We work hard to avoid gluten exposure — period. Gluten exposure is what makes us sick and keeps us sick. The hard part is, we never truly know when we’ve been exposed. GIP testing can help, but that’s a whole other post.

Because we can’t be sure if our reactions are due to gluten exposure, we often blame everything on gluten. We analyze every detail. We ask a million questions to waitstaff. We pack up half the kitchen to take on vacation. We bring snacks for a month just to leave the house for a few hours. Every eye twitch, upset stomach, headache, or strange symptom becomes suspect.

We are constantly searching for the tiniest source of gluten exposure to explain our symptoms — and it is exhausting.

Here’s an example: I was on vacation with a friend whose child has celiac disease. On the long car ride home, I asked for a Snickers bar. The person handing it to me had just eaten a Twix without washing their hands. I opened the Snickers, held it by the wrapper, and ate it without a second thought. My friend asked, “Aren’t you worried about cross-contamination from their hands?”

No. I held the bar by the wrapper. My mouth never touched the wrapper. I wasn’t exposed. Even if the wrapper had been covered in crumbs, and I had rubbed it all over my hands before eating, the likelihood of consuming enough gluten to make me sick, damage my villi, or cause any harm at all is very low.

Someone posted today about using hair products containing gluten. They worried that touching their hair, then their mouth, could cause symptoms. This is extremely unlikely. The amount of gluten that might transfer from hair → hands → mouth is so small it’s not worth worrying about.

Some people will say they are “very sensitive.” And yes, sensitivity exists on a spectrum. But I also think many people don’t realize how much gluten exposure happens in everyday life — so they hyperfocus on tiny, unlikely sources. More often than not, those symptoms could be traced back to something eaten hours earlier.

The truth is, we are exposed to gluten in countless ways: at restaurants, on door handles, grocery carts, stadium seats, anywhere people eat and leave crumbs. Read my guide on managing restaurant risk.

If you step outside your gluten-free bubble, you’re being exposed to gluten. I’ll say this for the cheap seats — NOBODY is 100% gluten-free. It just isn’t possible in the modern world. Maybe if you lived on a farm, grew your own food, and controlled everything you ate — but for most of us, that isn’t realistic.

We still have to be vigilant. I’m not suggesting you let your guard down. But I am suggesting a more balanced approach to living gluten-free.

Focus on the big picture of gluten exposure rather than obsessing over tiny, unlikely risks that don’t meaningfully impact your health. Your job as a celiac patient is to manage your risk in a way that allows your villi to heal and lets you live a life that makes you happy.

Anyway, I’ll step off my soapbox now. I hope you understand my goal with this message. And if you want to dig deeper into this topic, check out what cross-contamination really looks like.