How Come Gluten Didnt Bother Me In Italy

[dttcb89]

I am so happy to find someone who did exactly as I did.   I went to Italy with a gluten intolerance problem but; just like you I said to myself …. how can you go to Italy and not eat bread, pasta, pizza, biscottie … etc.  So I ate them all and did not suffer from any side effects of gluten for almost 3 weeks.   I too came to the same conclusion that it must be the  GMOs.   As you see from your post most people think we are full of ……….. go figure; I know my body and I know when I have been poisoned. After 3 days back in the States and 3 lunches with organic wheat bread I am suffering all the side affects.  

I just returned from Italy on June 27th...  First I need to clarify that I have not been diagnosed with Celiac, or wheat allergies.  I have had crazy symptoms of gas, mouth sores, hair falling out, muscle "ping" pains, and tonsil stones- when gluten-free started hitting main-stream media, I thought maybe I should stop the pasta and bread and see what happens, and low-and-behold, my symptoms stopped!  (I always paid the price after big pasta dinners!)  :-0

 

I went to Italy with my Beano and GasX, hoping I wouldn't run my hotel mates out of the room- and after the first pasta dinner, crossed my fingers and waited.... and waited....  but the symptoms never came!  Long story short, I ate pasta, pizza and bread for 10 glorious days!  I cannot tell you how wonderful it was not to worry about symptoms for 10 days!  Italy was amazing, and being able to eat without worry, made the trip that much better!

 

Now that I am home, I wonder if I order pasta, flour, etc., online, or go to Jungle Jims in Cinci to get product direct from Italy, I will be able to enjoy those foods again, here at home.

 

I never thought I'd see the huge difference I did in my symptoms- but I SWEAR it was amazing!  There is something very different in the food here-  I don't know what else could have caused my 10 days of worry-free eating!!!

[kareng]

I just returned from Italy on June 27th...  First I need to clarify that I have not been diagnosed with Celiac, or wheat allergies.  I have had crazy symptoms of gas, mouth sores, hair falling out, muscle "ping" pains, and tonsil stones- when gluten-free started hitting main-stream media, I thought maybe I should stop the pasta and bread and see what happens, and low-and-behold, my symptoms stopped!  (I always paid the price after big pasta dinners!)  :-0

 

I went to Italy with my Beano and GasX, hoping I wouldn't run my hotel mates out of the room- and after the first pasta dinner, crossed my fingers and waited.... and waited....  but the symptoms never came!  Long story short, I ate pasta, pizza and bread for 10 glorious days!  I cannot tell you how wonderful it was not to worry about symptoms for 10 days!  Italy was amazing, and being able to eat without worry, made the trip that much better!

 

Now that I am home, I wonder if I order pasta, flour, etc., online, or go to Jungle Jims in Cinci to get product direct from Italy, I will be able to enjoy those foods again, here at home.

 

I never thought I'd see the huge difference I did in my symptoms- but I SWEAR it was amazing!  There is something very different in the food here-  I don't know what else could have caused my 10 days of worry-free eating!!!

 

 

Aren't Barilla made in Italy?  I thought they were.  But you don't seem to have Celiac, so the "rules will be different for you.  

[cap6]

I will still say wheat is wheat is wheat.  If you are celiac then you are playing with fire to eat it.  Period.  You may not get sick but the damage is being done anyway.  Three days, three weeks, whatever, of carefree eating wheat simply does not seem worth the risk of what I may be doing internally.  But we all are free to make our own choices.  If I ever am lucky enough to make it to Italy I will be enjoyuing whatever foods are available minus the wheat.  My choice. 

[beth01]

I first want to say that I am a firm believer of " wheat is wheat" no matter what country or zip code you live in.  Which means, if you have Celiac you shouldn't eat wheat.  It isn't like guy rules where " it isn't cheating if you are in another zip code" , "it's not cheating if no one finds out" and all the other idiotic things people say to justify any sort of cheating.

