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

At 08:05 PM 5/22/01 -0400, The Taylors wrote:

>1. What are "dextrins" and are they the same as dextrose?

They are a soluble gummy substance, formed from starch by the action of
heat, acids, or fermenting: used chiefly as a thickening agent, as a
mucilage, and as a substitute for gum arabic and other natural substances.

 From Scott Adams website: http://www.celiac.com/forbiden.html Dextrin
is an incompletely hydrolyzed starch. It is prepared by dry heating
corn, waxy maize, waxy milo, potato, arrowroot, WHEAT, rice, tapioca, or
sago starches, or by dry heating the starches after: (1) Treatment with
safe and suitable alkalis, acids, or pH control agents and (2) drying the
acid or alkali treated starch. (1) Therefore, unless you know the source,
you must avoid dextrin.

>2. Why are mono and diglycerides a concern?

Also from Scott's website: It's easy to check out additives and ingredients
by visiting this website often:

Mono and diglycerides can contain a wheat carrier in the USA. While they
are derivatives of fats, carbohydrate chains may be used as a binding
substance in their preparation, which are usually corn or wheat, so this
needs to be checked out with the manufacturer.

>3. I thought I once saw  a post about being able to deduct the cost of GF
>food as a medical claim on your taxes.  Is this in the U.S?  If so, do I
>need to do anything beyond saving my grocery store receipts?

You may deduct the difference between the cost of eating GF and regular
food, IF you keep elaborate records. The expense may also have to be more
than a certain percentage of your income like or along with medical costs.

-vance

PS. For those of you kind souls who wrote me so very concerned that I was
really a "woman trapped in the body of a man." That was a famous statement
by Christine Jorgensen back in the fifties or sixties. Actually I'm neither
:)