FDA Rules All Distilled Alcohol is Gluten-Free

Distillation removes all traces of grains...I don't doubt that recovering celiacs my not tolerate many things until their gut heals, however, drinking distilled spirits made from grains should not cause flattened villi or trigger celiac disease.

Okay folks, let's treat each other with respect in our replies. There is a right way and a wrong way to express your disagreement with someone.

5 hours ago, trents said:

What is this new machine you speak of? Can you be more specific and do you have any links?

This link is worth reading Open Original Shared Link

53 minutes ago, Lucille Cholerton said:

This link is worth reading Open Original Shared Link

 

Kind of dated information. I hope this new machine you speak of gives better results than personal gluten sensors like those put out by Nima which were kind of a bust.

Nima sensors are definitely not a bust...they are highly accurate and there is nothing comparable to them on the market. This article has more info:

Scott, I disagree. This is what I read the other day: Open Original Shared Link

Seems like the Nima sensors are only reliable when the amount of gluten present exceeds the accepted standard of 20 ppm. If I understand the article correctly, Their accuracy is pretty good once you get up to about 40 ppm. That would not be good enough for a lot of Celiacs.

Well the article you post here basically complains that it is too sensitive and it detects Gluten at lower than 20 ppm… I think most people here would think that’s a good thing not a bad thing, and it says the following (which indicates that it is still a very good tool to have with you when there is really nothing else available like it): “Nima is substantially more accurate at 40 parts per million and above, with an accuracy rate of 98.7 percent; so if a sample contains large amounts of gluten, Nima should be able to alert users with a “gluten found” result.”

1 hour ago, trents said:

Scott, I disagree. This is what I read the other day: Open Original Shared Link

Seems like the Nima sensors are only reliable when the amount of gluten present exceeds the accepted standard of 20 ppm. If I understand the article correctly, Their accuracy is pretty good once you get up to about 40 ppm. That would not be good enough for a lot of Celiacs.

Trents.......I second Scott’s statement about Nima being far from a bust.  I bought one and used it to test how reliably it would work.

It does what it states.......it detects gluten and is sensitive to 20ppm’s.  We all know that in current medical standards, that is the amount that is considered acceptable for Celiac’s to consume (20ppm or less), that will not trigger an autoimmune reaction.  That is probably the most reliable number we have right now and the fact that many, many Celiac’s heal just fine with those standards, it is the one Nima has.  

I tested a bunch of soups from Whole Foods because I like soup.  These are ones on the hot buffet line. I am sure some will gasp at that but soup is different than other buffet foods in that they are self contained and have their own, dedicated ladles for use.  The ones I were told that had no gluten ingredients tested negative for gluten, after two separate tests.  Each time I bought them they tested negative.  I ate them and felt just fine with no ill effects at all.  Some different soups that I bought tested positive so my husband ate them.  I did the same for some prepared chicken breasts I bought that had no gluten ingredients listed on the label.  They tested positive, which surprised me, so my husband ate them.  Every time I used Nima to test for safety, it worked well and saved me from a glutening.  Have to say, I like it!  It does help that Whole Foods lists all ingredients in their prepared foods.  While this offers no protection against cc, this is where the Nima comes in.

As I am a sensitive Celiac with extreme symptoms and know when I have ingested gluten on small levels, and have been doing this for 15 years, I consider this a helpful device and it has not failed me once.  I have healed and am doing fine.  Many people are very guarded and have anxiety in the beginning, which is normal, but will find that they do not have to fear food forever. Once they become knowledgeable about the diet and reading labels, they will learn that gluten does not exist everywhere and they can eat foods that seemed off limits to them in the beginning.  They also have to keep in mind that we usually have other food issues too, which can make it hard to distinguish where a problem is coming from.  I have no doubt some people have reactions to alcohol made from gluten grains. But it may not be a gluten reaction that causes damage to the small intestine, as Scott stated. I can drink milk in small amounts. But if I have more than a 1/4 cup of ice cream, I feel like crap and my intestines ache. Sort of the same thing, without the gluten. Ditto for other milky things, no matter what it is.  You never know what you will end up with, dealing with Celiac.  We all seem to have unique tolerance levels to different things.

I am thankful for Nima and and think that very soon, more accurate testing will be developed that won’t cost a fortune to do. We are lucky to have small businesses that are trying to help us with that.

13 hours ago, Scott Adams said:

Well the article you post here basically complains that it is too sensitive and detects Gluten at lower than 20 ppm… I think most people here would think that’s a good thing not a bad thing, and it says the following (which indicates that it is still a very good tool to have with you when there is really nothing else available like it): “Nima is substantially more accurate at 40 parts per million and above, with an accuracy rate of 98.7 percent; so if a sample contains large amounts of gluten, Nima should be able to alert users with a “gluten found” result.”

In your first sentence, did you intend to say, "too insensitive"? Might be a typo there. Otherwise I can't make sense of it. Yes, the Nima sensor is better than nothing and would be adequate I suppose for many Celiacs who are not real sensitive.

I got a reaction from drinking rye.

I definitely get very sick ( GI problems, severe migraine) drinking distilled alcohol made from gluten. 
Before I was even diagnosed with celiac and thus reacted to gluten, I knew I could drink Tanqueray and feel fine but if I drank Bombay I was very sick. Tanqueray is not made from wheat and Bombay is. 
This is terrible news for very sensitive Celiacs! 

2 hours ago, Guest Renee said:

I definitely get very sick ( GI problems, severe migraine) drinking distilled alcohol made from gluten. 
Before I was even diagnosed with celiac and thus reacted to gluten, I knew I could drink Tanqueray and feel fine but if I drank Bombay I was very sick. Tanqueray is not made from wheat and Bombay is. 
This is terrible news for very sensitive Celiacs! 

In order to have a somehow normally functioning society, if all restrictions are based on the few exceptions instead of the large majority, the system collapses. Obviously the FDA has the task of protecting as many people as possible but if only medications or devices would be approved that have 0 complications, then nothing would get approved. Therefore acknowledging that the distillation process gets rid of gluten is great news for the large majority because it takes the fear away and whoever is very sensitive, needs to make adjustments accordingly. This is the case anyway because the FDA recognizes something as gluten-free if it has less than 20ppm gluten content but very few people appear to react to as little as 5ppm but the FDA does not want to overburden the industry and causing a big price increase for already more expensive products and accepts the higher limit.