What Exactly Is Celiac?

[None]

So why is that when I eat gluten I become incredibly gassy, I begin to bloat and my stomach distends, and I give off this faint rotting odor? I get none of the psychological stuff (no more tired or emotional when I eat gluten to when I don't).

Somebody please explain to me what exactly gluten does to the intestines that causes bloating and gas.

Thanks

[Laura]

Well, I'm no scientist, and I'm just basically giving you my simplified and possibly not totally right version of what it says in Celiac Disease: A Hidden Epidemic (otherwise known as my new Bible).

So your small intestine is being damaged - the book describes it as being "much like what happens to skin that has been burned" so that "the intestine becomes permeable to substances that would not usually get absorbed, and the barrier to fluid loss is breached." As part of the intestinal damage, the villi, which provide a lot of the surface area to absorb nutrients, get eroded, and you don't absorb enough nutrients. The stuff that should have been absorbed makes its way downstream, and provide extra food for bacteria in the colon. So you end up with a colon full of sugar and fat and liquid, and bacteria feeding on all of that. End result: diarrhea and gas.

Like I say, this is a very uninformed translation of what I read and know I need to re-read.