 

 

 

Let's say for science's sake that all the people who have gone abroad and eaten the wonderful unmodified wheat and not gotten sick might have something going.  How do we prove this.... Let's do an experiment.

 

Who wants to live abroad for five years and eat wonderful unmodified wheat?  Who wants to tell me all about the brain fog, muscle aches, nerve pain, poop you can finger paint with (if you can poop more that once a week or less than 10 times a day), bloated bellies that make you look pregnant, headaches, urinary problems, or the list of over 293 more symptoms I haven't stated?  That is just asinine.

 

To all the new people that read this thread either now or in the future ( unless they actually come up with a cure for Celiac) don't eat wheat modified or not, it's not safe.

[nvsmom]

I am so happy to find someone who did exactly as I did.   I went to Italy with a gluten intolerance problem but; just like you I said to myself …. how can you go to Italy and not eat bread, pasta, pizza, biscottie … etc.  So I ate them all and did not suffer from any side effects of gluten for almost 3 weeks.   I too came to the same conclusion that it must be the  GMOs.   As you see from your post most people think we are full of ……….. go figure; I know my body and I know when I have been poisoned. After 3 days back in the States and 3 lunches with organic wheat bread I am suffering all the side affects.  

 

Just remember that some celiacs are symptom free. No GI symptoms at all. My cousin was diagnosed based on cognitive problems and ADD.

 

Also, some celiacs do not always get immediate symptoms. My symptoms tend to worsen over time, although I usually do feel a bit off when I eat gluten. It is possible that the excitement and adrenalin from travel helped mask your symptoms too.

[Gemini]

I am glad you had such a wonderful trip but here's a suggestion.......go ahead and eat wheat again as you have not been diagnosed with celiac. But keep in mind that you did have symptoms that resolved on the gluten-free diet. After 3 months, go and have a celiac panel done.

See if your symptoms return. That way, you can enjoy your wheat but still make an attempt to see if you have the disease because if you do, you are going to want to know.

Good luck!

[the2glutes]

The same thing just happened to my wife and me. We were in Barcelona and Sicily for nearly a month. We had been experiencing what we recently discovered to be typical gluten- sensitivity symptoms (headaches, fibromyalgia-like pains, brain fog, gastrointestinal problems). When we were traveling we had not realized the connection and ate pizza, bread, pasta with no effect. In fact, we were pleased that the symptoms had gone away. Occasionally, I'd feel a twinge of pain when eating a LOT more bread products than usual but nothing like what we felt at home. When we returned, the symptoms redeveloped, and we ultimately had an "Aha!" moment that it must be gluten. We removed gluten from our diet, and the symptoms have vanished. Again, like other posters here, we don't know what the difference is with wheat in both Barcelona and Sicily versus both Canada and the US where we've experienced problems. We did a lot more walking and were highly active there as opposed to sitting all the time at home. At home we eat organic all the time as well. Interestingly, our gluten sensitivity also seems related to chemical exposures, as in visits to malls or box stores that waft chemical odors from synthetic products. We try to avoid these at home but probably had even less exposure in Europe.

[Purpletie3]

You all brought such interesting food for thought on this...I was newly diagnosed in Feb. First of April I went to Europe with my Dietician best friend & our teen daughters. She had heard about the wheat difference. I was determined to stay gluten-free until we were invited to her family's house for dinner~ They were a sweet couple in their 90's and she had spent all day cooking for us...and spoke only Italian. So, I fell back into my manners...I had a small amount of pasta (Barilla) and a bite of bread...then when we got backthat night the Teens went back for Margharita pizza and I had a slice...  DUH...everyone was snuggled down for the night and about 3:30 am I started getting ill. Didn't settle down until Noon. My self polluting lead to me being sick for the entire week. I went liquid for two days...I steep ginger root and cinnamon into a tea...that allows my body to heal a little and settle and not spend energy digesting but healing. I have to tell you...the lack of information out there known by a Dietician is scary...and I learned to trust my own body.  I found there are a lot of people who say..."don't worry you can have a little" Nieve and new to Celiacs I paid for it. The damage to my small bowel is there..can't see or feel it.   I know better now...even a small crumb will make me sick. Lesson learned.

