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

There seems to be a feeling of fear, on the part of many celiacs, when
thinking of eating any seeds.  That even extends to nuts in some cases.  A
basic understanding of biology should be of help.  I wish someone who is a
scientist would write what I am about to say, and do so more clearly and
scientifically, but let me get the discussion started.

Plants are part of families, just as are people.  We each have blood
relatives that are brothers, sisters, cousins, great aunts, etc. etc.  The
plants that have seeds that cause celiac disease are plants in the same
family - and that family is loosely called "grass" by most of us who are
not scientists.  Wheat, barley, and rye are very closely related relatives
of the grass family.  Oats are a more distant cousin, but still a form of
grass.  Someone on this list should be able to tell us how rice plants are
not related to the other grass plants.  I can't do that.

Flax, however, is a plant with a small, broad leaf. That plant is the
source of linen cloth and linseed oil. If you think in terms of the grass
in a lawn and then a violet growing next to the grass, perhaps you will see
what I'm trying to explain.  Just looking at the two plants makes it quite
clear that they are not very closely related.  They both grow in the ground
and are green but the leaves are completely different in shape, as is the
form of the plant.  The same argument can be used for buckwheat, which
grows on a large, broad leafed  plant.

By the same token,  the seeds of sunflowers are nothing to be concerned
about when thinking of celiac disease.  That means that sunflower oil is
not problematic.  Olives are a tree fruit - so olive oil is not a
problem...etc. Wheat germ oil, however, IS a problem.

The seeds which we should be concerned with are only the ones on grass
related plants.  There are people with celiac disease or wheat allergies
who also have allergic reactions to other seeds, but that, as I understand
it, is not a celiac reaction but just an allergic reaction.  I, for
example, cannot eat soy beans.  Those are actually the seeds of they soy
plant, but do not contain gliadin/gluten. I'm simply allergic to soy beans.

While we are talking about beans, let's talk about peanuts.  By scientific
definition, peanuts are not nuts at all.  They do not grow on trees.  They
are beans, and they actually grow under ground, in a most interesting and
complex manner.  The blossom is pollenated and then sends out a shoot to
the ground where the bean pod is then developed, under the surface of the
dirt.  Most, if not all, other beans grow above ground.  If you have a
generalized allergy to beans it is possible that you will also react
negatively to peanuts.

The purpose of this message is to encourage people on this list to learn
about the sources of various seeds (millet, quinoa, teff, etc.) and then it
will be easier for them to know whether or not to be concerned with the
possibility of those seeds containing gluten/gliadin.

A note to any plant scientist reading this information - feel free to
augment, correct, and clarify anything I have said.  I'm just a
celiac-gardener who thinks that a little knowledge of plants helps in our
understanding of the triggering seeds that cause celiac disease.

Gayle K