<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
 
Hello!
 
I've been diagnosed for about three weeks now. It came as a relief to
finally learn what was wrong with me: I had been (and still am) anaemic for
about ten years and over the past two or three years I had begun to have the
impression that, slowly but surely, I was wasting away. I had no "obvious"
symptoms except growing weakness to the point that over the past few months
after getting up at eight in the morning I was ready for bed by the end of
breakfast (Tonnes and tonnes of French and Eastern European breads --I live
in Montreal and my girlfriend is (was!) Polish.).
 
So the point is, I could eat a bowl of Shredded Wheat and have two slabs of
whole-wheat bread right now without feeling any immediate symptoms --not
that I'm going to. I am quite disciplined so it hasn't been too rough on me
getting used to this new way of life.
 
Here's my Q: From reading the e-mail on this wonderful list I have gotten
the impression that I am lucky in so far as I do not have violent reactions
to gluten. Some of us feel absolutely terrible after consuming
--accidentally-- just the smallest amount of it. If I make a religion out of
avoiding not only food that obviously contains gluten BUT ALSO foods that
might merely contain just trace amounts of gluten (such as vinegar) do I
risk becoming hyper-sensitive? I don't want to make this any worse than it
is and I don't want to go overboard.
 
My gastro-enterologist seems to think that the occasional consumption of
trace amounts of gluten will not be harmful. What do you think?
 
Kerwin Myler [log in to unmask]