Mistakenly Glutened - Very Little Reaction?

[GraemeH]

I've been diagnosed with Celiac's and gluten-free for three years now. Never had a slip up, though occasionally had a cross-contamination issue (usually eating out which doesn't happen often).

Yesterday the wife and I had a "date day" and went to a local restaurant for lunch. I ordered a nice seafood (mahi-mahi and shrimp) dish but for some reason I misread the ingredients and thought I was getting quinoa but instead it came with couscous. I was halfway through the meal when my wife's eyes widened and she asked, "Is that couscous???" I immediately stopped eating and spent the rest of the day being hard on myself for such a stupid oversight and waiting for the inevitable bad reactions.

But the reactions didn't come... at least to the degree I thought they would. The ONLY thing I got were very small, slight stomach pains/twitches. A few burps but overall no gas, bloating, severe nausea, headache, etc. My stomach today (24 hours later) is still a bit twitchy but not that bad. Nothing like the reactions I get when I am cross-contaminated.

I've done a bit of "research" on Google and found a few similar threads scattered around. One person did an experiment and found  that because they'd been gluten-free for so long that it took about two-weeks of eating gluten before their bad reactions hit. But I don't understand why I get severe reactions when I get a tiny bit of cross-contamination but yesterday I ate one cup (estimated) of couscous and hardly feel bad at all. I looked at the restaurant's allergy list and that item was "checked" having wheat so the couscous was definitely glutened.

I spent the last 7-days on the Atkins diet (low carbs, high protein and NO eggs [I can't eat eggs ... recently found I'm allergic to them]). This meal was the first in 7-days that had any significant carb in it. Also had a glass of red wine with lunch.

I've no doubt I've done damage internally and have forgiven myself for the slip-up. But I was curious to know if anyone else has ever experienced something similar to this?  I wonder if it had anything to do with the Atkins diet, but I can't see any logical correlation.

Thoughts?

[DougE]

Yup.  That happens to me.  Sometimes I am doubled over in pain and other times not.  I had ribs at a restaurant once.  They came out halfway through the meal in a panic.  It turns out the rib sauce was not gluten-free.  I went home and stocked my bathroom with lots of reading material, but nothing happened.

[GraemeH]

43 minutes ago, DougE said:

Yup.  That happens to me.  Sometimes I am doubled over in pain and other times not.  I had ribs at a restaurant once.  They came out halfway through the meal in a panic.  It turns out the rib sauce was not gluten-free.  I went home and stocked my bathroom with lots of reading material, but nothing happened.

Good to know I'm not alone in the mystery reaction/no reaction world. Thanks, DougE.

[notme]

i am 5 years gluten-free (celiac) and a couple of weeks ago i took a couple of big swigs of my daughter-in-law's regular gluten beer by accident.  i had mostly neuro issues but not the knock down i was expecting.  i hope this is proof that i am healing and diet is totally worth it.  i haven't been sick (cold, flu, virus, pneumonia, etc) in, like, 4 years, so i guess my immune system is working as it should.  i used to be ill all the time   especially fall/winter time.  it's nice to be able to enjoy the holidays  

[cap6]

This happened to me last week.  Last time I was glutened was 2 years ago and I was so sick I wanted to curl up & die.  Last week we ate out at out usual restaurant, I had my usual pasta dish and down at the bottom of the bowl was a wheat noodle.  I looked at that & felt the cold chills of fear!   Of course the manager was beside himself over how it could have happened, but long story short....I did not get sick.  I was a little extra tired and blah feeling the next day, but nothing I could point my finger at and say glutened!!    My only thought here is that maybe (I hope, I hope) my guts are finally healing.  Not that I would ever knowingly cheat, just, hooray that I am healing.