gluten-free Diet

[wadaman]

I'm new to the forum and have questions in regard to a gluten free diet. It's very intimidating. Is it possible for some people (and hopefully me) to derive benifit from going low gluten? By that I mean avoiding obvious sources of gluten but consuming spices, using shampoos with gluten etc. I realize many people need to be extremely stict but are celiacs differnt in regard to sensitivity?

[ShayFL]

If you are Dx celiac, then you must strive for 100% gluten free. It sounds hard at first, but it gets easier. I am on my 5th week and able to relax and enjoy my food and life.

There are many mainstream products that are gluten free like Dove. So I have been buying Dove soaps and shampoos. Burts Bees has gluten free skincare, so I switched to those. Most toothpastes are gluten free.

This forum has a section on "gluten-free" products. Once you know what they are, you can just do a quick skim of the ingredients list before you put it in your cart to make sure nothing new has been added. Burt's Bees updates their "gluten-free" list often and it is dated and posted on their website.

You should try to be 100%. It is the only way you will know for sure that you can get better.

[LuvMoosic4life]

I was actually wondering that too. say I am not diagnosed with celiac and dont have the gene for it, but I know that eating gluten causes me problems (not quite as bad as many people here if only a small amount gets in my system) would it still be damaging to eat it in very small amounts??, not purposely, but for the sake of going out to eat, and say ordering something like grilled chicken that is more than likely grilled on the same grill as stuff with BBQ sauce..ect.....

[mandasmom]

I was actually wondering that too. say I am not diagnosed with celiac and dont have the gene for it, but I know that eating gluten causes me problems (not quite as bad as many people here if only a small amount gets in my system) would it still be damaging to eat it in very small amounts??, not purposely, but for the sake of going out to eat, and say ordering something like grilled chicken that is more than likely grilled on the same grill as stuff with BBQ sauce..ect.....

If you are a diagnosed celiac there really is no half way. Gluten free means Gluten free. There are some who do not have cleiac disease who are gluten sensitive..they mayt simply feel better with diets low in gluten. For these patients an occassional ingestion of gluten is not a problem. Celiacs need a completely free diet. Only those with DH need to worry about topical issues. For most celiacs the soap doeant matter unless you are eating it

[CeliacMom2008]

I'd like to chime in just to give you words of encouragement. As a Celiac, you have to be gluten free, but in time you'll see it isn't as bad as you might think now. Our family went gluten free when our son was diagnosed. Now I know there is a HUGE difference between my choice to eat gluten free food and my son't having to eat gluten free, but I can tell you I like the way we eat. I enjoy eating now more than I used to. And when I do have the occassional non-gluten free date night with my husband, I have truly found that old favorites don't taste as good as I remember or as good as what I make at home. But again, the psychological difference is huge (I don't want anyone to think I regard my eating the same as a Celiacs). I just wanted to you to know there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

As an example...I sampled a cake at a Celiac support group meeting (gluten free of course). I loved it. I made it for myself for Mother's Day. Now you could say that I made it for our family, but really no. It had tons of coconut in it (my son - the Celiac, remember - hates coconut), so I didn't give it a chance of being liked by the Celiac. Hy husband doesn't like cake, let alone white cake. Turns out everyone loved it ~ all 7 non-Celiacs and the one Celiac too!

You'll get there, just be patient and keep learning and experimenting. We've only been at this 5 months...

[ksymonds84]

If you are a diagnosed celiac there really is no half way. Gluten free means Gluten free. There are some who do not have cleiac disease who are gluten sensitive..they mayt simply feel better with diets low in gluten. For these patients an occassional ingestion of gluten is not a problem. Celiacs need a completely free diet. Only those with DH need to worry about topical issues. For most celiacs the soap doeant matter unless you are eating it

I totally agree with this post. If you don't have celiac and can ingest occasional gluten without problems then that would be a decision only you can make. For me, my body won't let me anymore. I was gluten lite for a couple of months before totally going gluten free. Once I removed all gluten (I used to just not eat obvious gluten such as bread and pasta and didn't worry about the rest) my body now reacts horribly to the tinest bit of gluten and I don't dare cheat anymore. I don't have DH (eczema though) but I do use gluten free shampoo and lotions because I have accidentally got shampoo in my mouth. With hand lotion I don't want to accidentally eat too soon after putting it on.

[Guest AutumnE]

I would focus on it completely you can do damage without any symptoms at all, celiac diagnosis or just gluten intolerant. I have read of a few who had negative blood work with positive biopsies. My cousin being one of them. Im not a *gold standard* celiac but I developed multiple health issues that wont improve and they basically have aged me since they are disorders commonly seen in much older people. Your health is nothing to risk, the long term effects can be devastating.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

I just want to add some large-scale perspective here.

