"gluten Free" Products Making You Sick?

[padma]

Hi Padma,

I suggest you review the ingredients of all the gluten-free products that you removed from your diet. Look for all common ingredients. Many, many gluten-free baked goods have both soy and potato flour in them, and dairy and eggs are not rare either. All of these are common food intolerances for many of us, although not all will have any particular one.

Potatoes are part of the nightshade family along with tomatoes and peppers. So if you have problems with potatoes there is a good chance you will have problems with tomatoes and peppers too.

Over the years I have "tested" soy, potatoes, rice, garbanzo flour, other bean flour, etc. Thank God they don't bother me. I think someone's remark that perhaps I have gotten more sensitive could be true. I also think that many of the new products have too high levels of gluten for me. I am still pain free after almost 2 weeks. Gluten pain for me is specific, not general. I have lots of allergies and sensitivities and they have different symptoms. The pain of gluten is like a knife sticking in my gut. I have been hospitalized before it was so acute.

I appreciate the help so many have shared. It is helping me get on a better program of eating. I have been sticking to steamed rice and now added some lentils. I looked to see if there were any grains in there and I washed them really well, just in case. I didn't use to do that. So, thanks again.

I am missing cookies, but probably don't really need them right now. I am eating a date instead. Dates are sweet, too.

I made a kitchari yesterday that was so delicious, it is rice with lentils and Indian spices. I also made a tahini salad dressing which was awesome. So as long as I have some good tasting food, I am sure I am ok. Odd how dependent I have gotten on the comfort of some foods.

I had a huge revelation that good wines made in oak barrels have gluten. They even have a standard in Europe for the amount of gluten allowed! 200 ppm! Also, other wines made more cheaply have gluten additives. So much for a little wine.

Does anyone know if there is research on how much gluten damages the villi in Celiacs?

[padma]

As much as I dont want to ,, I have to agree.

I was vegetarian or vegan for most of my adult life. I have desperately tried to keep non-meat sources protein in my diet . My body has decided other wise The foods I can currently tolerate are meats ,certain veggies ,certain fruits and very small amounts of white rice. I need to listen to my body

I have been free of all grains for almost 2 months now. I have tested a few gluten free foods and a few do not cause a reaction. I am doing much better just sticking with veggies, fruit and fish. I read all your inputs every day and am learning a lot. Thanks.

[T.H.]

Does anyone know if there is research on how much gluten damages the villi in Celiacs?

There is research, but there's no research on this that doesn't have a skew towards the less sensitive celiacs, least not that anyone seems to know about. I couldn't find any, and I started emailing some of the celiac research centers in the US. They either told me they didn't know of any without this bias either, or directed me to research that HAD the bias, to show me an example of 'how much gluten celiacs can eat.'

So far, there are a few studies on celiacs and how much gluten they can eat without villi damage. Here's the problem, though. To be a participant in these studies, a person needs to be healed to a certain level.

Where the studies have been done, the gluten free standard has ranged between 20-200ppm of gluten (The amount has dropped over the years.). And what have the celiacs been doing to get well before they entered the study? Eating this gluten free food, usually, which means the celiacs participating in these studies had to have HEALED while eating a diet of 20-200ppm of gluten (or a little less).

And then the tests discover that - surprise! - celiacs can eat just a little less than 20-200ppm per day and they don't have villi damage. Well, duh. That's like saying you can only come into a club if you have a purple shirt, and then doing a survey inside and concluding that purple is the most popular color.

As the gluten ppm has dropped over the years, so did the amount of gluten that didn't damage celiacs in the studies. That would seem to support the concept of the bias existing, to, IMO.

For an amount, though, the last test said that 50mg a day was safe, as I recall.

There was just one anomaly in that 50 mg study, which I take to be a person like us, who figured out what he had to stop eating and healed without eating gluten-free products. He had a clinical relapse, vomiting, the big D, etc... And his trial gluten amount was 5 times less than what they concluded was safe. He dropped out early because he was so ill, so they didn't include his results in the study.

I truly hope that someday, they look at recently diagnosed celiacs and try to see if they can get them to eat a gluten free diet of X ppm and then see how well they heal! And how quickly, you know? THEN you could do the same 'how much is safe' test and you'd have a more randomized trial, i think.

[dilettantesteph]

I wonder too about the biopsy for villi damage being used to determine reaction. Surely there is other damage that occurs before the villi are damaged enough to be seen with a biopsy.