[Waitingindreams]

I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in to this topic...

 

I went to the doctor last summer (July 2013) because I just didn't feel good at all. EVERYTHING I ate seemed to go right through me, or give me sharp stomach pains. Sandwiches, minestrone soup, my mom's fried dough, salad, etc. Except for pizza.

 

I found this out the day before my 3rd date with my now boyfriend. I bought minestrone soup and made a grilled cheese. Within 20 minutes I was in the bathroom, very sick. For 12 hours, every 2 hours, I was in the bathroom again. It is the worst I have ever felt. I assumed it was food poisoning. I was up until 6 AM feeling awful. When I woke up, I decided I wasn't going to eat anything at all, to avoid getting sick before my date. We spent the whole day together...we walked to a park near my house and had a really nice time. Then it was time for dinner, and I knew I couldn't just not eat anything all day...so we decided to walk to a pizza place near my house and share a pizza. I didn't get sick. This all happened in late June. 

 

I literally could not stomach anything but pizza. I knew something was wrong and I didn't feel good, but I also knew I had to eat - so I picked up some microwavable pizzas from the store and ate those. No reaction. Finally (July 1st)  I got so sick I knew it was time to go to the doctor. I told him all of my symptoms...about how I always had to run to the bathroom within 20 minutes..how sick I felt, how crampy, the diarrhea, etc. He suggested it was celiac disease. I told him it couldn't be, because I could eat pizza..and I knew pizza had wheat/gluten in it. He said sometimes your body just doesn't react to certain things and sent me for the blood tests. Obviously the results came back positive (and alarmingly high)

 

I live in the US and the wheat flour used in all of the pizzas I bought was not imported from Italy, or non GMO, or anything different- and it still didn't make me sick for whatever reason. Other forms of gluten made me violently ill though, such as bread, soup with noodles, etc. In short, just because you didn't react, it doesn't mean intestinal damage wasn't being done. I had NO idea what I was doing to my body...but just because I realized pizza didn't bother me for some odd reason, doesn't mean I'd include regular pizza as part of my gluten free diet. And in fact, it could have been bothering me in other ways...just no GI symptoms like I was used to.

 

Don't do it! That's my advice... 

[Mishy]

I recently discover I have Celiac  and I miss pizza, bread and all the other foods that have gluten;( But I have been reading all about sourdough bread, I mean real sourdough bread. The kind that the starter has fermented 3 or more day. The fermenting processes breaks down the gluten. So the longer it is fermented the less gluten. I was so glad to here this I now eat sourdough bread.Not the kind there grocery store carries I went to my locale bakery and they ferment the starter for 3 days.I can tolerate that I just cant over due it. I eat it for a few days then I need to take a break. for a few days.

I feel if I can make my own starter and ferment it for 7 days that would be the best!! Just started my own starter hoping to make sourdough pizza crust. I will report back when I am done. 

 

Also I just purchased some white flour form Italy. Going to give that a try also. I will up date later.  

[kareng]

I recently discover I have Celiac and I miss pizza, bread and all the other foods that have gluten;( But I have been reading all about sourdough bread, I mean real sourdough bread. The kind that the starter has fermented 3 or more day. The fermenting processes breaks down the gluten. So the longer it is fermented the less gluten. I was so glad to here this I now eat sourdough bread.Not the kind there grocery store carries I went to my locale bakery and they ferment the starter for 3 days.I can tolerate that I just cant over due it. I eat it for a few days then I need to take a break. for a few days.

I feel if I can make my own starter and ferment it for 7 days that would be the best!! Just started my own starter hoping to make sourdough pizza crust. I will report back when I am done.

