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Greetings:

>The issue of safety is the important one.  The increased risk of malignancy
>alone, should discourage this kind of thinking.  I don't understand why
>anyone would knowingly ingest substances that would downregulate their
>immune systems, often rendering them incapable of warding off cancer.

I think that part of the difficulty I had on this subject was that I was
unaware that any definitive research had shown this to be the case.  I agree
that it would be foolish to "knowingly" ingest substances that would render
one incapable of warding off cancer, but I find it hard to believe that if
there is indeed proven studies of an increased risk of malignancy that
Celiacs in the UK and Europe are not as concerned about cancer as we are.

Since there are obviously some people who are affected by malt flavoring I am
not implying that it is safe.  What I was wondering about was how thousands
of people in other countries are able to use malt flavorings, apparently
without ill effects.  I have to assume that they many are not suffering any
ill effects because if they have the same knowledge that we do in this
country, I would think that through process of elimination they would have
arrived at the same conclusion as we have here.  The fact that they have not
leads me to conclude that perhaps we need to learn more about the subject.

My only point was that perhaps we should consider having three categories for
food guidelines.  One list for "allowable" foods, another for "off-limits"
foods and perhaps a third category for "questionable" foods.  This last
category could consist of foods that some Celiacs may have a reaction to (but
others do not).  I believe this might benefit many people by increasing their
food options.  I simply feel that we need to keep an open mind to the
possibility that there may be a wider variety of food available to many
Celiacs while acknowledging that some may be more sensitive to certain gluten
products than others.

Thank you
Dave Silva