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

Dear Listers,

I've decided to call this "straw-poll" to a halt now and
report.

Everybody must be aware that this is in no way anything
more than a start.  The numbers MAY be an indication, but
everyone who contacted me is what is known as
"self-selected".  This may (but not necessarily will)
introduce what is known by the scientific word "bias" into
the results.  Bias in this case simply means that the
results may not properly represent what is actually
happening.  This is like the situation with the Consumers
Association collecting data on cars and owners problems
with them.  The people who respond are much more likely to
be dissatisfied than satisfied and to report many more
problems than the average owner would.  About the only
thing you can get from these is that certain models of car
have demonstrably more problems than others (and even this
may contain some bias).

OK so these "results" are not going to tell us very much.
In fact they are almost exactly what I would have predicted
except that the "Yes"s are somewhat fewer than I had
expected.

I had some 65 mails regarding this issue.  Several were
from people pointing out some of the problems of what I was
doing.  Thanks very much, as it happens I did know about
this, but it was good of you to take time to make sure.

Of the replies, some were for more than one individual, so
I am simply going to report numbers and then comment.

I had replies for 64 coeliacs.  19 reported reactions, 33
reported no reactions and 12 don't know.

Nearly half of those who report reactions report that they
get these reactions from vinegars which can only be non-GF
if they are contaminated - eg cider vinegar, wine vinegar,
rice vinegar.  (I presume all experienced coeliacs will
know the difference between X vinegar and X-flavoured
vinegar).

With only one exception those who reported reactions
classed themselves as sensitive to super-sensitive
coeliacs.  (We also had several of the latter in the NO
category)

Almost all reactions were reported from North America,
although I have had reports from 6 countries.  More than
one "DON'T KNOW" (don't risk vinegar or don't risk
distilled vinegars) came from the small group outside of
North America.

Several people reporting no reaction have had that
demonstrated by biopsy.  At least two of these considered
themselves very sensitive indeed.

One lister reported buying vinegar from a health food shop
which marked the source as wood chips (I was not aware that
Wood Alcohol - the precursor to "methylated spirit" - could
be purified enough to use for food purposes).

My comments would be that there is evidence that some
people definitely suffer often quite serious problems with
vinegars.  These may be due to "gluten" in its most general
sense but could at least as likely be due to another
intolerance/allergy reaction.

Certainly the position I would take from this is that those
who really miss vinegar have a fairly good chance of being
able use it in their food.  I'd advise the use of wine or
rice vinegar personally (but then I'm a bit of a foodie
anyway).  I think the stance that it is not GF is misguided
and lays an unecessary load on the majority who do not
suffer any reaction from it and would suggest a
modification of this stance giving the pro's and con's and
letting coeliacs have enough data to make up their own
minds.

For the research community out there a whole area of
research beckons!!

Regards to all

David

David J Walland
University of Bristol Radiation Protection Adviser
[log in to unmask]
Tel +44 (0)117 928 8323
Fax +44 (0)117 929 1209