I do appreciate all the spelt info and will likely go back to my other combos of grains - but I have to hold out hope for beer brewing with spelt as sorghum beer is just not satisfying to me and I have tried 4 brands.

I just always figured my reactions were from wheat, but now that I think about it, before I gave up beer (I allowed myself to go to beer fests only til Feb) the barley reaction was less and further away. Today I made some French onion soup and used the rest of the whole sourdough spelt loaf and melted raclette cheese on it and floated it in my soup (I want to be good and sure the antibodies show up on Thursday) and noticed that I felt flushed after eating it and remembered that I felt that way last week when I ate the French spelt bread I made. I don’t normally feel flushed after eating. I even mentioned it to my boyfriend - yesterday - before today’s soup. That is a big sign for me but it is not my normal gluten reaction at all.
I believe I subscribed to Sillyaks long ago and then forgot about it. I will check it out again. I do love my oats and love the flavor of oats but given the Quaker info I guess I will switch to McCanns. Sometimes I simply eat to many veggies to tell if that was gluten from oats or just veggies having their fun.

Unknowingly I did the Gluten Challenge a year ago May when a lovely biopsy confirmed multiple blood tests.
Where do you find quinoa flakes? I could be convinced to try those as I do like quinoa.

Ginger

If it helps, the annual Stanford Celiac Conference is always very clear about saying that Celiacs should not consume spelt, and many of the speakers are doctors who dedicate their lives to researching Celiac disease, so I really feel confident that they have solid research behind their position.

Now this is a really unscientific way to go about answering your question so feel free to take it with a grain of salt, but when I am accidentally glutened I do find that the form of gluten makes a difference. Wheat results in extreme illness about 3 1/2 hours after consumption while (suspected) Barley takes longer for a reaction.

And as far as the gluten challenge- the standard diagnostic procedure of doctors in the US begins usually with two types of blood test for antibodies as well as a test for the ability to produce one of the antibodies. (Some people can’t and so were not diagnosed with Celiac formerly because of it.) One tricky thing about this testing is that the patient must be consuming gluten, usually for at least 3 months, better to be 6 months or more, for the antibody test to accurately gauge a response. (Another often misunderstood point that results in some people not being diagnosed who have celiac.) This is sometimes paired with genetic testing for the genes associated with Celiac. The so-called “gold standard” of diagnosis is then, preferably with a 6 month gluten challenge of fairly high gluten consumptions, to perform a biopsy to test for flattening of the villi etc. Evidence of this then results in the most formal, accurate diagnosis of Celiac Sprue that should be recognized by most, if not all doctors in the US. However, countries vary in how they choose to diagnose Celiac, with doctors in some countries requiring relatively light evidence and testing (like italy). Here in the states although experts prefer the “gold standard” method of diagnosis, for various reasons some doctors will diagnose based on less medical evidence. In my opinion, if people feel better not eating gluten, it’s probably just as well that they not eat it.

Ok, that was quite a lot of typing. As you can tell, I spend a leetle bit too much time on Celiac boards and at conferences- he h heh, just trying to be as well informed about my health as possible.

I think your blog is great and hope you keep it up!

Best,
Sea

I didn’t realize that it could take so long for gluten to register in my blood. What of course I don’t know is, do different glutening events react differently time wise? Or if usually feel glutened in four hours or less, will I always and could spelt be slower as it is easier to digest? What can a chromosome difference of 42 to 28 mean in terms of gliadin proteins?
Here are an interesting couple of articles about spelt : http://www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/grains.html
http://www.allaboutbread.com.au/dinkelbrot.htm
http://wheat.pw.usda.gov/ggpages/topics/celiac.html ( this article is from 1991and is the same as the one above with little charts)

I would hope that someone is doing research on this as everyone mostly suggests that confirmed celiacs should not eat spelt. Never a DO NOT DO it, except from the celiac community. We need to find someone who wants to do their dissertation on this!

I have never heard of the Gluten Challenge, do you have more info on that?

Thanks,
Ginger

All of the Gluten Free Organizations here in the US are extremely firm about Spelt being off limits for Celiacs as it still contains the Gluten protein which provokes the immune system response. Personally, I think it’s pretty irresponsible for this company to promote their product as appropriate for Celiac Sprue patients without doing extensive medical testing. They state that patients confirmed by biopsy have “Eaten spelt without difficulty” but what does that mean? Have they followed up with long term antibody testing to be absolutely certain that consumption of their product is not raising antibody levels? (Recommended for Celiac patients yearly at reputable Celiac specialty clinics). Even for Celiacs who don’t outwardly react to the levels of gluten in spelt may be doing long term damage to their health by elevating their antibody levels which can lead to risk for serious health problems like intestinal Cancer etc. I would seriously consult with a doctor about usage of this product, as all the specialists I’ve ever spoken to have been very firm about it being off limits. I think a Celiac would be far better off trying the de-glutened wheat starch products used by Europe rather than something which admittedly contains plain old GLUTEN that hasn’t been treated at all. But personally, I’m very happy using a variety of flours mixed together a la Bette Hagman which do not contain any gluten at all to make some really INCREDIBLE bread that is, in some cases, indistinguishable from the real thing. (According to my personal food taster, DH who is not GF and is extremely picky.)

Good health and good luck to you! As you can tell I feel very strongly about Celiac health and companies that make claims to increase their own profit margins at the risk of their customer’s health.

Does spelt affect you like wheat would? Have you tried making an all sorghum bread?