Ep 149 The Doggie Bag Study has Surprising Results

A Conversation with Dr. Jocelyn Silvester

Let’s start the blog with the show notes for this Episode –

It was a year and a half ago that I first heard about a new study, teased at a forum of high level business people and researchers put together by the Canadian Celiac Association.  Two doctors hinted at tidbits of their findings when they looked at the actual amount of gluten in a gluten free diet.  At that time, I spoke with Dr. Jocelyn Silvester, and she promised to speak again with me when the study had been properly submitted for publishing.  This episode is that long awaited conversation.

Is there gluten in the gluten free diet?  The answer is yes.  But the research study, performed in Manitoba, was able to tell us so much more.  The study is referred to as the “Doggie Bag Study”, but it has a lengthy proper name – Determination of Gluten Grams Ingested and Excreted By Adults eating Gluten-free.

Sue’s Websites and Social Media –

Podcast https://acanadianceliacpodcast.libsyn.com

Podcast Blog – https://www.acanadianceliacblog.com

Facebook – @acanadianceliacpodcast

Twitter – CeliacPodcastCA

Email – acdnceliacpodcast@gmail.com

Baking Website – https://www.suesglutenfreebaking.com

Instagram – @suesgfbaking

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUVGfpD4eJwwSc_YjkGagza06yYe3ApzL

Email – sue@suesglutenfreebaking.com

Other Podcast – Gluten Free Weigh In – https://glutenfreeweighin.libsyn.com

My Thoughts –

Dr. Jocelyn Silvester is a pleasure to talk to.  She is Canadian, works mostly in Boston, but does other work with associates in Canada.  When I spoke with her recently, she was visiting family in Canada, unable to make a planned trip for work in Nunavut.

When we finished recording, we continued to chat.  She told me she was surprised that I didn’t ask her about participants in the study eating at restaurants and how that effected their results.  I had thought about asking a restaurant question, but in my celiac mind, it didn’t make much of a difference where the food came from, if someone perceived it to be gluten free. 

Dr. Silvester’s thoughts on gluten free food from a restaurant are as follows – “Food is on a spectrum.  Growing your own vegetables and plucking your own chicken, you are pretty confident, but when you buy the chicken from the butcher and the vegetables are packaged and have a sauce on them, that’s different, and so even though you’re cooking it in your own home and preparing it in your own home, it’s not necessary that you really are on top of all the gluten that’s in it.”

Dr. Silvester has done lots of interviews about the Doggie Bay Study, but not many with a celiac interviewer for a celiac audience.  We understand that every meal is an issue – even a snack of a gluten free cookie you may have made at home from scratch, could be a problem, the same as a simple steak and baked potato eaten at a restaurant.  We only have so much control over the gluten free aspect of our food.  Gluten free foods testing under 20 ppm are fine, unless you eat substantially more than one serving at time.  Dr. Silvester is right – Food is on a spectrum, and our spectrum is from zero to 20 ppm, along with a reasonable volume – I can live with that.