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. Despite these facts there are a few people with celiac disease who do react to distilled vinegar or alcohol, in some cases quite violently. It is not clear if this is because of some extreme form of celiac disease or some other factor. For the vast majority of people with celiac disease, most forms of vinegar are not a problem.
- 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 avoid 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.
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