Gluten Symptom?

[FireMom]

I have had on-going intestinal turmoil and was just diagnosed as having celiac disease. Looking back, I am wondering if something else I've experienced often is actually a typical symptom of the disease - since celiac is about not absorbing nutrients.

I eat breakfast and often 60 - 90 minutes later get so hungry that I feel shaky and famished. At that point, I start eating everything in sight! (No blood tests have ever indicated diabetes or hypoglycemia.) This happens to my adult son too. Could it be that what I ate has just passed thru my system without any nutritional benefit so that my body is now doing whatever it takes to get my attention to give it more fuel?

I don't see "famished not long after eating" on the symptom list, but was sitting here thinking about my new diet lifestyle and remembered how this happens to me. Does this - or did this - happen to anyone else out there? Do you think it may be a celiac "red flag" kind of symptom? Or is it completely unrelated?

[MRM]

i think i know what your talking about. i could eat two servings of dinner and be hungry again an hour later. i'd still be full but had to eat more. i wouldn't gain weight either despite eating 2-3 serving of food within a few hours or each other. i couldn't go more then 2-3 hours without eating without getting the shakes from low blood sugar. i wouldn't really be hungry but my body needed nutrients.

all of that has gone away since going gluten free. i have to remind myself to eat now. there's been a few days where i went from 6am to 4pm on a gluten free waffle, banana and apples and peanut butter.

has your son been tested?

[FireMom]

Thanks for your input. My son hasn't been tested - but I called him with this info. Asked him to start watching what he's eating, see when his unexpected hunger strikes after eating and so on. I appreciate your input.

[WheatChef]

I think since going gluten free my appetite has changed. I used to be all consumed by hunger multiple times during the day. When the hunger started getting near it was like nothing else existed and the world itself would end if I didn't manage to chow down a table's worth of food. Back in middle school and high school I used to eat around 4 or so dinners each night (went up to 6 one night and felt like I almost ruptured my stomach) which I guess in retrospect was the main thing that kept me from getting stunted growth.

About 2 weeks into the gluten free diet I sat at my table staring at my plate for about half an hour trying to figure out what cosmic thing was wrong in the world. Finally realized I was simply experiencing satiety for possibly the first time in my life. I mean, I've felt physically full many times before with eating such large amounts but even when I was at the point where it felt like I might be tearing something internally I still felt hungry not even 10 minutes after eating.

I find myself now eating because I know that it's something I should do, not just to feed "the Hunger". I'm still getting used to the whole hungry/not-hungry thing though, it's weird having more than one setting.