For Those With Celiac Disease, You May Kiss Your Partner After They Eat Gluten

Test investigates whether the proteins that trigger celiac disease symptoms can be swapped via saliva.

By Paul Smaglik
May 5, 2025 8:45 PMMay 5, 2025 8:56 PM
Gluten shared kiss
(Image Credit: La Famiglia/Shutterstock)

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Great news for partners of celiac sufferers: you can kiss your partner without making them sick to their stomach. Since about 1 percent of the population has celiac disease and the symptoms can be dramatic, concern about inadvertent gluten transmission via kiss in not insignificant.

Many partners of people with the condition have expressed concern about inadvertently transferring gluten to their loved one via kiss. A new study, presented at DDW2025 (Digestive Disease Week) in San Diego should put those worries to rest. Although people have asked about the possibility, there was no hard science to back up any recommendations whether to kiss or not to kiss.

“Everyone worries about whether gluten is getting into their food at a restaurant, but no one really looked at what happens when you kiss afterwards,” Anne Lee, a professor at Columbia University and an author of the paper, said in a press release.

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