Sensitivity to gluten-containing foods has been documented in lots of people without celiac. However... * People with IBS may find their symptoms improved by g

Sensitivity to gluten-containing foods has been documented in lots of people without celiac. However... * People with IBS may find their symptoms improved by going on a low-FODMAP diet. That does take out bread, but it also might involve taking out onions because of their sugar content. Doesn't have anything to do with gluten per se. * People with digestive problems may find that alcohol is an irritant. But then tequila should also be dropped or moderated; doesn't have to do with gluten. * People who do an elimination diet and find that standard American bread upsets their stomach may also find that more fermented items, in moderation, aren't a problem. American bread will cause me embarrassing borborygmus and other digestive problems, but moderate consumption of beer or northern european sourdough rye is not bad. Someone once told me this was a difference in reaction to the glutenin vs gliadin proteins that make up gluten, but who knows. No one knows the science yet, but bread sure does give me non-celiac trouble! For beer and wine, it's really useful and interesting to consider the effects of the processing and fermentation. Malted barley is used in most beers: you sprout and then roast the barley, releasing and cooking all kinds of sugars that you would not find in beef-barley soup. Barley has hordein instead of gliadin (rye has secalin, oats have avenin). Then the yeast crunches through those sugars to create alcohol and carbon dioxide and who knows what else. Fermentation often does have an effect on these proteins and can in fact have an effect on the amino acids that people with celiac are sensitive to, but we don't really know what's going on entirely. There are some Italians who can make gluten-free sourdough wheat bread in a lab just through getting the right yeasts going. Beer, wine, pickles, yogurts, sausages, fermented shark... With all we are finding out about microbiomes inside our guts, there is going to be an explosion of commercialization of these traditional fermented foods. Start your own now so that you don't have to be reliant on corporate mega-strains in the future! Microbiome independence now! :)