Also I just purchased some white flour form Italy. Going to give that a try also. I will up date later.

Please don't eat sour dough bread. I don't have the time right now, but there is reputable info about it. There is still gluten in the bread. And flour is flour....

[nvsmom]

I agree. If there was no gluten in sourdough it wouldn't have that typical springy bread texture.  There's gluten in it. Don't be fooled.

[OneAverageJoe]

It really makes me laugh to see people use words like "always" when describing the body's reaction to a condition. Medical science is changing every day, so any doctor or person who says "always" or "never" is undoubtedly wrong.

Next, I love how some say that GMO's have "nothing" to do with Celiac Disease. Do you know that for a fact? Have you performed or seen conclusive evidence based on studies? My question regarding that topic would be this: if there is no link between GMO and Celiac Disease (or any sort of wheat/gluten sensitivity), then why are so many people nowadays found with these conditions? Do you think it's just a coincidence? Do you think wheat would be so widely used as a food source earth-wide for thousands of years if people for thousands of years had sensitivities to it?

For me it's obvious. It's no different than the studies years ago from the FDA that said Aspartame was fine, even though people's bodies were saying otherwise. There is another side to this as well: different people respond differently to the same substance. When you do a study across many people, they are looking for "averages" or the "common goal" -- each person will react somewhat differently.

I do not know if I have Celiac Disease. I do know that I have a wheat allergy and when I ingest wheat, my guts are not happy. However, I also just had a similar experience as LeeLoff when traveling to Italy. I was there for 5 weeks and ate more wheat than I ever have, and did so every day. It was not gluten free, it was just normal bread, pasta, etc. Not once did I experience discomfort or ingestion issues (although I did put on a pound or two).

As soon as I came back to the US and started eating a meager amount of wheat, my symptoms came back.

Now, I'm no expert and I don't know what condition I have. But I can tell you, from personal experience, that my body reacted differently to wheat in Italy than to wheat in the US.

[Positron]

On ‎9‎/‎13‎/‎2012 at 1:59 PM, Leeloff said:

I recently traveled to Italy, and although I've read they have many many gluten free options, I decided that I was going to eat whatever I wanted, even if it had gluten. When I mentioned this to my doctor, he said it actually may not bother me since the wheat outside of the US is typically less genetically modified and more "natural".

 

So after 2 weeks in Italy eating pasta daily, pizza, and all kinds of baked goods, I felt great. No headaches, upset stomach or any symptoms of gluten digestion.

 

Has anyone else had a similar experience outside of the US? If thats the case, could I buy imported flours and pasta made in Italy that arent "gluten free" and be okay eating them at home?

Because you noticed the problems at home after you ate enough gluten to cause a reaction in your system, you did not eat enough gluten in Italy to cause that reaction.  Also you are here for 99.9999 percent of the time, so do the math.

[modernfoodsucks]

I know a girl that ate breads in Italy and in France. She had no reactions the whole month she was there. She said she felt better than ever before. Then she ate at Subway in Italy before she left and got sick. Apparently Subway ships there bread or flour in from the US or Canada. I have heard story after story of people who are Gluten intolerant or Celiac able to eat bread in Italy and France.  Again they are not legally allowed to modify their wheat. Also my niece who has never been diagnosed with wheat issues lost a lot of weight in France and felt great eating bread everyday. She said they never ate snacks but waited for regular meals. No chips etc. if they woke up late the skipped breakfast and waited for lunch. But she said she didn't even try to loos weight but ate quiet well.  My son was diagnosed with ADHD and gluten intolerance. Changing his diet helps so much, he became a different child within a month!!! However he is really struggling with his diet and often cries about how hid friends can eat at school. Research also shows that France has one of the lowest rates of ADHD/ADD in the world. Coincidence? I don't think so. A friend of mine cooks all clean non GMO food, has her own chickens, beef, veggies, raw Milk etc. She also buys lrg sacks of non GMO wheat grains and mills her own flour. her husband has celiac disease and was suffering terribly (a really bad case). So that was the beginning of their new diest. They moved to an acreage, hence all the real food. Anyway he is completely symptom free! And he eats her homemade bread everyday for lunch with real sliced beef etc. I'm not looking to prove others wrong here, I'm just looking for a good alternative for my son. I don't feel his diet has enough fiber, plus he's so picky and hard to feed as it is. I'm beginning to wish we could move to France or Italy.... or go back to another time period, when food was food.

