Reacting to certified gluten free foods.

[littleMrs]

I’m about 3 months back into a really clean diet. I’m getting sensitive to more and more foods, just like before. I’m reacting to most processed certified gluten free foods.

Any suggestions how to deal with this?

[Ennis-TX]

Some things I was sensitive to were resolved with digestive enzymes and changing up cooking methods on others. But in the end your best bet is a food elimination diet and finding the triggers and avoiding them for a bit. Many of my issues have gone away over the years with food intolerance issue, while others have stayed or cropped up.
You mention processed foods being the issues, there might be a common additive like xantham gum, added oils, or stabilizing agents that is bothering you. Try the ingredients in one of the offending foods by themselves to find the culprit? Are you fine with most whole foods as they are?

[littleMrs]

46 minutes ago, Ennis_TX said:

Some things I was sensitive to were resolved with digestive enzymes and changing up cooking methods on others. But in the end your best bet is a food elimination diet and finding the triggers and avoiding them for a bit. Many of my issues have gone away over the years with food intolerance issue, while others have stayed or cropped up.
You mention processed foods being the issues, there might be a common additive like xantham gum, added oils, or stabilizing agents that is bothering you. Try the ingredients in one of the offending foods by themselves to find the culprit? Are you fine with most whole foods as they are?

Yes, fresh foods are fine. Home cooking isn’t the issue. I’m skilled and careful. I’m sensitive to lactose, soy, sulfates, nitrates/nitrites, sugar/artificial sweeteners, anatto  and a few others.

I’m fine with gluten-free sausage and bacon, yet every type of lunch meat triggers a reaction. I’m struggling to give up more is the real issue, I guess.

[trents]

Many or most processed lunch meats use meat glue which, biochemically, is very similar to gluten. There has been a lot posted about meat glue on this forum lately and I would suggest using the forum topic search tool to bone up on it. Try switching to canned tuna and canned chicken and see if you don't get improvement. Or cook yourself a ground beef burger patty instead.

Edited June 17, 2021 by trents

[littleMrs]

Thank you, Trents! I’ll read up on that. Still learning how to navigate the site and search for specifics.

 I went back to gluten for a couple years and I’m remembering all the changes I had to make before. The suggestions you made were my solutions.

[trents]

Someone participating on the forum has corrected what I said about meat glue being biochemically similar to gluten. I guess what I said is technically incorrect but meat glue is very similar to the antibody involved in celiac inflammatory response and causes a similar reaction to gluten: 

""meat glue" is MICROBIAL TISSUE TRANSGLUTAMINASE---an enzyme derived from bacteria that is able to modify foods --it is not at all similar to gluten--but is similar to human tissue transglutaminase which, of course, plays a key role in the pathogenesis of celiac disease---which has lead some investigators---predominantly Aaron Lerner ---opposing viewsto speculate that it could contribute to to the disease in those so predisposed---as far as I know there is no evidence supporting this and there are opposing views"

[Scott Adams]

As @Ennis_TX mentioned, some people can be sensitive to the gums used in gluten-free foods, like xanthan gum:

 

[littleMrs]

Thank you all for your information! I’m not formally diagnosed with celiac disease. The doctor stopped at the positive blood test. Is it worth getting the diagnosis or sticking with lifestyle changes?

[Scott Adams]

This would have to be your call. The current trend if your blood test results are 10x normal is to diagnose without a biopsy. To me it sounds like you have your answer, and a formal diagnosis could make both life and health insurance more expensive, and harder to get, depending on which country you live in. 

Also, since ~12% of people are gluten sensitive and only ~1% have celiac disease, the current screening for celiac disease won't necessarily detect those in the gluten sensitive category, so negative tests for celiac disease may actually cause many sensitive people to keep eating gluten, when they really should not. Scientists are working on tests for non-celiac gluten sensitivity, but currently there are none available.

[Beverage]

On 6/17/2021 at 9:35 AM, littleMrs said:

Thank you all for your information! I’m not formally diagnosed with celiac disease. The doctor stopped at the positive blood test. Is it worth getting the diagnosis or sticking with lifestyle changes?

I have an official diagnosis from a naturopathic MD based on 3 things:  1) positive Celiac blood tests  2) positive DNA test 3) positive response to a gluten free diet.  This is medically sufficient for a diagnosis, biopsy is NOT required.  In the past, it was considered the "gold standard", but it is not conclusive when negative, and the medical community is very gradually getting away from it.

Of course, your doc may not agree with this.  Then you would have to decide to just go gluten free on your own, but I would get a different doctor, look for a naturopathic MD or functional medicine doctor, these would be more open to diagnosis without the biopsy.

And frankly, I had much better results finding various vitamin deficiencies that plagued me since diagnosis, from the naturopath. Traditional doc just wanted to prescribe me a life time of steroids for severe asthma that developed, that I reacted with super high blood pressure, that they just prescribed more and more blood pressure meds, til I finally got so messed up, my kidneys were failing.  I listened to KnittyKitty here on the board about B vits (I discovered I had a thiamine deficiency and regular B1 was not sufficient, I needed to take the benfothiamine form), and working with the naturopath, finally got relief from hourly inhaler usage to once a day after exercise.  

So I recommend going forward with a naturopathic MD or functional medicine MD.