<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> <[log in to unmask]> said: >>The following statement was taken from the Sprue-Nik PRESS Eighteenth >>Edition, March 1995 "Celiac in the 90s," summarized by Jim Lyles. The >>complete article can be found in the archives. If you wish I can e-mail >>a copy to you.... >> >> In the article Dr. Murray states that a celiac should treat gluten the >> >>same as one would treat rat poison. He states that even though you don't >>have a reaction you are causing damage. Because I'm providing evidence published since Dr. Murray's talk in 1995, I unsuccessfully tried to reach him first at the Mayo Clinic for comments on the following. Nearly all posters to this list seem to think there's only one true celiac diet for all who are gluten sensitive and ignore the fact that a variety of other diets, varying by amounts of gluten allowed, are used outside the US. One memorable exception was a comment from Canada that surely intestines being switched to a "GF" diet were the same in Canada as the US; so why were the diets different? Here's some recent evidence from Finland comparing a diet with wheat starch to one without, a eight year study that included very careful intestinal comparisons. I don't have a copy of the article yet so I don't know the average rate of gluten consumption, but can post later. Bear in mind that the wheat starch involved was likely certified as washed enough by the Finnish celiac society. >> Scand J Gastroenterol 1999 Feb;34(2):163-9 Wheat starch-containing gluten-free flour products in the treatment of coeliac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis. A long-term follow-up study. Kaukinen K, Collin P, Holm K, Rantala I, Vuolteenaho N, Reunala T, Maki M Dept. of Medicine, Tampere University Hospital, Finland. BACKGROUND: We investigated whether wheat starch-based gluten-free products are safe in the treatment of gluten intolerance. METHODS: The study involved 41 children and adults with coeliac disease and 11 adults with dermatitis herpetiformis adhering to a gluten-free diet for 8 years on average. Thirty-five newly diagnosed coeliac patients at diagnosis and 6 to 24 months after the start of a gluten-free diet and 27 non-coeliac patients with dyspepsia were investigated for comparison. Daily dietary gluten and wheat starch intake were calculated. Small-bowel mucosal villous architecture, CD3+, alphabeta+, and gammadelta+ intraepithelial lymphocytes, mucosal HLA-DR expression, and serum endomysial, reticulin, and gliadin antibodies were investigated. RESULTS: Forty of 52 long-term-treated patients adhered to a strict wheat starch-based diet and 6 to a strict naturally gluten-free diet; 6 patients had dietary lapses. In the 46 patients on a strict diet the villous architecture, enterocyte height, and density of alphabeta+ intraepithelial lymphocytes were similar to those in non-coeliac subjects and better than in short-term-treated coeliac patients. The density of gammadelta(+)cells was higher, but they seemed to decrease over time with the gluten-free diet. Wheat starch-based gluten-free flour products did not cause aberrant upregulation of mucosal HLA-DR. The mucosal integrity was not dependent on the daily intake of wheat starch in all patients on a strict diet, whereas two of the six patients with dietary lapses had villous atrophy and positive serology. CONCLUSION: Wheat starch-based gluten-free flour products were not harmful in the treatment of coeliac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis. PMID: 10192194, UI: 99206412 << Obviously, if you accept this evidence, you should first consult with your doctor about your gluten condition and evidence before deciding whether to try such a diet. To me, it doesn't seem suitable for those with short term symptoms to single ingestion of gluten while otherwise on the diet or to those with intestines not fully healed. For those in the US, getting clean enough wheat starch or wheat starch products may be an extra problem. The mail order Tritamyl bread mix mentioned here recently may be clean enough but certainly needs follow-up first. Kemp Randolph Long Island ----------------------------------------------------------- <[log in to unmask]>