If you have a gluten-related disease, know someone with gluten sensitivity or just wonder about how someone could ever give up croissants for life, you might be interested in a nice article in MedScape that asks the question, how much gluten is too much? gluten is present in tons of food – everything made of wheat, barley or rye. Yes, that includes the big three – bread, beer, and brownies. What’s more, now that so many foods are processed, little dustings of gluten show up all over the place. Sometimes gluten is in food that uses a gluten-containing substance (like soy sauce) and sometimes the gluten comes just from sharing the same conveyor belt. So, scientists asked, if gluten is drifting around all the time in tiny amounts, how much is sneaking under the food-radar, and is it affecting gluten-sensitive people? Good question, huh? This review article looked at all the studies ever attempted, everywhere, to look at this question and found (brace yourself) a whole 13, and of them, three trials (where studies exposed people to things and then tested them). Given the patheticly small number, could anything useful be found from these “pooled” results? The answer was yes. All together (weighing results based on the quality of the study and the likelihood of biases, and using only the strictest definitions) the reviewers concluded that as little as 200 mg of gluten can cause visible changes in the lining of the intestine. So, for all us non-metric thinkers, keep in mind that if you froze your liter bottle of water, the weight of it would be roughly one kilogram. One thousandth of that frozen bottle would be a gram (imagine the world’s tiniest ice fleck) and then one-fifth of that tiny ice fleck would be 200 milligrams. Sheesh! Keep in mind, however teeny this amount seems, some of the people in these studies had biopsy-documented damage from as little as 10 mg of total gluten a day (one-twentieth of our teensy-weensy ice splinter).
Other gluten-related news-crumbs from the article:
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Prevalence is estimated at 1 in 100 people – with a strong genetic link. That’s a shockingly common disease.
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Women outnumber men 3:1, and the average number of years to diagnosis is 11. If you think you might have gluten sensitivity, the article also gives good info on how to evaluate the problem.
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Studies show gluten is hiding in such innocent-seeming foods as dried fruit, pie fillings, cold cuts, sandwich spreads, canned meats, many salad dressings and condiments, prepared soups, flavored yogurt, and even flavored instant coffees and herbal teas.
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The WHO has a standard measure (thank goodness someone does!) for gluten amounts in foods. The standard is that an artificially rendered gluten-free food should have less than 200 parts per million (PPM) of gluten. The authors of this review conclude that this WHO standard probably won’t cut it – and instead recommend a standard of 20 parts per million, which would translate into roughly a daily consumption of 6 mg of gluten.
Bottom line: If you have gluten sensitivity, know the enemy! (including those items labeled gluten-free). Channel your inner foodie in the nicest possible sense – only the purest ingredients for you.
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I’m not in the medical field, so I have a difficult time here picturing how 10 mg or even 200 mg of gluten, which you say is like the tiniest ice speck ever, can possibly make any real difference whatsoever. I mean, isn’t this like homeopathic doses, basically? And we all know homeopathics is worthless, right? I just don’t understand how it isn’t mostly a head-thing at this point.
And I don’t see how this was a problem 100 or 150 years ago. They had all the wheat products back then, so I don’t get it, unless it is not the wheat- it is the artificial garbage we put in our food and transform our foods into and genetically modified foods- now that I could buy. They could be forming chemicals that are really poisons. But this whole gluten sensitivity to homeopathic doses of gluten- I don’t get it. I guess I’m going to have to Google it.
You are actually on the right track in your thinking, as the wheat we eat today isn’t the ancient grain, aka “the staff of life” in its original state. Today we eat hybrids, which are somehow causing wheat allergies and gluten intolerance. I can’t explain it scientifically, so this is where Googling can come in handy for your research.
@lilorfanannie, OK – I think you would be better off NOT googling and instead listening to the Doc. First off, you seem to have an imprecise grasp of amounts and Doc Gurley’s point. Her point was that a very small amount – 200mg – is enough to be certain to cause a reaction. In other words, dropping a crumb of bread into a gluten intolerant person’s food is a bad idea.
But this has no relationship to homeopathic amounts. You need to understand the relative amounts and size. To get to a ‘homeopathic’ dose of gluten you would take that 1/1000th of a liter and dissolve it in another full liter. Then you would take 1/1000th of that and dissolve it in yet another liter. Then you would take 1/1000th of THAT and say it was medicine. When in fact you would be lucky if there was a single molecule in the bit you took. The miniscule dose Doc Gurley is talking about is one million times greater than a homeopathic dose. It is in fact about the same kind of amount that a single dose of a vitamin is or the same amount of ibuprofen in a single pill. Most medicine pills are in fact filler but the amount that is real medicine is still a real amount that you can see.