[Gemini]

There is so much to say regarding this post but I do not have a lot of time right now.  I have been to the UK, Ireland and Scotland many times over the past 20 years and eaten in many a French restaurant in London......with real French people.  I have to agree that the food, overall, is much better than here in the States. You can get great food here and I do, but it comes at a cost. However.............and I have to say this.............please, under no circumstances, feed your Celiac child anything that is not really gluten free.  It does not matter at all that some people do not react to the gluten bread in Italy and France. It might be that the bread contains less gluten than the pumped up bread you get here in the States but I don't know because I haven't looked into it.  None of that matters. 

When you have Celiac Disease, you cannot eat gluten, period, no matter where the bread comes from. To do otherwise is playing Russian Roulette with your health.  It will blow up on you down the road. This is a great time to really teach your children the importance of eating gluten free when you actually have a disease where you cannot. Let your child cry a bit and grieve but never, ever give in to them. To the woman whose husband has Celiac and she makes him bread that is not gluten free.....make sure he has plenty of life/health insurance because he is gonna need it!  It is denial and misinformation that makes people do this.  Just because you buy non-GMO flour and mill it yourself does not make the gluten content less damaging.

I know you are trying to be sympathetic to your child's emotions but he has to learn to live with what he has and move on with it.  You are the one to help him navigate the gluten-free world and you have to be strong.  Whatever the reason is that people think they are not reacting is not worth what is going to happen down the road if they continue with this behavior. BTW....I do not think GMO's have anything to do with Celiac.  This disease has existed for a very long time.....way before GMO's even came into existence.

[Meemz]

First of all let me start by saying that I do NOT have celiac disease, but I am gluten intolerant. My comments are not intended to slight the experience of those who suffer from celiac or undermine how serious a condition it is. 

I have been gluten-free since determining via an elimination diet that gluten was the source of a host of health issues for me, the most serious being severe acne on my face, jawline and chest. This had been going on for a few years and I'd been on several courses of antibiotics and finally Accutane, which totally worked while I was on it, but as soon as I stopped I started regressing and quickly returned to my previous, miserable state.  Not wanting to go back on Accutane (for several reasons), I decided to look at nutrition as a possible solution. I performed several elimination/re-introduction tests to isolate exactly what was triggering my breakouts, which are immediate and painful. The culprits ended up being wheat and soy.  After eliminating both, my skin started clearing immediately and for the last 2 years I've barely seen a blemish.  

That being said, I stick to a very strict diet here in the states.  In researching what might be the cause of my intolerance in the first place, (which I definitely did not experience as a child) I came across the theory about genetic modification and also that such practices are outlawed or at least not as common in Europe.  When I traveled to London, I decided to test out the theory. I started with a gingerly bite of toast, but during the course of 2 trips I have eaten: baguettes, pasta, pastries and pizza all without experiencing any reactions whatsoever.  

Before I raise any scientific/medical hackles, clearly this is not empirical data or proof of any correlation between genetic modification and gluten intolerance. But I have tested this out personally several times with the same result, and even ate bread in the states to make sure I hadn't miraculously ceased being intolerant all together (I have not).  So, I guess I'm just saying the GMO theory seems plausible or at least merits further investigation.  Especially because soy, being my other primary trigger, is the #1 (or so I've read) genetically modified crop in the United States.  And, no, I haven't tested my theory out with soy yet, but I definitely plan to when I return to the UK. 

