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

I'm going on vacation.  Really!! Off to Vermont.  If any of you want to
respond to any of these messages, or to add more information about
anything, please send your message to the LIST.  Thanks.

^1/ I also belonged to a Hypoglycemia organization, and they manned their
phone with experts every day, to field questions.  CSA has not been very
professional in their approach, and have not shown that they really care
about the health and well being of their members.
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^2/ Someone very wisely suggested yesterday that the solution to this whole
mess would be to have a list of products that are proven to contain gluten
(wheat, barley, rye, spelt - not quite sure that oats even belong there,
but I don't want to get into THAT discussion!!).

Then there should be another list of foods that might be contaminated by
gluten containing grains: buckwheat,quinoa, canola oil, etc ...

And a third list of foods to which SOME celiacs have a negative reaction:
lactose, soy, sugar (those are my negative reactions), buckwheat, quinoa,
tef,amaranth, etc.

This would be scientifically accurate and still give information to those
who need it.
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[I must confess that the above two excerpts are from letters I wrote in
response to mail received about this topic.  GK]
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^3/ Thanks for raising such an interesting issue.  My wife and I are both
celiac.  Each time we cook a batch of Quinoa pasta, Adrienne leaves the
table and vomits and I leave the table feeling wonderful and satisfied.
Adrienne won't touch Quinoa now, but she knows it's not because it contains
gluten.  She just happens to react to it.

 The Canadian Celiac association
has a terrific dictionary that provides definitions of  prepared foods and
individual ingredients.  For gluten free substances that tend to cause some
celiacs problems due to cross contamination, the dictionary clearly
indicates that possibility in the definition.  It avoids confusion and
allows celiacs to make informed decisions.  That makes sense.
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^4/ Recently I've heard of a miller in Northern Maine, Bouchard Family Farms.
 They grow buckwheat and mill it themselves.  They also mill potatoes but
nothing else.  Their telephone number is: 800-239-3237.

I've spoken to the quinoa people in Southern California and they have
told me that they only do quinoa.

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My files now contain 107 messages about this topic.  I resign.  But I do
hope some of you who are interested are going to be at the Rhode Island CSA
conference and will bring it up for discussion.  Sincerely,  Gayle Kennedy