Instead you seem to be wanting to deny that there is a problem with gluten intolerance. 100 years ago people had the same problems they just also had much worse problems. But it is more likely something like that people just talked about having arthritis without actually knowing what was going on – since the symptoms of gluten allergies are very similar to those for rheumatoid arthritis
Ok- those explanations make sense- Thank you to you both
I have an intolerance to gluten (not sure if it rises to the level of allergy, but suffice it to say that gluten is bad for me). I am now 40. When I was young, I had no symptoms that I can remember. I may have had them, but I don’t know. As I got older, I started having a painful and bloated stomach on a daily basis. In my 30′s, I began having chronic sinus headaches, mysterious itches on my wrists and ankles, and I would retain up to 10 lbs of water each cycle. I was on intermittent steroids for the headaches, allegra for the itches, and a diuretic for the water retention. When I finally cut out gluten, all these symptoms disappeared. Well, the headaches did not but they became fewer and milder and I no longer ever need steroids, only a sinus pill. My stomach does not get upset as easily.
In speaking with other people with this issue, they had similar experiences. As they got older their health started declining, and all the things going wrong seemed unrelated. Once they were diagnosed and adjusted their diet, their health improved dramatically.
Having a truly gluten-free life is VERY tricky – but that much misery is a powerful motivator. I’m so glad you got your cause identified. Preventing bad symptoms is sooo much better than treating them. Feel well!
[...] Just a small amount of gluten can have a devastating effect (check out the recent Doc Gurley post How Much Is Too Much to see how little gluten it takes). Now whether any of us want these sugars added to our foods in [...]
I recently had an Adrenal Stress Index test done, and my “optimal health” doctor tells me that I have “leaky gut” syndrome. I’ve never suffered any symptoms that I’m aware of. If it’s true that leaky gut is caused by gluten, would it be enough for me to just cut back on my gluten consumption? For example, could I remove gluten from my diet six days a week, but allow gluten when I go out to dinner on the weekend? Or would it be enough to eliminate bread from my diet — which I imagine is the main source of gluten — and not worry about hidden gluten found in sauces or beer for example. Also, wouldn’t a rice beer such as Sopporo or Kirin have far less Gluten that a traditional barley beer? My internet research has so far given me no information about the quantity of Gluten in various foods. Thank you.
For at least 7 years, I’ve had something the doctor called “geographic tongue”–which I was told had no cause and no cure. So, I did nothing about it for 7 years and wasn’t planning on doing anything about it for the rest of my life–other than deal with it. My tongue was covered with sores which changed the color and texture of it in a patchy pattern. Much of the time these sores were extremely painful. After going gluten-free (about 3 months ago), to address a number of other symptoms including fatigue and bloating, the first thing I noticed was that my tongue completely healed! I would have NEVER expected this! No more sores or pain! It’s nice and smooth now.
I did try going back to eating gluten about a month ago, and my tongue became so sore an inflamed, it didn’t even comfortably fit in my mouth! That was a clear indication that the gluten was the causal variable–especially since it, again, immediately went away after I went back on a gluten-free diet.
If you or someone you know has a “geographic tongue,” pass on this information to them! The cause may be a gluten sensitivity.
Also, I saw an endocrinologist a few years back, again complaining of fatigue and weakness. He put me on a thyroid medication and testosterone injections. Sure, I felt great and strong being juiced up, but it was extremely expensive. When I couldn’t afford it any longer, the crash was horrible and lasted what seemed to be a year or longer. However, going gluten-free has given me energy levels closer to what I would consider normal! I have strength at the gym now, and I even sleep better–I feel more rested in the mornings, and I’m naturally waking up earlier.
Next, because I don’t feel as full and bloated anymore, it is MUCH easier to drink more water. I’m absolutely certain this also contributes to feeling better. It’s a great domino effect!
Lastly, I have a question. Do enzymes help accidental ingestion of gluten? I ate at Rubio’s tonight on my college campus. I spent a TON of effort trying to decide where would be the safest place to get food. After choosing Rubio’s and asking for their allergen list, and confirming with the manager that my order was completely gluten-free, I found out by checking their website that the meat I ate was cooked with soy sauce! SOY SAUCE AT A MEXICAN PLACE?! SOOOO frustrating since I was trying to be so careful (and because I just started feeling better again after my recent return to a gluten-free diet). My question is… how much gluten can there actually be the minuscule amount of soy sauce left on a couple tiny pieces of seasoned meat? I mainly ask because I read something from Kikkoman stating that the levels of gluten in soy sauce are so low that it does not qualify as containing gluten. (Something about) the process of making it reduces the gluten from the wheat. Just curious! I don’t want to go backwards! Any suggestions of how to cleanse would be great.
Thanks!