myths about celiac disease

This page lists some persistent false ideas that are sometimes promoted as true by well meaning individuals in the celiac community. Our intention is to present these ideas in order to classify them as myths and debunk them as required.

• Myth #1 — Spelt and Kamut are safe wheat alternatives for celiacs, this is completely false. Spelt and Kamut are genetic siblings of wheat and they definitely do contain the problematic proteins that celiacs must avoid.
• Myth #2 — celiacs must avoid distilled vinegar. This may be the most persistent myth in the US celiac community. The process of distillation removes all of the large, heavy molecules, for example proteins, that celiacs must avoid. It is also true that distilled vinegar is seldom made from wheat in the first place. In the US when a food item lists vinegar as an ingredient without any further qualification it should be apple cider vinegar, which is obviously gluten free.
• Myth #3 — celiacs must avoid oats. This is true for some but not all celiacs. There have been a number of well controlled scientific studies, even one random double blind study, in which persons known to have celiac disease ate oats over a period of months and later intestinal biopsies showed no villi damage. This proves that it is false to say all persons with celiac disease must avoid oats. Other, more recent studies, have confirmed that some people with celiac disease do indeed react to pure, uncontaminated oats. Our conclusion: some people with celiac disease can eat oats, others can't. If you are a newly diagnosed celiac, we suggest you avoif=d oats while your gut is healing, then discuss this very controversial issue with your doctor before you try re-introducing oats into your diet.
• Myth #4 — all oats grown in the USA are contaminated with wheat. Such a sweeping statement is instantly at great risk of error. While it is true that grain processing plants often process both wheat and oats, and it is true that some cross contamination of milled oats with traces of wheat are possible, the studies that have shown that eating oats does not cause problems for celiacs would seem to suggest that any contamination may usually be too slight to matter.