<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> In a recent post, Debi from Alberta Canada reported that the overall consensus of Celiac's is that white/clear vinegars are probably derived from distlled grains and the probability of gluten is high. This is an opinion I have seen many times on the listservers and in Celiac related material. As a celiac and a chemical engineering professor I must insist that the consensus of Celiac's is wrong in this case. The probability that there is enough gluten in white vinegar to cause problems for Celiac's is extremely low. White vinegar is made from distilled alcohol. A good description of the process used for making vinegar can be found at http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind9604D&L=celiac&P=R772. Although the alcohol used to make vinegar may have been made from fermentation of wheat, distillation is an incredibly effective means of separating non-volatile proteins from volatile chemicals like alcohol. Distillation is a method of separating chemicals by evaporating them and then recondensing them. Proteins don't evaporate. Their vapor pressures are too low to be measured by any conventional means. I have been unable to find any vapor pressures for proteins in published literature. In my research, I have worked with proteins in ultra high vaccum conditions and have found that the vapor pressure of common proteins is lower than 0.00000001 torr. If we use this as an upper limit for the vapor pressure of proteins, this would indicate that in a one stage distillation one should find less than 10 parts per trillion protein in the overhead product. Since alcohol is produced in multi-stage distillation processes this is a very liberal upper limit for the protein content of distilled alcohol. This amount of protein would be below the detection limit for all chemical assays with which I am familiar. This hypothesis is confirmed by the makers of distilled alcohol who state that the nitrogen content in distilled alcohol is below the detection limit. Although the chance of finding gluten in distilled alcohol is not zero, it is pretty darn close to zero. It is alot lower than your chances of winning 50 million dollars in this weeks lottery. I can not see any reason why Celiac's should avoid products that contain either white vinegar or distilled alcohol. Now that I have given you the science perspective, let me share my experience as a Celiac. I was diagnosed with Celiac disease last october (by biopsy) and have recovered very well on a diet which contains small amounts of distilled vinegar and distilled alcohol. My primary symptom was iron deficiency anemia which did not improve when I was given massive doses of Iron. After 6 weeks on a gluten free diet my serum iron levels went from 8.5 to 14 mg/ml. My other malnutrition symptoms have abated as well. I feel better than I have ever felt. I have not been back for a follow up biopsy to see if my intestinal villi have recovered. My doctor is of the opinion that since I have had complete resolution of all my clinical symptoms on the GF diet a follow up biopsy is not needed. I know that some Celiac's experience apparent celiac related symptoms in response to vinegar. There are several possible explanations for this. Some celiac's may have an allergy or intollerance to vinegar in addition to gluten intolerance. Since vinegar is almost always consumed in processed foods, they may be responding to some gluten source other than vinegar. Some celiac's may be experiencing something equivalent to a placebo effect. If our brains are capable of healing our bodies solely because we think we are being treated, our brains can certainly cause "celiac symptoms" simply because we think we are eating something that contains gluten. And finally, since some celiac's are more sensitive to trace amounts of gluten than others, some people may actually be reacting to that one gliaden protein which defied the laws of probability and made it through the distillation process. This last explanation seems the most unlikely.