Why The Varied Reactions?

[jnifred]

I am asking this because last night I ate something and have NO IDEA what it was and I was SICK, gurlging stomach, nauseous, cramps like crazy, on the toilet but not going all night!!!! It was awful. I haven;t felt that bad in a long time!!! I still feel a little blech today, but just at food. I am almost afraid to eat, I've had popcorn and corn tortilla chips and juice mostly today.

I have eaten a very low gluten diet for years, without realizing it. I cut out all the rest in early November, had a few oops, with different reactions, some mild, some big, but not as bad as last night. I got mad over Christmas and ate a whole store bought cookie, got lethargic, crampy (although not as bad as last nignt) and had the big D for a day or so.

Drank about 1/2 cup beer while on the cruise last week without even thinking and was just a little gurgly and bloated for the evening, but nothing I couldn't deal with.

And then last night was hubby's b-day, made a huge dinner, there are only a few options as to what made me sick and they are so minor, I can't beleive I was as bad as I was. One choice is I made him a "real" cake, I made another for me to eat and I wonder if maybe some of his crumbs got on my cake. Second choice is that the prime rib I made (and was pre-seasoned) had something in it, like flavoring or etc. I checked the label before buying it, but did not notice anything that seemed out of the ordinary, and I only ate a few bites anyway, I prefered the crab legs and potato.

So it seems odd to me that a few bites of meat that may have been seasoned with something bad, or a slice of cake that may have had some gluten crumbs on it made me as sick as I was, especially since in the last several weeks, I have had a lot of gluten knowingly and not gotten that sick.

A friend suggested that MSG may have been the culprit, I don't know if it was in the meat or not, but is that even a possibility????

Thanks for any help anyone has to offer.....I am so confused by this. The differences in the reactions I get are so crazy, I just keep wondering if it IS all in my head!!!!!!!!

[glutenboy]

I've been trying to be gluten-free since last fall, with varying success. After Christmas I really cranked up my efforts and became more disciplined and careful about what I ate. Yet, I've still had a few very bad days.

My current daily gluten-free meals incorporate rice, meat that I've cooked, and sometimes eggs. I do miss my snack foods though, which used to be things like cookies or multigrain chips. So, I've been eating more potato and corn chips (known to be gluten-free). A few times I've cooked gluten-free cornbread too. This is all in the past three weeks.

I haven't been keeping a diary, but I've realized that my bad days over the past three weeks correlate to the days when I've had corn chips or cornbread. Days with potato chips don't seem as bad, but aren't really good either. So I think I've learned that in addition to gluten problems, I may have corn and/or nightshade problems. I'm going to do this week completely corn & nightshade free and see how it goes.

Clearly if you're eating popcorn to feel better you probably don't have corn problems, but perhaps you have another food issue (in addition to gluten) that you didn't realize before. Maybe take another look at that seasoning and the gluten-free cake mix to see if there are any other potential problem foods in there - nightshade, soy, etc.

Hope you feel better,

Dave

[Carriefaith]

I believe that beer is made from barley, so maybe you react differently to different types of grains. Therefore, maybe your reaction to wheat is worse than barley. I personally can have varying reactions to gluten. I think my reaction depends on the amount and the concentration of gluten.

[jnifred]

That's what I was wondering, if different types of gluten cause different reactions be it a difference in the severity, or just a difference in the type of reaction.

It makes sense I guess about the beer thing, but why didn't I get as severe of a reaction from that stupid cookie I ate a few weeks ago????? I really wonder what was in that meat, I may have to go find it at Sams and copy down all the ingredients again. Everything else I had that night was simple, nothing added.....

BTW....the cake was fine, I decided to try it again, and I didn't have any reaction like the other night. I am going NO WHERE near that leftover meat though.....YUCK!!! I felt trully AWFUL!!!!!

[CMCM]

I am asking this because last night I ate something and have NO IDEA what it was and I was SICK, gurlging stomach, nauseous, cramps like crazy, on the toilet but not going all night!!!! It was awful. I haven;t felt that bad in a long time!!! I still feel a little blech today, but just at food. I am almost afraid to eat, I've had popcorn and corn tortilla chips and juice mostly today.

I have eaten a very low gluten diet for years, without realizing it. I cut out all the rest in early November, had a few oops, with different reactions, some mild, some big, but not as bad as last night. I got mad over Christmas and ate a whole store bought cookie, got lethargic, crampy (although not as bad as last nignt) and had the big D for a day or so.

Drank about 1/2 cup beer while on the cruise last week without even thinking and was just a little gurgly and bloated for the evening, but nothing I couldn't deal with.

And then last night was hubby's b-day, made a huge dinner, there are only a few options as to what made me sick and they are so minor, I can't beleive I was as bad as I was. One choice is I made him a "real" cake, I made another for me to eat and I wonder if maybe some of his crumbs got on my cake. Second choice is that the prime rib I made (and was pre-seasoned) had something in it, like flavoring or etc. I checked the label before buying it, but did not notice anything that seemed out of the ordinary, and I only ate a few bites anyway, I prefered the crab legs and potato.

So it seems odd to me that a few bites of meat that may have been seasoned with something bad, or a slice of cake that may have had some gluten crumbs on it made me as sick as I was, especially since in the last several weeks, I have had a lot of gluten knowingly and not gotten that sick.

A friend suggested that MSG may have been the culprit, I don't know if it was in the meat or not, but is that even a possibility????

Thanks for any help anyone has to offer.....I am so confused by this. The differences in the reactions I get are so crazy, I just keep wondering if it IS all in my head!!!!!!!!

This is what drives me bonkers...the unpredictibility of reactions. I got my positive lab results back Jan. 18 and my son's birthday was Jan. 19. I made a big white cake for him, and being mad about the lab results I ate SEVERAL pieces of it. No ice cream because I KNOW ice cream will give me trouble. I also ate macaroni and cheese for dinner (my son's request for a birthday meal!!). Well, next day or two I felt kind of bad, some almost D, but nothing major. Just my usual low level feeling lousy. Then a day or two later I went to a Mongolian BBQ (where they say no MSG) and added a small amount of soy sauce mix to my food and got weak and had a couple of egg rolls. By the time I walked out the door of the restaurant I was bloated, felt lousy and had terrible stomach pains. Oddly enough, though, that stuff diminished over a couple of hours and my digestive system wasn't terribly messed up. Other times in the past I've eaten wheat, and several hours later I had such nausea I had to lay down for a couple of hours. Also the D episodes to go along with it. So go figure.....there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to any of it.

Of of the books I read said when you are eating gluten (or whatever) your body actually builds up a kind of adaptation to it (or maladaptation!). Even though it is doing damage to you, your body deals with it the best it can. I guess people reach a saturation point, though, and their bodies can no longer adapt and that's when the symptoms get really bad.

For myself, in the last few years I have minimized the gluten and dairy I would eat, but didn't entirely eliminate it. So perhaps when I had the big reactions, those were just periods of time when I'd been eating more than usual or something. Wish I knew...