Low Stomach Acidity & A Bit Extra To Ask

[Jujbe]

I'm newly diagnosed & have been gluten-free for 1 1/2 weeks. I was very surprised at how fast my stools returned to normal & how much my gas was cut back. I'm not nearly as bad as others here who are very gluten-intolerant. My symptoms were milder than many. But one thing I read on celiac sites is that stomach acid can be low & mine definitely is. I could burp up food (or the very rare times I've thrown up) & it was never even slightly acidic in my mouth. I have never ever had heartburn - don't really know how it feels.

Before I had any idea that gluten was a problem for me, I bought betaine HCl capsules to help with my low stomach acid. They also contain pepsin. I'm curious if stomach acid level will return to normal for me since celiac affects the small intestine only from what I've read - no effects on the stomach. Would I need to continue my capsules & if so, for how long? I've got no way or judging if my acid returns to normal as it's been years since I vomited & don't feel like forcing it just to check.

Also, some foods really seem to give me gas even without any gluten or wheat in them. Onions are one of them - raw or cooked, even a tiny amount. Yet soups, stews & Chinese foods without some onion taste so blah. Have others found that certain fruits & vegetables give them lots of gas too & if so, why? How does a gluten-intolerance make one more sensitive to natural unprocessed foods? Milk, eggs & soy, thankfully don't cause problems. I checked. But good plain fruits & veggies sometimes do. With spring coming up, I'm looking forward to eating fresh strawberries, cherries, etc but boy! do they ever make me gassy if I eat more than a few. (And excuse this comment in case it's too much info - but my gas smells just like the fruit only horribly mutated.) Does any of this make sense?

[Ursa Major]

At the beginning while just starting to heal, you may simply not be able yet to digest anything raw, be it fruit or vegetable. I was unable to eat raw food for six months at the beginning. Try cooking your fruits to see if it makes a difference.

Dairy is known to cause gas, and it is recommended to eliminate dairy for the first few months on the gluten-free diet to heal faster. The same goes for soy. Even if you don't think they cause problems, they could be the cause for some of the trouble.

Try using shallots instead of onions for a while, they are much milder and easier to digest.

[ThatlldoGyp]

Ursa, you are so great. I always learn something with each of your postings. I wish I could just hug you!

sorry asker, back to your question, lol! I also had a ton of trouble when I first started gluten-free with fruits and veggies. Try doing the elimination diet. For your fruit, start with bananas and go from there. It will set your starting my new diet parameters and really helps you pinpoint what is causing issues and what is "safe". I added 1 item per week and built my diet off of that. Think whole foods for maximum nutrition and low chance of cross contamination and cooked veggies, they are so much easier to digest than raw. Ursa's advice on the onions is right on. You may want to consider chives as well for flavor. Easy to grow and best when cut fresh from the garden!

Congrats on your diagnosis and happy healing!

I would really talk to your doctor about your low acid situation. But if you feel good, then don't rock the boat right now. Tiny changes can really throw you for a loop. If you don't need the enzyme, I drink Raspberry Shrub from Tait farm to get a yummy acidic drink with the benefits of the berry. go here:

Open Original Shared Link

I love their products, but be careful. Their soy has undeclared wheat.. at least it did a while back. I brought it to their attention and I am sure they will change the labels asap.

[Jujbe]

At the beginning while just starting to heal, you may simply not be able yet to digest anything raw, be it fruit or vegetable. I was unable to eat raw food for six months at the beginning. Try cooking your fruits to see if it makes a difference.

Dairy is known to cause gas, and it is recommended to eliminate dairy for the first few months on the gluten-free diet to heal faster. The same goes for soy. Even if you don't think they cause problems, they could be the cause for some of the trouble.

Try using shallots instead of onions for a while, they are much milder and easier to digest.

Thanks, Ursa. I'm sorry that I just saw your reply. I saw that I hadn't clicked email notification of replies but have now.

