“I have Celiac disease. I was diagnosed appx. 15 years ago. ”
Celiac Disease with ongoing symptoms even though totally gluten free. Is it necessary to NOT use plastic or wood, and use steel and glass utensils, cutting boards, etc.? Do plastic and wood retain gluten? Thank you!
Female | 62 years old
Medications: Too many to list
Conditions: Celiac Disease, RA, Fibromyalgia, Hypothyroidism, Membranous Glomerulopathy
7 Answers
I have never heard of gluten in wood or plastic. Gluten is in cereal grains.
No, wood or plastic utensils will not cause any contamination with gluten and do not contain gluten.
First, we must be careful with the diagnosis of celiac. It is often misdiagnosed. If you came to see me as a patient, I would first get documents of the prior work up to convince myself that the celiac diagnosis is correct. If the celiac diagnosis is true and accurate, then persistent symptoms on a gluten-free diet generally have 2 main explanations:
1) You are exquisitely sensitive to gluten and it is getting into your diet surreptitiously. It does this via food ingested, not due to utensils used, so I don't think you need to change the cutlery that you use to eat with.
2) The symptoms are not due to gluten at all but rather another condition may be at play. Typically nonulcer dyspepsia or visceral hypersensitivity, which is very common in the setting of fibromyalgia, are high on the list of possibilities.
A GI doctor can help sort this out.
Good luck.
1) You are exquisitely sensitive to gluten and it is getting into your diet surreptitiously. It does this via food ingested, not due to utensils used, so I don't think you need to change the cutlery that you use to eat with.
2) The symptoms are not due to gluten at all but rather another condition may be at play. Typically nonulcer dyspepsia or visceral hypersensitivity, which is very common in the setting of fibromyalgia, are high on the list of possibilities.
A GI doctor can help sort this out.
Good luck.
In order for you to know whether the symptoms is from celiac disease despite gluten free diet is to undergo duodenal biopsy. I am not aware that using utensils affect celiac
If the cutting boards, etc., are scrubbed clean and washed, there should not be a problem with using them.
You’re describing what is known as refractory celiac disease, which is something that must be re-evaluated in order to rule out other more serious conditions, provided inadvertent gluten inclusion in diet has been completely ruled out first.
I would use separate kitchenware that was not used with foods that contain gluten. If you continue to have symptoms despite a strict gluten-free diet, you might want to discuss with your gastroenterologist to exclude refractory celiac disease.
