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My husband Hal, wrote to the list asking for some suggestions for 
gaining weight as he has Refractory Sprue. Several people suggested 
that he look into Specific Carbohydrate Diet.

Looking it over (as the main cook)  I noticed that Buckwheat was 
excluded. Buckwheat. Buckwheat is useful as a 1/4th cup dry serving 
give 6 grams of protein and 2 of  dietary fiber and no sugar. However,  
I wondered  whether there  was any problem with it as it is not a grain 
. I read up on Buckwheat and found that it was often uses as a rotation 
crop with wheat so I explored further. I spoke to some on at Birkett  
Mills  who explained that they do take excellent precautions to ensure 
the product will be gluten free as is stated on the  Wolf's package . 
They give a full explanation of their processes on the web site at 
www.birkettmills.com  this includes testing with a test sensitive to 20 
parts per million.

In further exploration of the topic I found that Buckwheat can cause 
allergic reactions that were true IgE allergies, so if you have a 
reaction it may not be gluten based. More seriously,  I found that 
Buckwheat sensitive people may also react to exposure to latex.  These 
reactions can be serious. If both reactions occur further cross 
reactions with other fruits may need to be ruled out.

I have known  about cross reactivity ever since I was told I was 
allergic to birch pollen and apples. At the time I thought it was 
weird, but I later found that it was a very common cross reaction.

A good summary of Buckwheat can be found on 
www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/buckwheat.html, which came from Gluten Free 
Living. For more info on allergies go to allergies.about.com/ and 
search on cross reactivity.

Many people in Japan have buckwheat allergy because it is used much 
more extensively  there specially in one kind of noodles.

Irma

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