<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
Abigail Neuman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I have been sensitive to vinegar....It makes me wonder how trusting
> we can be of the vinegar industry. They are out to make a buck. I
> cannot believe it when they say that there could not possibly be
> gluten in the vinegar after it is distilled...
A grain expert working for the US government has made statements to
this effect, as have some manufacturers. There is no doubt that food
manufacturers are out to make a buck; that is the nature of all
business. However, many companies also recognize the value of good
public relations, and the costs in making untrue claims. My
experience has been that most companies either tell you what the
source of their grain vinegar is, or tell you that they don't know
for sure. A few companies have tried to claim that distilled vinegar
is automatically gluten-free due to the distillation process. (I
think they may be right--but that's another discussion.)
Incidentally, I believe that most of the time distilled vinegar comes
from corn--not for the benefit of celiacs, but just because it is
cheaper to product distilled vinegar from corn than from wheat. But
that is not always the case, so if you believe that gluten could
transfer into the vinegar during the distillation process then you
should avoid distilled vinegar unless the grain source is specified.
> ...because I know what has happened to me. I also cannot tolerate
> French's Mustard or Heinz Ketchup. I doubt that they are gluten
> free.
This is what I must take exception to. I have no doubt that Abigail
(and others) may have problems with these products. But it does not
necessarily follow that the problem is gluten. The fact is that
food sensitivities are a problem throughout the US population, and
there is some evidence to suggest that celiacs are more prone to
other food sensitivities than non-celiacs.
If one were to take a poll of all the celiacs on this list (which I
do NOT intend to do), I suspect that the majority of celiacs consume
products such as French's Mustard and Heinz Ketchup without having
problems. It seems likely to me that the problems Abigail has had
with these products are due to some other food sensitivity, and not
due to gluten.
Incidentally, Richard Abrams made a detailed post on April 24, 1996
entitled "Vinegar and alcohol", in which he tried to calculate how
much gliadin could be in vinegar in a worst-case scenario. Working
with the limit on detectable impurities and assuming that the daily
"dose" of vinegar was about six teaspoons, his calculations came out
to about .001 mg per day, at most. This is far below the 4-40 mg of
residual gluten which it is estimated that the typical European GF
diet contains. To put it in perspective: Several YEARS of distilled
vinegar consumption would be needed to match the residual gluten
found in one DAY of a typical European GF diet. NOTE: Richard's post
is in one of the expert reference files. To get the reference file
containing his post, send a message to [log in to unmask]
containing this line:
GET CELIAC EXP96-2
> Is there any way to test a bottle of vinegar, to actually see under
> a high powered microscope that it does indeed have the protein
> gliadin in it?
I am not aware of any test sensitive enough to pick up the trace
amounts of gliadin that would be present in distilled vinegar.
> Also, do we really know that it is the protein itself which bothers
> us, or something else that is present when gliadin is present.
The following excerpts are from a talk by Dr. Martin Kagnoff, director
of the Laboratory of Mucosal Immunology at UCSD. The talk was given
at the 1995 CSA/USA conference and summarized in the December 1995
issue of _The Sprue-nik Press_:
--=====--=====--=====--=====--=====--=====--=====--=====--=====--=====--
We all know that ingesting certain grains activates CD: wheat, rye,
barley, and if taken in large enough quantities, oats. There is some
debate in some groups as to whether or not oats are toxic to celiacs.
We know that rice, corn, and sorghum are fine, as long as they are not
contaminated by one of the toxic grains. When you look at the plant
ancestry, you find that wheat, rye, and barley all come from a common
ancestor. If you go up one more level, you find a point where oats
also shares a common ancestor. These grains all have a high content
of some alcohol-soluble proteins that are called prolamins. (The
content is somewhat lower in oats.) These prolamins have a very high
content of glutamine and proline, which are two amino acids.
When we talk about a gluten-free (GF) diet, what we are really talking
about are these alcohol-soluble proteins, which are named as follows:
Grain Proteins
----- --------
wheat gliadins
barley hordeins
rye secalins
oats avenins
Note that we are not talking about a single protein. A variety of
wheat may have 40 different gliadins encoded on multiple genes within
the wheat....Within the wheat gliadins, there have been studies to
determine which part(s) of the gliadin activate CD. Gliadins (and
the corresponding proteins of the other three toxic grains) are
proteins made up of many different building blocks that are called
amino acids. We've found that only a small part of these proteins is
needed to activate CD, about 12-15 of these amino acids; these are
called gliadin peptides. Studies are being conducted all around the
world, and some sort of consensus is being reached as to which peptide
sequence activates a celiac response.
--=====--=====--=====--=====--=====--=====--=====--=====--=====--=====--
This indicates that it is the protein itself (or rather, a part of the
protein) which causes problems for celiacs, and not something else that
may be present when gliadin is present.
> The question is does distilled vinegar harm the small intestine or
> not.
To my knowledge, no studies have been done to prove this one way or
the other.
Jim Lyles ........ <[log in to unmask]> ........ Holly, Michigan, USA
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