about three hundred times that amount.) The amount of damage is probably going to go up (more reagents in the chemical pot) at the really really low levels, but once you've eaten even as much as a slice of bread, you're way past the "does it make a difference" line anyway.