<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> Hi Everybody, I received a number of excellent, comprehensive replies to my question about gluten containing cows: **** It may simply be that your system, after 10 years of vegetarian diet, is reacting to the reintroduction of meat, not to gluten. That's a huge change for your system to handle all at once. **** How do you do on pork and lamb? If you are not reacting to them, but you are reacting to beef, then you may well be onto something. Gluten peptides have been identified in cow's milk. So they must be in the blood too. Free range poultry should be okay too. Have you seen the Lutz article on Civilizatory diseases? He mentions a previous study he participated in. They compared grain-fed chickens to free-range chickens. The grain-fed ones developed atherosclerosis while the free range chickens did not **** The bad news is that the answer to your question is a partial yes. The good news is that with some precautions you can eat beef as a protein source. Some CDers (usually advanced cases) have trouble with non lean cuts of beef, probably for two reasons. First is the grain feeding (animals retain traces of the foods that they eat for up to 6 months) and second the use of growth hormones (which I find can cause an intestinal inflammatory response that mimics a classic gluten response). Very lean cuts seem to cause less of a problem than fatty cuts with some CDers (possibly because growth hormones or gluten is somehow concentrated in the fat). The safest way to eat beef is find a source (usually organically grown) of lean beef that does not use hormones and/or try to find grower (Amish or Mennonite) that tends to graze rather than lot feed their steers. This approach has worked for my family. If you can find a farmer that is willing to grow a steer for you then all the better. If you are still having problems with beef after taking the above precautions, then your problem is probably due to not enough HCL (stomach acid) production. HCL is used to break apart the long amino acid chains of proteins into small enough pieces that can be properly absorbed without causing an immune response. Low HCL production increases the likelihood of an immune response as you eat more protein. Increasing your vitamin B-12 and C along with Calcium and a bioflavinoid called Quercitin can help. B-12 increases HCL production, Quercitin and C counteract histamine production (the inflammitory agent in the allergic response process), and Calcium is used in the digestive process to counteract the HCL after it enters the intestines. Caution: do not take the Calcium within 1-2 hours of eating as its presence in the stomach when eating will neutralize the HCL causing even greater problems with long chain amino acid digestion. **** I'm from Israel so maybe what I tell you is irrelevant in your country , but in Israel it's been said that while processing the meat water is added to it and sometimes gluten is added to keep the water in the meat. I dont know if this is common , and it probably depends on the manufacturer of the meat. anyway I believe this can be true only for frozen processed meat and not for fresh meat you get from the butcher . **** It took me three years before I could eat beef again after being a vegie for 3 years. I found that pork was much easier to digest than beef during that time. After being a carnivore for 15 years - no meat (except deli meats) bothers me now. You also might try "organic" beef - available at a lot of gourmet "health" food stores. My only piece of advice is go easy!!!! Enjoy - I don't know why I ever gave meat up!!!! **** My husband will have instant diarrhea after eating a lean roast beef. He turned out to be fat intolerant. **** I am the wife of a celiac, and have a biology degree, and from these experiances I can offer two suggestions as to your reactions. 1. It is common for butchers to flour their boards and knives when they cut their meat. Any red meat you buy should therefore be washed thouroughly before cooking, and don't buy ground beef. 2. It is common for people to stop producing and excreting certain enzymes necessary for the breaking down and subsequent digestion of the proteins in meat if they have not needed to produce them for a while. It is a similar phonominon to what happens in people who stop drinking milk - they usually becaome lactose intolerant! If this is the case, start with small portions of red meat and work your way up to larger portions. Avoid fat in the meat because it is often a storehouse for toxins which you may have difficulty digesting (from pesticides etc). **** Have you considered hunting and fishing? :) **** I agree with you one hundred percent. Grain is fed (stuffed into) almost all animals. The only gluten free protein exception that I can fit in my budget is to get some ocean fish like cod, which I assume gets no grain! The prices on wild meat are astronomical. I even checked with a taxidermist and yes he gave me some once but I feel awkward continuing to beg it off of him. (It is against the wild game laws for me to pay him for it) I am in the exact same boat as you are. I like paleo and agree with Ray's theories (in Neanderthin book): http://www.sofdesign.com/neander/nmain.html However, I am finding myself slipping out of frustration (nothing to eat!) Sometimes the grain fed meat even makes me itch. I think the only way to get gluten free meat would be to become a hunter gatherer oneself and believe me I thought about it, but how and when, I live in a huge metro area. Does anyone else notice the grain/gluten in the beef and other meats? There is one mom on the autism list who has her child on a wild game diet which she buys from a legal wild game purveyor, her food budget runs into the thousands. There is some grass fed beef out of Colorada, I need to buy a freezer for this, will try it after the holidays are over.This beef would be too expensive for you, Susan, with the current exchange rate of the CDN dollar. Maybe there is some grass fed beef available somewhere in Canada? **** Thank you again for all the very interesting! replies. All the best, Susan