<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> I have tried to share my knowledge of >Celiac disease with nurses, doctors psychologists, and dietitians, who >simply nod, and comment that "it is an interesting" comment. So, there is a >percentage of folks in this area as well. >Jack and Connie O'Brien I'm afraid this is a typical response of most health professionals. When I was diagnosed with CD, my GI doc arranged for me to have a nutritional consultation with the hospital dietician. Her first comment to me was that she hoped that I never had to be admitted to a hospital because there was no way a hospital could provide me with a gluten free meal! She then told me that if I wanted to gain my weight back, I should eat foods that contained large amounts of sugar ie.candy. Since I had always been interested in nutrition and have studied it for years, I was naturally shocked. I ignored the dietician's advice, followed my own diet, and promptly gained 40 pounds. In fact my recovery was so dramatic that my doctor asked me if I wouldn't mind advising some of his celiac patients on proper nutrition. I no longer trust health care professionals until they have proven themselves. A recent article in the New York Times reported that the American Dieticians Association (might have the name wrong)has been accepting large donations from major corporations like Coca Cola and McDonalds in return for the association's endorsement of the corporate product as being part of a balanced diet or some such BS. And this is only the tip of the ice berg. A couple of months ago I spent two weeks on the island of Kauai. (My wife and I to there at least every year and have many interesting friends on the island.) An acquaintance of mine introduced me to an ethnobiologist who told me how the department heads of major universities (He mentioned Harvard in particular) would sell their professional credentials to the highest bidder. Corporate sponsers would approach the university with the proposition that they fund a chair in exchange for the university "proving" something to be true. For example, instead of the university studying how eating fast food burgers affected health, they would set out to prove that fast food burgers did not adversely affect health and indeed might even enhance it. There is a profound philisophical difference in the two approaches. Anything can be proved as long as one is will to ignore evidence. My friend went on to say that if you were a researcher and protested on ethical grounds, your career would be finished. If you persisted and threatened to go public, somebody would synthesize a chemical in the lab and "slip it to you." You would then be carted off to the funny farm never to be heard from again. Although this guy had impressive credentials and his work has even been written up in the popular press -- Time, Newsweek, People, etc. -- I was a little sceptical about his claims until I got back home. The next day I noticed an AP article in our local paper about a Chinese reasearcher who worked for a major government lab who was charging that her department head slipped a radioactive isotope in her coffee to kill her unborn child. Apparrently she was doing some advanced genetic research and could not keep up the 15 hour days because of her pregnancy. Her department head told her the research was too important (He wanted to patent the technique) and that she would have to get an abortion. She refused. There is plenty of evidence to back her claim and the government is prosecuting the case. Imagine how this woman must feel after escaping from Red China to come to the United States to have a child and then having a doctor try to kill her baby? I know this is an extreme case, but it is not uncommon at the highest levels. These are the levels where the information is controled. The moral is to always research for yourself. -- Cliff Kotchka Riverside, Illinois --