Thanks for the many replies to my posting, some of which were sent as individual direct replies and others of which were sent via the list. I'm sorry to be late responding to the replies, but I've been out of the office and thus out-of-reach. Questions lead to answers which lead to questions...but first: I'm 3/4 German and 1/4 southern Italian with no Jewish background. With regard to the onset of my chronic diarrhea: Doctors repeatedly asked me about obvious causes for the onset of a digestive problem, such as medications that I I may have been taking, a trip overseas, or psychological traumas. There were none. The problem started a few days before I took a two-week trip to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, a couple months after I ceased taking a strong anti-biotic for tonsilitis (which gave me no digestive problems), and during a time that I was generally feeling great. With regard to gluten intolerance: During the worst period of my chronic diarrhea I actually gained ten pounds, mostly of muscle. I work-out (weight-lifting) regularly. I had just switched to use of free weights (which helps build bulk much better than machines) and a couple weeks after the problem started I began taking creatin (Creatin is a dietary supplement that is all the rage among bodybuilders recently as a way of developing mass without steroids. Everybody told me my problem was the creatin, but the diarrhea continued long after I ceased using this.) Also, I was eating lots and lots (and drinking lots of protein shakes made from concentrated milk protein mixed with fat-free milk!!!), and drinking gallons of water to compensate for the diarrhea. My "smart" gastroenterologist told me that I could not have gluten intolerance because I was gaining weight and tests showed that my nutrient intake was fine. He said that gluten intolerance causes the microvilli of the small intestine to flatten out and decrease in surface area, thus reducing absorptive capacity of nutrients (i.e., makes you lose weight). Questions: What is celiac? What is celiac sprue? What is gluten? As far as I know it is a protein found in wheat. But is it found in other grains? What do you have to avoid to avoid gluten? All grains? Certain types of grains? How do you know if gluten is a problem? Maybe gluten consumption has, in fact, slowly caused my brush border to lose lactase-producing sites to the extent that a threshold was reached where my body could no longer handle bombardment with milk products. Regarding Asian food: One of the reasons that I had trouble figuring out the cause of my problem was that I would get diarrhea after eating Chinese food (and I knew that it's not supposed to contain lactose). Part of the problem here may have been from eating bad Chinese food from a cheap restaurant across the street from work. Avoiding that place has helped. But I've also sometimes had a bit of trouble after eating Chinese food from more respectable establishments. MSG problems? Being lactose intolerant in NYC: Yeah, you can get everything in New York and there's kosher food everywhere, especially on the Upper East Side where I live. But I always seem to go out with friends downtown to one of the millions of Italian gourmet restaurants which use cream in many sauces, or restaurants that served "home-cooked" fare like delicious garlic mashed potatos made with milk and butter. I'm going to have to learn more about kosher foods and kosher restaurants. Also, the billions of coffee bars that have sprung up on every other corner in Manhattan never seem to serve Lactaid or non-dairy creamer. Gone are my days of drinking iced cappuccino at a little table on the street at Cafe Rafaella (if not from NYC, imagine classic urban leisure scene and you get the idea!). Iced coffee served black just doesn't do. Cheers, Dave P.S. Actually, for iced coffee I can have the waiter give me some hot coffee to which I add my own non-dairy creamer brought from home. Then I can mix this with half a glass of cold coffee in a glass full of ice. But this is kind of complicated.