Studies have shown that ingesting even 1/16 of a piece of bread daily is enough to cause intestinal damage, even in the absence of symptoms felt by the owner of the intestines!

So that means, you might not FEEL like you are being affected by tiny amounts of gluten, but those tiny amounts are doing measurable damage.

And in case you are thinking that it's only like, say, irritation to your tummy, consider this: things like diabetes, autoimmune thyroid disease, rheumatoid arthritis, bipolar disorder, peripheral neuropathy, lupus, and MS have been linked to gluten intolerance.

We know that it's possible for the immune system to be triggered BY GLUTEN to attack the skin--that's DH (dermatitis herpetiformis), and it's an automatic diagnosis of celiac, even with an all-clear intestinal biopsy. So it's not too big a stretch to understand that gluten can trigger the immune system to attack all kinds of things, not just your intestines. And some of the above-mentioned autoimmune disorders are DEVASTATING. How many of them are you willing to risk?

And for what? I mean, come on, if food means that much to you, you can learn how to make gluten-free versions of EVERYTHING you love. The premade gluten-free stuff you buy might not taste great, but the homemade versions taste every bit as good as the gluteny originals. THis website is a great source for recipes, and there are cookbooks written by geniuses, and gluten-free flour mixes that substitute cup-for-cup for regular flour in all your favorite recipes.

It's not that hard.

But if it makes you feel any better, I did cry for 2 days straight when I was first diagnosed, because I thought I'd never be able to eat any thing that tasted good ever again.

[babysteps]

People do have different levels of perceived sensitivity.

My cousin with positive bloodwork (but no biopsy, never did one) has a less extreme dietary reaction than I do (and my bloodwork was "normal"). But she is also allergic to wheat so her throat swells if she has any - good way to tell cc, but scary! My skin improved dramatically, and cc went down a lot, when I switched to all gluten-free personal care products. This was a hassle initially, but I feel so much better now.

I did the diet alone for about a month, then took another month to find all the personal care products, their ingredients, etc. I think I probably have a topical allergy to wheat. You may not.

My advice would be to stick to the diet 100%, then once you get the hang of that try shifting to gluten-free personal care items (via samples or just using home-recipes for shampoo for a week) and see if it makes a difference. Many celiacs have no trouble with gluten-containing topical/personal care items, you have to test it yourself to know for certain.

Good luck! And good health

[AliB]

Most people are affected by gluten to a lesser or greater degree whether they know it or not. Man has changed its biological structure from a simple protein molecule into a complex one that the body struggles to cope with. Some cope better than others.

For many of us it is not just gluten that is the problem, but carbohydrates in general. If our metabolism is structured in such a way that we need to be eating more protein and less carbs, yet our diet consists of the opposite then we throw the whole thing out of balance and it can't function properly.

I have always needed protein and have never coped with carbs very well, borne out by the fact that I went from having constant hypos, to becoming diabetic and since I discovered the Metabolic Typing Diet a few weeks ago and now understand why, I tailored my diet to suit an extreme protein type (which I am) and my body is beginning to sort itself out. Undoubtedly the over-ingestion of gluten-based foods loaded in to a body which could not cope with them - herded in to it by the accepted 'Western Diet' absolute glut of carb foodstuffs that smacks us in the face absolutely everywhere we go, almost certainly was the trigger for the hypos and the diabetes and the IBS and...........and.............

How I wish I had stuck to the much maligned 'low-carb' regimes that helped me feel well the only 2 times in my life, and not listened to those 'doubting Thomases'who denounced it as being 'bad' for us (no - its the low-fat, high carb current regime that is extremely bad for me!). If I had continued, not only would I have been avoiding most, if not all of the gluten, but I would also have lost the weight I have been dragging around most of my life and I may well have avoided becoming diabetic.

I do not know if I am Celiac or not. I do know I am VERY gluten intolerant (and dairy), so avoiding it is by far the best thing for me. It is horrible evil stuff that is behind so much of our 'Western' diseases. Where wheat goes, disease follows. Apart from obvious genetic discrepancies, name any degenerative so-called 'auto-immune' type disease and you can pretty much guarantee gluten is lurking in the background.

The damage it causes, either obvious or 'silent', sets the body up for other things to take over, like Candida, which then triggers its own problems. Along with the fatigue that has been plagueing me for the last 35 years Candida has been mithering away - it is only now since I dropped gluten, dairy, most carbs and sugar and re-jigged my diet for more protein, that I am finally starting to conquer the rotten little blighters!

Between the gluten and the Candida my body has suffered a lot of damage and although I am following the low-carb diet now it is proving much harder to lose the weight than it was when I first did it a few years ago.

If gluten is a problem then lose it. Even if there is a slight chance you have Celiac, don't risk it. It is not worth sacrificing your health over. Someone said that they would rather die than not have wheat - sadly, thousands like her have their wish fulfilled.