<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> Someone asked privately for more info about my statement that pure oats are gluten-free (under a different subject heading), thought this might be useful for others also so I'm also posting on CELIAC. The fact that pure oats are gluten-free doesn't mean you won't react, because 1) it can be hard to get pure oats and 2) you can be allergic. The fact that somebody just posted about discovery of an antigen in wheat that is specific for generating an immune response in celiacs makes me wonder if celiac shouldn't just be considered a special subcategory of allergy after all (i.e., an allergic response characterized by unusually high sensitivity to low levels of the antigen, and also with a more or less typical syndrome of responses including damage to villi). So maybe we are just talking about degrees of allergy more than anything else, with a few special twists. It certainly would be easier to say to the uninitiated trying to push a fast-food-joint hamburger bun on you, "I'm severely allergic to wheat and barley" (maybe hinting that you will drop dead in front of them from a single crumb....) than to try to explain celiac..... People are familiar with the idea of some allergies being life-threatening (e.g., peanut and tree nut and shellfish allergies tend to be so) even from extremely tiny amounts of the allergenic food. So even if we don't want to stick celiac in the allergy category, this tactic might be helpful! Certainly allergics sometimes cross-react or easily develop new allergies to members of the same food family (e.g., grains). On the rotation diet to control allergies, it is recommended that members of the same food family be rotated to prevent new allergies from developing. I've often felt, when reading this list, that celiacs who focused so exclusively on corn and rice in particular, day in and day out, might be setting themselves up for a rollicking case of corn and rice allergy.... Maybe oat allergy is more common among celiacs than in the general population. But to be honest, it is far more likely that cross-contamination is really all it's about. You do find contradictory info on oats from celiac groups (the US national organization seems exceptionally rigid for no apparent good reason). But the simplest evidence is that real celiacs can eat oats if they are definitely pure oats (no wheat contamination). Also when I make crackers or tortillas out of individual flours (I have allergies and like to rotate grains), I find that barley handles much like wheat (that gluten-y stretchiness of the dough is quite obvious) but oat flour does not. So I'm not surprised to hear that barley is off limits to celiacs because of its gluten content (less than for wheat, perhaps, but definitely there). But often non-gluten foods are prepared on equipment that also processes wheat or else wheat flour can be in the air and deposit on the equipment or the food in process. This makes the whole "are oats gluten-free?" question moot unless you can find a pure source. Getting whole oats and picking out stray wheat kernels has worked for some sensitive celiacs, however. So grinding your own flour can be a major benefit in the pursuit of gf-ness. You can read all about oats and celiac in excruciating detail at http://www.celiac.com/oats.html This is a list of articles on clinical studies that support the idea that oats are fine for celiacs (barring an oat allergy) as long as they are pure oats. The trick is finding pure oats! Peace, Cathy Flick [log in to unmask]