Kissing With Celiac Disease

How should I bring up I might get glutened from someone?

Photo by Kaja Reichardt on Unsplash.

Since being diagnosed with celiac disease about four months ago, my family has all worked to try to provide a safe, gluten-free environment at home. Recently, my sibling even thoughtfully asked me if they could kiss me on the cheek if they had gluten on their lips.

Such a question might sound silly, but I appreciated the care. And given the aggression just the slightest particle of gluten can have on my small intestine, it really was a question worth asking.

I Googled it just in case, learning in the tangential search results that even make-up and toothpaste have to be gluten-free for people with celiac disease.

But a more relevant result? Kissing someone on the lips can potentially be dangerous.

My dietitian told me the amount of gluten you ingest is proportional to the amount of damage your small intestine suffers, so a little bit of contamination would not inherently be the end of the world, but over time, lots of “small” encounters could accumulate in something worse. The longer you’ve been without gluten, the worse your reaction is when ingesting it, too.

It shouldn’t have been a surprise. If just putting a gluten-free bagel on a toaster oven rack that’s touched gluten…