the big question here is the IF you have celiac or gluten intolerance. i am a firm believer that there is not a black and white. my brother is “gluten intolerant” but i have celiac… how ever both of us have bad immune systems when eating gluten, i have been GF for 3.5 years and my immune system is great now… my brother is gluten light and still gets sick some what. there really is no way to prove if you do or do not have celiac. if you had a weakened immune system that resolves after total removal of gluten from the diet then its probably celiac… but there are literally 100s of symptoms associated with celiac and some people have no out ward symptoms but they are still having the damage done.

people with celiac will still have the damaging t cell response to gluten even if it is broken down (the test only can tell if the full chain of proteins that make gluten is there but the segments of amino acids will still set off t cell responses) but if you are just gluten intolerant you might not have a reaction to the broken down chains.

at the end of the day it is your choice, but regardless of if you have any gluten issue or not gluten is not great for the human body, it is an inflammatory agent and the human body is really not set up to digest grains (some what dependent on your specific genetic heritage but even then it is usually only one grain or another that you can handle fully).

as to vinegar, personally i don’t have an issue that i can tell with it (i am celiac and avoid as much as possible) along with well distilled liquor (single distillation can carry over but quality liquor is usually safe).

i know that wasn’t the yes or no you were looking for but most of this really ends up as the “it depends” answer; to be safe avoid fully, if you are willing to take the risk then its your call, it might be safe, it might not.

However, I seem to be ok with soy sauce, even ones made with wheat. I am also ok with vinegar (just not malt vinegar).. then finally, for the last few weeks, I have been drinking light beer (Miller Lite) and there have been no problems.

I think there are multiple categories of wheat allergy/celiac… I know others who can’t do soy sauce or light beer.. but it seems that some of us can. Any idea as to what this means? Does this mean that I am not celiac but have a wheat allergy? My doctor was honest and says that the medical profession is currently in a weird upheaval about trying to understand gluten allergies fully and they don’t have all the answers.

I came across this blog trying to figure out if others were able to still drink light beers despite having problems with other wheat products. A friend of mine who is a doctor says that my body probably doesn’t react to the broken down gluten in soy sauce/distilled vinegar and light beer.

your best bet will probably be to talk to local beer shops and have them order it in for you (since they order from probably just one or 2 distributors and get shipments in all the time you won’t have to pay out the nose to get it in)

and remember the blood test is only 80% correct. best way to really tell is if you had unusual symptoms that resolve after being gluten free for a while (i used to get colds for months at a time before going gluten free, now if i get one in a year it is less than a week… you know, like a normal person )