Is This Possible?

[glen4cindy]

Okay everyone, I was just wondering something here.

I know they have a pill available for people who are lactose intelerant to be able to consume diary problems. I use this pill almost daily.

Is it possible for there to be a similar pill that would take care of accidential gluten ingestion? I'm not talking some pill that would allow us to eat a loaf of bread or something like that, but, just someting we could take just in case that "carmel color" or whatever it may be contains gluten.

Thanks!

[Kim]

There is actually a researcher in California working on just such a pill -- my understanding is that it could be possible in the future.

Kim.

[tarnalberry]

The tricky part is that lactose intolerance and gluten intolerance are two totally different beasts. In the case of lactose intolerance, your body does nothing to it, so it reaches the bateria lower down in the digestive system which metabolize it and produce gas as a byproduct. In the case of gluten intolerance, an immune system molecule "recognizes" the peptide sequence of a gluten molecule and begins a process which destroys the intestinal lining. There's a lot more room for error in the former case than the latter.