<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Yesterday I asked for help in knowing whether people who were allergic to
wheat were reacting to the whole wheat berry or just to the  gluten part of
the protein in wheat.  Don Kasarda kindly answered the post and has given
permission to send this information on to all of you.

>From: "Donald D. Kasarda" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: wheat allergy
>
>Gayle,
>
>Although there may be some controversy about the role of the different types
>of reactions in celiac disease, I will give you my current opinion on the
>matter for what it is worth.  I am neither a physician nor an immunologist
>so please take that into consideration--and I will throw in the usual
>disclaimer about this not being meant as medical advice.
>
>I think that in celiac disease, the reaction is most likely to the gluten
>proteins only. Reaction to gluten proteins in celiac disease is not
>generally immediate, but sometimes will only be recognized by the patient
>when sufficient damage has been done to the intestine to cause malabsorption
>of nutrients. This might take a day or two to years depending upon the
>individual and the degree to which healing had occurred before re-challenge.
>Gliadin is a part of or a fraction of gluten.
>
>However, people with allergies (by which I define here as having Type I
>immediate hypersensitivity to wheat, presumably mediated by IgE type
>immunoglobulins) might be reacting either to gluten proteins or to various
>non-gluten proteins found in the wheat grain (the alpha-amylase inhibitors
>are one example, and this type of protein occurs in wheat and in other
>grains--related proteins occur in rice, for example). There are many
>different types of non-gluten proteins in wheat grain, although gluten is
>the predominant protein fraction.  Reaction can be swift or take a few hours
>to become noticeable, but this type of reaction is not usually slow in
>developing.
>
>Don Kasarda
>Albany, California