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

A few weeks ago I asked about the consequences and accidental and
infrequent ingestion of small amounts of gluten, and why the "damage"
caused would not heal in the same way the gut heals when one goes
GF.  Here is a summary of the responses I received:

1.  Each time gluten is ingested, the body generates an immune response
which results in some damage to the gut.  Similarly to sunburn damage,
the body tries to repair the damage and sometimes their is a mistake in
the instructions to the new cells which are replacing the damaged cells
and then you may get cancer.  In the case of cd, there are special blood
cells (lymphocytes) which infiltrate the damaged area to try to help the
healing process.  Intestinal lymphoma occurs when there are mistakes in
the dna during this process.

2.  The gut may not heal completely following accidental gluten ingestion.
If the gut heals only 99.9%, that unhealed .1% would have a cumulative
effect over time.

The more difficult and apparently unanswered question, is how much
gluten is necessary to cause damage?  For some info on this, look at

www.celiac.com/misc.html#reaction  AND
rdz.acor.org/lists/celiac/mxgluten.html

Here are excerpts from some good "common sense" advice I received:
"Accidents are inevitable. ... Just being alive and taking part in life means
that various types of damage will be done to the body.  Cuts, scrapes,
bruises, second-hand cigarette smoke, air/water pollution, diseases,
radon, environmental pollutants in the home, etc.  You can't eliminate all
these. ... People who spend their lives with a 100% avoidance policy of
everything that might do them damage can't be said to be truly living.  The
important thing is to not be a fool and abuse yourself."