The kissing study: Explained!

[0:00]Can you kiss someone with celiac after you've had gluten or will you make them sick? You might have seen celiac disease in the news the last few weeks. Because at a recent gastroenterology research conference called Digestive Disease Week, a study was presented that looked into whether or not swapping spit with someone who had consumed gluten would make a person with celiac ill. This is obviously a really interesting question and pretty relevant, and the study kind of went viral, but not without criticism. The celiac community online has been sharing their thoughts on this study, including personal anecdotes of getting gluten after kissing someone. Often it's hard to say for certain why you've been gluten by something, but I wanted to break down this study so that you can feel empowered to understand research and make your own informed decisions. First, the study recruited 10 couples, which is certainly a small sample size. One partner had celiac disease and one did not. The partner who did not have celiac disease ate 10 crackers with a total of 60,000 parts per million of gluten. Foods that contain 20 parts per million of gluten or more are considered not safe on the gluten-free diet. Then they did two tests with saliva collection in between. For the first test, the couples waited five minutes after the gluten was eaten before kissing. For the second test, the partner who did not have celiac disease ate gluten and then drank 4 ounces of water before they started kissing. In the first test, gluten was detectable in the saliva of both kissers. Most of the partners who had celiac disease had less than 5 parts per million of gluten in their saliva. Though two exposures had more than 20 parts per million, including one with about 154 parts per million. The partner who did not have celiac disease and ate the gluten had a range of gluten from 19 parts per million to more than 2500 parts per million in their saliva. But when they drank 4 ounces of water before kissing, the amount of gluten in the saliva of the partner with celiac disease was always less than 20 parts per million. And there were no symptoms reported post-kiss by any of the study participants. Celiac disease has so many symptoms and people react very differently to different amounts of gluten, so again with such a small sample size, it's hard to say for sure. Information is power, and we want you to feel as empowered in making decisions about your health as possible. If you want to read our full patient-friendly breakdown of the study presentation, you can find it at the link in our bio or beyondceliac.org/research-news!