Accidently Eating Gluten?

[jayzeemomma]

I am just having a basic question. After eating gluten free for 2 or 3 months and feeling much better, what happens to the average person if they accidently eat gluten? do all the weird signs come back or because your body (intestines) are healing would a person just get a little of the weirdness they used to experience at the worst stage? I mean you don't go all the way back to square one if you accidently eat a little gluten (becuase it is so hidden sometimes I do not even know, but then a stomach ache will come later and I do not know what caused it). Hope this makes sense.

Thanks,

Lisa Heath

[jewi0008]

Hello!

Unfortunately, for me...I get 10X's worse reaction after avoiding it for a long period of time. I was doing so good...no gluten or anything for over a month. I got into it last weekend and I have been soooooo miserable this week. Stomach pain, c AND d and my mouth kills and teeth too!!!! Not fun. Don't do it!

[aikiducky]

It's pretty inevitable to sometimes get accidentally glutened, since the whole world isn't gluten free. You don't have to worry that you go right back to square one, but you do need to try to keep the glutenings to a minimum, because if it happens too often you will start to accumulate damage again.

The reaction might actually be more dramatic after a while gluten free, because your body isn't used to dealing with gluten daily any more. My experience, now three and a half years gluten free, is that at first I got much more sick from gluten than ever in my gluten eating days, but lately the reaction has gotten milder again.

Pauliina

[ksymonds84]

I am just having a basic question. After eating gluten free for 2 or 3 months and feeling much better, what happens to the average person if they accidently eat gluten? do all the weird signs come back or because your body (intestines) are healing would a person just get a little of the weirdness they used to experience at the worst stage? I mean you don't go all the way back to square one if you accidently eat a little gluten (becuase it is so hidden sometimes I do not even know, but then a stomach ache will come later and I do not know what caused it). Hope this makes sense.

Thanks,

Lisa Heath

Welcome Lisa!

I have only been gluten free for 4 months now and have made tons of stupid mistakes. It's a lot of learning! I found after two months of gluten free eating that the accidental misshaps caused me to be sicker than ever before. I think our bodies no longer put up with the offending gluten and say "no way" are you coming back! It's definately helped me be more diligent about reading labels and watching for cross contamination from wooden spoons etc. I bought my own toaster around the 2 month mark as well, so its all about learning. I don't think we are going back to square one though, we are healing everyday that we dont eat gluten. I've been keeping a food journal since the very beginning and it has helped me discover the mistakes I have made and lately pointed to the fact that I can't tolerate milk products (except for hard cheeses). So a food journal I think is a must for finding out whats going on if you have the time. Nothing fancy just a a plain notebook with columns about what you ate and how you felt. I write down everything that goes into my mouth. It is getting easier and I promise it will for you too! Hang out with us on the board its the best learning place that I have found!

[Geordie Tom]

I am just having a basic question. After eating gluten free for 2 or 3 months and feeling much better, what happens to the average person if they accidently eat gluten? do all the weird signs come back or because your body (intestines) are healing would a person just get a little of the weirdness they used to experience at the worst stage? I mean you don't go all the way back to square one if you accidently eat a little gluten (becuase it is so hidden sometimes I do not even know, but then a stomach ache will come later and I do not know what caused it). Hope this makes sense.

Thanks,

Lisa Heath

[Geordie Tom]

I'm a brand new member (all of ten minutes) and was searching the forum to see what kind of symptons coeliacs get after accidentally (or even deliberately) eating gluten. I have been diagnosed five years and generally cope pretty well on the gluten-free diet. However I have had severe stomach cramps and diarrhoea for the last three days and the only time I may have taken in gluten just before this was in a local Italian restaurant on Saturday night. They are always very careful about what they serve me and even advised against my first choice as they knew for certain that the sauce that came with the dish contained gluten. (By the way I didn't have pasta or pizza!) The trouble is how do I know that this latest bout of illness is down to accidentally taking in gluten or is it because of a bug? I had exactly the same problem eight weeks ago whilst in Rome (is there an Italian theme developing here?) despite being extremely careful in restaurants and always handing over my dietary card explaining what I can and can't eat. Any thoughts?

[ShayFL]

Tom you might be one of those that is very sensitive to even flour in the air. If they are making pizza and tossing flour around and the A/C picks it up and distributes into the air and you breath it in and get inside of you, you can react. Your food could be sitting there and the pizza prep person tosses some flour to shape some dough and some of the flour ends up on your plate. It is accidental. I am not certain I would pick Italian/Pizza places to eat or anywhere where loose four is about.

[Calicoe]

Welcome Lisa!

I have only been gluten free for 4 months now and have made tons of stupid mistakes. It's a lot of learning! I found after two months of gluten free eating that the accidental misshaps caused me to be sicker than ever before. I think our bodies no longer put up with the offending gluten and say "no way" are you coming back! It's definately helped me be more diligent about reading labels and watching for cross contamination from wooden spoons etc. I bought my own toaster around the 2 month mark as well, so its all about learning. I don't think we are going back to square one though, we are healing everyday that we dont eat gluten. I've been keeping a food journal since the very beginning and it has helped me discover the mistakes I have made and lately pointed to the fact that I can't tolerate milk products (except for hard cheeses). So a food journal I think is a must for finding out whats going on if you have the time. Nothing fancy just a a plain notebook with columns about what you ate and how you felt. I write down everything that goes into my mouth. It is getting easier and I promise it will for you too! Hang out with us on the board its the best learning place that I have found!

Yeah, that sounds pretty scary but possible, especially if you have been gluten-free for a long time. I just glutened myself today with a tiny speck of chinese black bean sauce in my stir fry that I momentarily forgot to check, and I felt significant symptoms today compared to the amount consumed (usual dullness and spaciness, slight background headache, blurred vision, and menstrual cramps, which were miraculously non-existent for the last couple of days). All of these symptoms have rendered me incapacitated in the past, so I am reminded of what I have left behind by staying away from the stuff.

In my inevitable brain fog, I grabbed for something else in my freezer and came up with these old tofutti ice cream sandwiches that were still hanging around. I took one out of the box, undid the wrapper, raised it to my lips and took the smallest of bites until the awake part of my brain jumped out from behind the chemical cloud. I checked the box, and yep, they went straight into the bin. Never did like those tofutti sandwiches anyway.