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Jessie "ponies" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> A few people completely missed the point but the following emerged as
> 'the facts'.
>
> The grains of oats are safe as they do not contain gluten.


Unfortunately, Jessie does not present any evidence to support what she
calls "the facts".

Here is some real evidence for you to ponder:

1. From "Cross-reaction of oat prolamins with anti-gliadin antibodies",
Abstract No. 227 of the American Society of Plant Biologists: "Similarities
between oat avenin and wheat gliadin protein sequence and secondary
structure have been noted....Certain high molecular weight avenins have been
shown to cross-react to rabbit anti-wheat gliadin antibodies. These proteins
are also found to cross-react with human serum antibodies from individuals
with celiac disease."

2. From "Lack of oats toxicity in coeliac disease" BMJ 1997;314:159, a
medical journal editorial:

Regarding older studies published in the 1950's: "....despite the
variability of the clinical and histological responses observed after these
early challenges with oats, it seems clear that taking small amounts of oats
(about 50 g) for short periods (less than one month) is not generally
noxious whereas more than 100 g for longer than a month leads to recurrence
of steatorrhoea, a strong sign of serious mucosal damage."

Regarding the recent studies: "Although concordant, these studies do not
show that larger daily amounts of oats (100-160 g) would be equally
non-toxic in these patients. Indeed, as suggested by the early experiments,
large amounts of oats are theoretically likely to be toxic....sequence
homologies (and weak immunological cross reactivity) have been found between
avenin and the prolamins from barley, wheat, and rye....it seems likely that
only considerable amounts of oats consumed over long periods will be toxic
for patients with coeliac disease."

In other words, there is some scientific evidence to suggest that oat
proteins (avenins) are toxic to celiacs, though at a lower level of toxicity
than wheat, barley or rye proteins. It may possibly be that the damage
observed in the 1950's studies could have been due to cross contamination,
but we have no way of knowing that. It may possibly eventually be proven
that the cross-reactivity mentioned above may not mean anything harmful. But
that is yet to be proven. All of the recent studies except one were
short-term studies. All of the recent studies except one were very small
scale, and that one larger scale study excluded "severe celiacs". And none
of these studies involved larger amounts of oats.

It's obvious that there are some of you who are willing to risk your health
by eating oats. That's your call. Just please refrain from claiming you have
"facts" unless you have scientific evidence to support them.

Dave Westheimer
Minneapolis, MN, USA