I don't eat raw foods. Somehow I had it figured before. My body seems to be fairly good at telling me what was good for it & not (except for gluten but then I ate that daily, no off times for my body to compare to). I know raw was always felt to be healthier but it seemed harder for me to digest. My salads consist of lightly cooked vegetables (not hard but not soft either) dressed with simple rice vinegar & oil & a bit of safe seasonings like garlic or fresh herbs I grow. I'm not a big fruit fan & prefer my veggies. I'd eat fruit cooked with some (gluten containing) crumble or cobbler on top as desserts sometimes.

I've been using spring onions (green) instead & only a little but any type of onion, even a bit, will cause some gas. I can understand your ideas about milk & soy too. Must admit (I know - you give good advice & I don't want to ignore it) that giving up all milk would be so hard. I love a couple cups of hot tea with milk. Hate the taste without. Tea with milk is the reason I get up in the morning.

Bit extra to ask though - does a person who basically just presented with DH & not overt GI symptoms always have some damage to their villi? And how does one know when it's healed & your body can handle other foods better?

Thanks for your answer. I really am going to think long & hard about the milk part. Am loathe to stop all milk but maybe cut way back to only a little? I'd rather give up the onions!

- - - - -

And thank you too, That'lldoGyp. Oh, I have a fairly good idea what sort of fruits or veggies bother me! Bananas? Oh, I love them but they don't love me. Gas, gas, GAS! So I don't eat bananas. Maybe if they were cooked but I don't like them cooked. I can eat a half orange okay. No raw apples ever! Blueberries are great for me, raw or cooked. They never make me gassy & don't make me loose like most fruit does. Raw strawberries & cherries are a problem too. I can eat dragonfruit. Thought it might be a problem but isn't. Same with raw kiwi but it has a protein digesting enzyme in it so maybe that's why it's okay. Rarely eat lettuce - maybe a few times a year. It would be nice if I could eat it again in the future when things are healed.

Since I make & cook almost everything I eat from scratch, I tend to eat whole foods most of the time. Less work & I enjoy the taste or simple vegetables or meat prepared like that. Mind you, I also love Asian & Indian cooking that I do but that will have to wait till the future when I'm healed. I make soups too from scratch - buy the bones & make my own stock. Just no more barley or noodles added to soups. But that's okay. I can add rice noodles.

Perhaps 'cause I ate healthy & simply with no refined or ready-made foods, plus I took supplements like methylcobalamin (B12) & other B vitamins, magnesium citrate, vitamin D, salmon oil caps, etc, I don't have any nutritional problems often associated with GI. Not anemic, strong bones (I've had a couple of nasty falls on to concrete & was fine). I considered myself feeling well for the most part so I'm curious to see how much better I may feel 1/2 to 1 year from now with no gluten & fully healed (I hope). Thank you for your insight!

P.S. Got LOTS of chives - am always digging them up & giving some away. I take great pride in my herb garden & grow what I need for the most part.

[awwashburn]

Jujbe- What ended up happening with you? This is the first time I've heard someone describe the "stopping gluten then having trouble with veggies" scenario! This happened to me a year ago and I was so surprised. Onion is the worst. Bananas and tomatoes are about the only fruits that don't cause me to get bloated/gassy. Spinach and other "soft-leaved" lettuces also go down well. But almost every other veggie is hit and miss, which is hard because I used to eat primarily veggies! I was vegetarian for 20 years but now with having to avoid gluten and onions I started to eat meat (because it was hard to eat out and I got low iron once I started the gluten free diet)! Dairy and meat ALWAYS go down well for me. Nuts are fine sometimes and not others. I started to think maybe I was a fructose malabsorber due to the fruit reactions (apples) or fructan malabsorber (onion and wheat) but it doesn't fit perfectly. I recently read about low stomach acid. Do all low stomach acid people have issues with proteins and fats? Do they ever have issues with fruit or veggies? I did the "baking soda" test and "Betaine-HCL tablet" test and never had any reactions, which apparently means I'm low stomach acid? Thanks- sorry for rambling- was just excited that you mentioned all 3 issues I've been wondering about (gluten, veggies, stomach acid). Audrey

[sa1937]

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