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

This is clearly a topic whose time has come, as I see that there has been
subsequent discussion of related issues. I'll therefore try to keep this
summary as short as possible.

First, many thanks to everyone who responded. Please excuse my not
acknowledging every response individually but I was inundated with replies.

There was a great deal of variation in the replies. I detected that people
from North America tend to be more strict than people from Britain. Also,
there was a slight correlation between the length of the reply and the
likelihood that its writer would accept occasional gluten. Make of this what
you will!

It is clear that there are enormous individual differences in people's
apparent sensitivity to gluten. Some people are willing to risk occasional
ingestion, whereas most strive for a completely GF diet. Many people pointed
out that even if you ingest some gluten without immediate overt symptoms,
you might nevertheless be increasing the likelihood of later developing
cancer. As several people said, "why take the chance?" Many pointed out that
there is enough gluten out there in the world ready to be accidentally
ingested to ensure that it is worth striving towards zero intentional input.

Although most people said that the only safe amount of gluten was absolutely
none, a substantial minority said that occasional small amounts were
unlikely to do any real harm. The precise figure given for this "safe small
amount" varied, but by far the most common amount mentioned was 10mg per
day. It is worth pointing out however that this is a MINUTE amount: a slice
of bread contains several grams.

Along these lines, several people commented that "a crumb is as bad as a
slice", or a variant thereoff. I didn't really understand this reasoning,
and no-one provided justification for it.

Most of the replies were "nice", but this is clearly a touchy subject.
Therefore I feel obliged to add a caveat. Please remember that I am just
summarising what I have been told. I am not a medic and make no public
judgement of and bear no responsibility towards the veracity of others'
opinions.


Best wishes
Trevor Harley


--
Dr Trevor A Harley
Psychology Department
University of Dundee
Dundee DD1 4HN
Scotland