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

> As a Celiac myself, and having 5 (five!) Celiac children, we have experienced
> numerous problems with vinegar; in salsa, mayo, salad dressings, etc...  I
> wish your feelings were correct, but from sad experience I KNOW you are
> wrong.

What Don may be trying to say is that the amount of gluten protein
that gets into even the suspect vinegars is not biologically
significant.  So while the gluten might be there in trace quantities,
arguing that you are getting a gluten-related reaction to vinegar
might be like saying "every time I swallow two grains of wheat I
react."  Does any celiac - even the most susceptible - react to only
two *grains* of wheat?  That's just a pure hypothetical to illustrate a
possible order of magnitude.

Having said this, obviously a lot of people are having reactions to
certain vinegars.  I think it would be an interesting research project
for someone to figure out what exactly they are reacting to.  Maybe
some of these vinegars have some unusual sugar added to them, and a
diarrhea reaction to the vinegar might reflect an absorption problem
with the sugar in the vinegar?  I know that I seem to have terrible
sugar absorption problems.  Even simple sucrose doesn't digest well
for me.

I haven't been able to detect a reaction to vinegars in my own case.
It might be there, and I just haven't isolated it yet, though.  I do
react to a lot of different things, so isolating reactions is
difficult for me.  In general, I try to stay away from processed foods.

--
Will Estes                              U.S. Computer
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