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Absolute Limit For Gluten?

C-Girl

By C-Girl
in Coping with Celiac Disease

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C-Girl Contributor
C-Girl
Posted

Coming from a scientific background, I have an issue with this <20ppm "safe" limit for gluten. Has anyone come across a microgram/milligram limit for a meal? If you eat a bunch of stuff that is "safe" but contains just under the limit, can you get an immune reaction? Has anyone actually tested this? (not like any of us want to be the guinea pigs!)

 

My concern is this: I recently subscribed to the Gluten Free Watchdog, thanks to the whole Bart's cookies saga. I've found that some flours that I use for baking test in the 10-18 range. If I make a whole loaf of delicious bread with this flour, how much can I eat?

 

Luckily, I haven't had a reaction to the bread I've made using it. But I don't want to push it. I'd like to know that if a batch of flour is at 17ppm, and I use 90g of it in a loaf, how many slices can I eat?

 

It's like a grade school math problem all over again :)

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dilettantesteph Collaborator
dilettantesteph
Posted

This is the study on which the 20 ppm limit is based: Open Original Shared Link as far as I know.

Note that one participant had a full relapse on the lower amount tested.  Also, none of the participants given the higher amount tested had a relapse.  The amounts tolerated vary.

Adalaide Mentor
Adalaide
Posted

With the flours you use, I'm assuming it is particular brands? After they're used up could you just switch brands to something that doesn't ping that high for your peace of mind? I've seen that study before, and it really does help to put things in a bit of perspective.

 

I'm not sure how much bread other people eat, but for me I usually eat two slices at a time, but will eat bread maybe 4 or 5 times a month. So in the greater scheme of things it wouldn't be a lot for me, but if I were eating bread 4 or 5 times a week I might be a little concerned. But, if you're feeling good, not getting symptoms at all and you get follow up tests that are coming back either normal, or better than they were when you were diagnosed I'd say it's fine.

C-Girl Contributor
C-Girl
Posted
  • Author

With the flours you use, I'm assuming it is particular brands? After they're used up could you just switch brands to something that doesn't ping that high for your peace of mind? I've seen that study before, and it really does help to put things in a bit of perspective.

 

I'm not sure how much bread other people eat, but for me I usually eat two slices at a time, but will eat bread maybe 4 or 5 times a month. So in the greater scheme of things it wouldn't be a lot for me, but if I were eating bread 4 or 5 times a week I might be a little concerned. But, if you're feeling good, not getting symptoms at all and you get follow up tests that are coming back either normal, or better than they were when you were diagnosed I'd say it's fine.

 

I'm perfecting my recipe and it's getting better and better - I ate about half a loaf yesterday! :wub: Maybe I should just stop baking, for my waistline's sake...

Gemini Experienced
Gemini
Posted

I'm perfecting my recipe and it's getting better and better - I ate about half a loaf yesterday! :wub: Maybe I should just stop baking, for my waistline's sake...

I think that if you feel fine after eating your delicious gluten free bread, then don't worry about it.  If one day you overdose on bread and don't feel so good after, then you have your answer but keep in mind that eating too much of anything can cause problems for a number of reasons. Eating too much chocolate, for me, will wire me out but it has nothing to do with gluten. If you monitor your antibodies also, and they come back good, then it's a double don't worry about it. Otherwise, you might become obsessed with it and that is never a good thing.   :) 

 

Enjoy your bread and baking gluten free!

IrishHeart Veteran
IrishHeart
Posted

Speaking of math problems, ^_^ you can read this explanation by Tricia Thompson, RD.

 

Open Original Shared Link

 

Conclusion: 

"Even if all of the gluten-free grain foods you ate contained 20 parts per million gluten (and they probably won’t) you would have to eat a lot more than the recommended number of servings to approach an intake of 10 milligrams of gluten."

C-Girl Contributor
C-Girl
Posted
  • Author

Speaking of math problems, ^_^ you can read this explanation by Tricia Thompson, RD.

 

Open Original Shared Link

 

Conclusion: 

"Even if all of the gluten-free grain foods you ate contained 20 parts per million gluten (and they probably won’t) you would have to eat a lot more than the recommended number of servings to approach an intake of 10 milligrams of gluten."

Thanks! That's precisely what I was looking for.

I love math that's done for me!

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IrishHeart Veteran
IrishHeart
Posted

Thanks! That's precisely what I was looking for.

I love math that's done for me!

 Me too. I totally suck at math. (one of the many reasons I keep the hubs around.)

LauraTX Rising Star
LauraTX
Posted

I saw this snippet from University of Chicago and thought it would help here:

Open Original Shared Link

  • 2 weeks later...
Redbard52 Newbie
Redbard52
Posted

Here's an example of the math for an approximation of the gluten consumed:

 

You use 90g of flour with 17 ppm gluten in a loaf of bread.  Say your loaf of bread weighs 360g and assume it has 10 slices of bread and you eat two slices.  So you have eaten 20% (i.e., 2/10) of 360g, 0.20x360 = 72 grams of bread.  The flour consitiutes one-quarter of the weight of bread (i.e., 90/360), so you ate 0.25x72g = 18g of flour.  17 ppm = 17/1,000,000. So, you ate 18g x 17/1,000,000 = 0.000306 grams of gluten.  1mg = 1g/1000.  So this is the same as 0.000306gx1000mg/g = 0.306 mg.

 

Although you are likely also getting some gluten from other sources, this doesn't seem like too much gluten vs studies that indicate safe limits on the order of 10 mg/day.

 

But be aware that the purists will tell you not to use that flour since you "know" that it contains some gluten.

 

Redbeard52

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