What Are Your Experiences With Accidentally Ingesting Gluten?

[MegRie]

My husband and I traveled 17 hours away from home for Christmas and were gone for a week. I did great staying on my diet until the very last day. We were on our way back home and had been in the car for 9 hours and I was quite hungry. We decided to stop at BK. They are fry their fries in a designated fryer, I also figured I could get a HB with no bun. Well this place was absolutely disgusting (it was one in Memphis, Tn.)

The workers made a huge fuss about "What!? A hamburger with no bun? They don't want a bun? How are we supposed to do that?". I was watching as they made the burger and realized it was going to contain gluten from the obvious cross contamination. But when you've been on the road for 9 hours and your hungry you sometimes make bad decisions. Which is what I did:(

It has been 4 days since I ate that dang thing and I just don't feel much better at all. Really bad nausea, headaches, upset stomach, and a terrible brain fog set in today, I'm tired, and I have no energy. Every time I eat I get nauseous and my headache comes back.

Has anyone else experienced this? How long did it last? Any ideas on how to recover more quickly?

Thanks,

Megan

[Mari]

Since it was such a small amount of gluten, my experience is that the symptoms clear up in a day or two so it is possible that something else is also going on. The most likely is that the hamburger contained a bacteria which caused the intestinal upset. Meat, and especially hamburger, must be cooked for at least 20 min to kill off bacteria and parasites. These enteric organisms may not show up on a stool culture or exam but even in small numbers they can produce enough toxins to cause symptoms. If the reaction was within an hour or so the toxin probably was in the food or you had an allergic reaction. This should have cleared up by now. Drs can treat the toxin producing organisms but first they have to identify the organism responsible. There are some herbs which might help clear this up. I have used turmeric (recipies online), human safe iodine solution, added probiotics to my diet, taken betaine-Cl to increase stomach acids.

[MelindaLee]

My first couple episode of gluten (by cc) took longer to clear up than now if I get just a small amount. I would hope you are feeling better soon. Don't avoid eating right now, just make sure it's as simple as possible. It seems to me that to keep it "moving" through your digestive tract has helped me feel better. I would also suggest yogurt (assuming no issues with dairy)just incase it's something else...yogurt helps to add those helpful bacteria to your system. Drink lots of water, too! Good luck! And WELCOME!