Doggie Bag Study Reveals Truth About Exposure to Gluten

You’re gluten free. So you stay away from foods made with barley, wheat, and rye. You’re wary of foods packaged in the same processing plant as foods with gluten. And you’re vigilant about reading food labels to avoid gluten. But are you really gluten free?

That’s what a team of researchers wanted to find out when they came up with the Doggie Bag experiment. They found 18 people on a gluten-free diet willing to give them a doggie bag of food samples of everything they ate for 10 days

You can’t get much more accurate than taking a closer look at the exact foods you ate. But that’s what researchers did. They tested doggie bag samples of food from people following a so-called gluten-free diet.

What they found might surprise you. About 66 percent people following a gluten-free diet are still exposed to gluten in small amounts. If you have Celiac disease, consuming no more than 10 mg of gluten a day is still considered safe.

But in the Doggie Bag experiment, researchers found that some people following a gluten-free diet were exposed to as much as 40 mg of gluten. Researchers also found that half of the food samples participants provided tested positive for gluten.

Lead researcher Dr. Jocelyn Silvester says the findings confirm “the general concern that a strictly gluten-free diet is difficult to achieve even by highly motivated and educated celiac disease patients.

In other words, do your best to follow a gluten-free diet. But don’t expect to be 100 percent gluten-free all the time.

Want to follow a Gluten-Free Diet? Do your homework. Read food labels. Avoid foods that contain barley, wheat, rye, and eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.

And if you’re still looking for Gluten-Free options, check out our menu with 40-plus meals and sides all made from fresh ingredients. You’ll even find a variety of cookies that don’t contain gluten. Yum!