New To This - Do Severity Of Symptoms

[kasia]

Hi Everyone

Sorry in advance for posting a question which may already have been answered (or is simply dumb!)

Was diagnosed about 2 weeks ago, & have been gluten-free for about 3 weeks. I am feeling much better but with the usual newbie lapses!

My question is this, if you (unknowingly) eat a large amount of gluten, will your reaction be more severe than eating a tiny amount or having gluten via cross contamination.

For example - I have eaten in restaurants twice since going gluten-free & think I have been glutened both times.

My symptoms are usually vomiting within 1-2 hours & then exhaustion & nausea the next day & then feeling better by day 3-4. The first time I ate out this happened, ending up in bed the next day. I think there may have been flour on the (frozen) roast potatoes I had & I ate at least 4!

Today, however I ate a cooked breakfast out and ate tinned tomatoes & baked beans (both gluten-free in their own containers with spoons), a fried egg & bacon. However the bacon was served with tongs that they also served the fried bread & sausage with - she did wipe them with a cloth for me - & they also cook toasted sandwiches on the hotplate that they fried my egg on.

After about 20 minutes I felt really nauseous & tired, & then about 2 hours later vomited. However I am now fine, & have managed to eat a huge gluten-free roast dinner. Could it be that I only had small amounts of gluten via CC which is why I was only briefly ill? Or perhaps I overloaded on fat (fried egg & bacon) & wasn't glutened at all?

Ho hum. I may know tomorrow I suppose if I feel dreadful!

This eating out gluten-free is a real challenge isn't it?

Any words of wisdom greatly apprecaited.

Thanks

Kate

[CarlaB]

Hi Kate -- you were glutened. I get severe symptoms from even a small amount of gluten. I do not eat breakfast out -- EVER! There's just too much room for contamination. The only exception is when we travel, and many times we stay in hotels where they make omelets -- it's very easy to stand there and ask them to use clean utensils and be sure you're getting a safe meal. Otherwise I travel with my own food.

Usually when I do eat out, I go to a place with a gluten-free menu. In fact, right now as I'm healing, I won't go there if they don't have a gluten-free menu. They are just not trained in the kitchen of a regular restaurant to not contaminate our food. I have successfully eaten at a restaurant and gotten plain food with no seasoning. When I did this, I spoke to the manager, who was sure the grill was cleaned and that nothing of mine got contaminated.

The hardest part of this diet to get used to was not eating out. My husband and I used to eat out all the time! We'd go to breakfast a couple days a week, lunch, too, then we'd go out on a "dinner date" and we'd take the kids out sometimes as well. We just couldn't keep doing this as restaurants are risky. I would cut back significantly on how often you do eat out. When you're eating foods that you prepare yourself, you just won't get glutened unless you make a mistake.

I don't eat a large amount of gluten, so I don't know if the reaction is worse or not ... but I do know I am sick for at least 8 days with a bit of contamination.

[brendygirl]

My doctor had me do a gluten challenge - where I had to eat a large quantity of gluten on purpose.

I noticed that my reactions differed with the TYPE of food I ate. Bread/pizza/cake/beer gives me severe back and leg pain. Other foods make me nauseous, bloated, and gassy. All of them give me D. Some give me brain fog and fatigue. I do not react at all to donuts or soy milk, which contain gluten.