Again, not trying to influence anyone, or dish out careless advice. But if you have ruled out celiac and are unsure of what causes your intolerance (and traveling abroad any time soon) it would be interesting to see if anyone else has the same experience. I just wanted to add my 2 cents in case it helps anyone else to enjoy a slice of pizza; it certainly made my night. 

Edited April 16, 2016 by Meemz
typo

[kenlove]

Having lived in  Barcelona  and  worked in Milan  and Parma,  Ive  found the many of the good restaurants are using  different  type of original  wheats  like Einkorn and Ferro and  different French  wheats whos names I forget.  Some new  hybrid  wheats  can  have  14  times the  amount of gliaden protein than these  non hybrid  wheats.   IN  japan they even have 2 names for wheats  -- Komugi and merikenko (American powder)

[brykil]

I'd like to add onto this topic with a story similar to many others. I've been gluten free for about 5 years now, but NOT a celiac. I have a very severe and immediate reaction whenever I do eat gluten in the USA, including gastrointestinal problems lasting for about a month afterwards. The problems are not mild and are 100% linked to the consumption of wheat products. In the 5 years I've been gluten free I've tested this several times, mostly by accident and a few times on purpose after periods of having been on certain amino acids that made my stomach feel amazing (if you haven't heard of L-glutamine, do some research). Basically each time after I ate flour I'd go through a period of 1-3 months of HORRIBLE stomach pains. It didn't matter if I ate pizza, drank a beer, ate a food with a little bit of flour added in by mistake, the impact was immediate and severe.

Rewind about 2 years before I went gluten free. I basically was living a life with a constant stomach ache. Since it was every day, I became accustomed to it and I learned to deal with the pain, but it was not fun. I was always known as the person who couldn't eat a lot because I'd get a stomach ache 5 minutes into any meal and couldn't finish. Friends loved me because I always had free food left over. That all changed when I went on a Euro trip with a few friends (note, this trip was BEFORE I stopped eating gluten/before I knew gluten was the problem). By day 3 of the trip, I felt like a new person. I no longer needed a bathroom in sight at all times, I finished all my meals, and going to the bathroom was actually a pleasant experience. Even my friends (the ones that always ate my leftovers in the USA) noticed that I was eating more and generally more energetic. Something happened while we were in Europe (the trip included London, Netherlands, and Germany) that made me feel amazing. Little did I know how or why, I just knew I felt like a new person. Fast forward to returning back home. Within my first meal (we all stopped at a Stewart's Root Beer stand on our way home from the airport, I still remember), I was back to having horrible stomach problems and not finishing meals. I was sick all over again.

Fast forward several years, I'd been gluten free for about 4 years and I go back to Europe once again. Having remembered my first trip there and lack of symptoms, I decided that on day 1 I'd test my luck again with a beer (my absolute favorite). If I had any symptoms I'd have 10 days to partially recover before the flight home, no big deal. So I down 1 beer. No symptoms. A second, third...nothing. A biscuit with my afternoon tea, don't mind if I do. Still nothing. That turned into eating absolutely whatever I wanted with no ill effects for the full 10 days. It was amazing. I return home and remember my prior experience. Home makes me sick (east coast USA btw). I take one BITE of pizza on day two of returning home as my only gluten intake to see if maybe my symptoms have gone away. Within 5 minutes I feel like garbage and I'm sick for a month. Ugh.

So as others have said, there really is something to say about the difference in foods between the USA and Europe. I'm not going to claim it's only the gluten, but given the amount of stories we've heard here I think it's at least plausible gluten differences/prevalence of GMO products is a key suspect. It's definitely something that could use a little more research into.

 

[Sarah Revithiadis]

I was under the impression that it is not gluten that bothers people, it is how it is farmed and cultivated in the US i.e. excessive use of pesticides and using chemicals like Round Up to kill the wheat as it makes it easier to plough.

