Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/tVWdIgOWwEs So you have celiac disease, the most severe form of gluten sensitivity, and exposure to the wheat protein can make you terribly sick.  You avoid any wheat products at home, and you carefully choose restaurants that certify their food to be gluten-free.  Just how good is their certification. Not very good say studies just published by gastroenterologists at Columbia med school and the NY Presbyterian Hospital.  Their data comes from users of the Nima Gluten Sensor that diners can use to self-test food labeled as gluten free.  In a review of more than 5600 tests by some 800 users over 18 months, gluten was detected in 53% of gluten-free pizza, 51% of gluten-free. pasta, 27% of breakfasts, 29% of lunches, and 34% of dinners. Here’s the catch: the device is extremely sensitive detecting gluten levels as low as 5 to 10 parts per million (ppm).  In the US, food certified as gluten-free can contain up to 20 ppm, and less than that may not be clinically significant. Still, the da