Question About Gluten And Hypoglycemia

[Monklady123]

So, something just struck me this morning, about breakfast. I always have loved cold cereal. But I knew that if I ate a bowl of cold cereal I would get this sudden hunger a couple of hours later. The sudden, shaky, sweaty, weak kind of hunger, where I had to eat something immediately. I always called it hypoglycemia, although I was never officially diagnosed with that. But I figured it was low blood sugar because of the spike from the breakfast. -- I could avoid that by eating something with fat and protein for breakfast -- peanut butter on toast, or egg. Now this was all before my gluten "adventure" (as one of my kids calls it).

Well, now that I've been gluten-free for several weeks something just hit me. Some mornings I've been eating a bowl of cinnamon chex. And I do not get that shaky hunger thing anymore. Not once! I just get ordinarily hungry at around lunch time. Now, why should this be? It's the same milk, same size bowl, even sort-of the same cereal (I used to eat chex sometimes). How does this relate to being gluten free? If it even does... maybe it's just a coincidence.

Anyway, I don't know enough yet about celiac to know exactly how the gluten affects our bodies (except for the symptoms I had) but I thought someone here might know if there's a connection.

[bluebonnet]

thank goodness for chex ... i love a cold bowl of cereal for breakfast or a snack! for me though, having a quick bowl of cereal will still leave me hungry a lot earlier than if i threw some good protein in there. but it may not be a coincidence because i have hypoglycemia and overeall i think its improved being gluten free. in fact, so so many things are improving!

[StephanieGF]

I was having problems with hypoglycemic moments (like what you described) before I went gluten free too. To me the connection between celicas and hypoglycemia is rather simple. You intake a moderate to high level of sugar (such as cereal and milk) and you body releases insulin, however, because your intestines are damaged and unable to absorb all of that sugar, the result is high insulin and then low blood sugar levels. Make it a high gluten meal, and your body really can't absorb the nutrients and the result is stronger. This theory is just something I came up with from my own experience.

[Glugle]

Interesting. I noticed before I went gluten-free that I was always getting really bad hunger pains and sometimes dizziness/low blood sugar feeling about 2-3 hours after eating. Of course I would eat something like a piece of bread to try to stop the feeling. I always felt worse. I later realized it was my gluten reaction. Since going gluten-free, I have never had that reaction, unless I accidentally ingested gluten.

[Monklady123]

This is really interesting! The insulin theory makes sense to me. I had mentioned the sudden shaky hunger thing to my doctor once and he said "oh, just eat protein and some fat for breakfast." It was a solution, but he never thought that gluten could have been the cause. Very interesting... -- And yes, thank GOODNESS for Chex! lol... I've been eating the cinnamon ones, but I've just heard that chocolate chex are also gluten free. Can't find them in my grocery store, so I'll be checking other stores. lol...

[foodiegurl]

Maybe I am the only one who feels the opposite, or maybe I just snacked more before?

I definitely can tell that if I add protein, like peanut butter, I can last longer, and if I have a bowl of cereal, I won't last very long...but I feel like my window of not having to eat is much shorter now than when I did eat gluten. I wonder why this is? I am not a meat eater, so maybe that is why, but I wasn't before either. I just had all my bloodwork done and that was all good, and my celiac numbers are negative too. I try to make sure I always have nuts or fruit on me.