Everyone with sensitivities should either speak out to the farmers and manufacturers, or just grow their own wheat.

[Conniear50]

I've read that gluten was added to wheat in the United States in the sixties. The GMO war was getting started and it was the worst concept for food that the government ever ok'd, or one of the first because now there are many. I am under the impression that other countries have not done this unless by chance they have purchased seeds that have been tampered with from the US. Even Mexico has stricter standards when it comes to genetic altering, pesticides, and toxins. Everyone who I have spoken to and we have investigated a great deal as my daughter and her husband depart for Italy on the fourth, that have enjoyed the breads and pasta in Italy have had no issues with gluten.

[Scott Adams]

Wheat is currently non-GMO. They have used hybridization techniques over the years to increase the amount of gluten, but commercial wheat is currently non genetically modified.

[Posterboy]

1 hour ago, Conniear50 said:

I've read that gluten was added to wheat in the United States in the sixties. The GMO war was getting started and it was the worst concept for food that the government ever ok'd, or one of the first because now there are many. I am under the impression that other countries have not done this unless by chance they have purchased seeds that have been tampered with from the US. Even Mexico has stricter standards when it comes to genetic altering, pesticides, and toxins. Everyone who I have spoken to and we have investigated a great deal as my daughter and her husband depart for Italy on the fourth, that have enjoyed the breads and pasta in Italy have had no issues with gluten.

Connie,

I am not completely up on this thread but this might be why.

https://www.livescience.com/36206-truth-potassium-bromate-food-additive.html

https://www.kcet.org/food/is-there-potassium-bromate-in-your-bread

The EU is  not allowed to use Bromine in their breads...it is a halogen like Iodine and for any who has rash/DH issues with gluten the could/would probably trigger a similar reaction as using Iodine.

Since this is not an issue for EU breads...you/they might be be reacting to the Bromine (a known carcinogen) but usually considered to "baked off" in the preparation of breads ....but I could see where if some one was sensitive to Iodine or had DH issues could also reaction to it as if they where reacting to gluten and why the EU breads might not be causing the same reactions.

I hope this is helpful but it is not medical advise.

Posterboy,

[kareng]

12 hours ago, Conniear50 said:

I've read that gluten was added to wheat in the United States in the sixties. The GMO war was getting started and it was the worst concept for food that the government ever ok'd, or one of the first because now there are many. I am under the impression that other countries have not done this unless by chance they have purchased seeds that have been tampered with from the US. Even Mexico has stricter standards when it comes to genetic altering, pesticides, and toxins. Everyone who I have spoken to and we have investigated a great deal as my daughter and her husband depart for Italy on the fourth, that have enjoyed the breads and pasta in Italy have had no issues with gluten.

There is no actual “ GMO” wheat for human consumption in the US.  However, many bakers/ bakeries  use a special baking flour . It contains extra gluten.  Somehow they can extract just the gluten proteins from some wheat and add it to the flour.  It makes better bread and cake.  I had heard that that isn’t popular in Europe.  

[Conniear50]

11 hours ago, Posterboy said:

Connie,

I am not completely up on this thread but this might be why.

https://www.livescience.com/36206-truth-potassium-bromate-food-additive.html

https://www.kcet.org/food/is-there-potassium-bromate-in-your-bread

The EU is  not allowed to use Bromine in their breads...it is a halogen like Iodine and for any who has rash/DH issues with gluten the could/would probably trigger a similar reaction as using Iodine.

Since this is not an issue for EU breads...you/they might be be reacting to the Bromine (a known carcinogen) but usually considered to "baked off" in the preparation of breads ....but I could see where if some one was sensitive to Iodine or had DH issues could also reaction to it as if they where reacting to gluten and why the EU breads might not be causing the same reactions.

I hope this is helpful but it is not medical advise.

Posterboy,