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If I Cheat On My Gluten Free Diet, Could I Be More Likely To Get Type 1 Diabetes?


alicewa

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alicewa Contributor

If I cheat on my gluten free diet, could I be more likely to get type 1 diabetes?

I'm getting married this weekend and found out I'm celiac a few weeks ago and am already very tempted to eat a piece of the indulgent, robust and handsome looking wedding cake. I really didn't get too sick from gluten when I only had it once. It only was bad if I had it every day for several days.

But really I have a more important question:

Seeing as though both celiac and type 1 diabetes are autoimmune (and I have the genes for all of these conditions), I wondered if it is possible that this piece of cake that I plan on eating at the wedding on Thursday could possibly trigger my immune system to attack the pancreas???

I'm worried. My fianc

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ravenwoodglass Mentor

First off tell your fiance the news. It is vital that you are open with him about this for the sake of your marriage. For one thing it is genetic, strongly so, and that means if and when you have children they may develop celiac also. If you hide it and he later finds out you knew before the wedding it may affect the trust level between you. If he loves you he will cry with you and support you in doing all that needs to be done to keep you healthy. It is crushing news so close to your wedding day and I am sorry this has happened to you. While I doubt that one piece of cake is going to trigger Type 1 there is a chance that it may ruin your honeymoon. One option might be to make a gluten-free cake, Betty Crocker has mixes that could be used. Then you and your new husband can share that while the guests eat the formal cake.

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captaincrab55 Enthusiast

I'm worried. My fianc

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alicewa Contributor

Wow, your worried about eating the cake and you haven't told your future partner???? He needs to be told NOW !!!! Not telling now sounds like Grounds for divorce latter.. Just wonder if the rest of your meal is gluten free???

Good Luck on coming clean....

I've just told him! He knows others who have been and he was really understanding. He said he'd see what he could arrange with the baker, but if nothing could be done I'd be welcome to have a piece of the regular cake if I think it's ok.

Perhaps I could just do it this once? My likelihood of developing other autoimmune diseases is high according to my GI doctor so I'm really worried about it. :huh:

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captaincrab55 Enthusiast

I've just told him! He knows others who have been and he was really understanding. He said he'd see what he could arrange with the baker, but if nothing could be done I'd be welcome to have a piece of the regular cake if I think it's ok.

Great.... I'm sure you feel better on that front.... I wouldn't tell anyone to eat gluten once, but it's your call... If you do eat it, I hope it doesn't ruin your week after the Big Event...

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saintmaybe Collaborator

If I cheat on my gluten free diet, could I be more likely to get type 1 diabetes?

I'm getting married this weekend and found out I'm celiac a few weeks ago and am already very tempted to eat a piece of the indulgent, robust and handsome looking wedding cake. I really didn't get too sick from gluten when I only had it once. It only was bad if I had it every day for several days.

But really I have a more important question:

Seeing as though both celiac and type 1 diabetes are autoimmune (and I have the genes for all of these conditions), I wondered if it is possible that this piece of cake that I plan on eating at the wedding on Thursday could possibly trigger my immune system to attack the pancreas???

I'm worried. My fiancé does not yet know I have celiac disease! I'm doomed :( And it's too late to have the cake done gluten-free, as the baker informed me she isn't interested in gluten-free. My life is falling apart.. HELP!

Oh my lord, I am SO HAPPY and relieved you told your fiance about your celiac. It's such a huge, life changing diagnosis, I can't see how a marriage would work trying to hide that for any length of time. Plus why would you want to? I told my fiance right away, when I was diagnosed. In fact, he was the one who initially suggested Celiac (because he's a ridiculous genius in many areas of science). He has been an invaluable source of strength and support, and has not questioned me once, ever on anything I need to eat or not eat. In fact, he's yelled at ME when he thinks I'm eating something I shouldn't or taking unnecessary risks with my health.

The Type 1 Diabetes, alas, I know little about. If you're very concerned, maybe get your sugar levels checked at the Doctor's office? There's plenty of stuff marketed to celiacs that is so far from sugar free, it's not even funny. I think, you know, moderate your sugar intake like anything else. Like many autoimmune diseases, I don't think it's well understood what causes the onset of Type 1 Diabetes, since it has immune, genetic, and environmental factors at work.

Now- the baker. Get rid of her. You're the client, she's the baker. She's not "interested" in gluten free? Well, I'm not interested in a lot of things I do at work, and yet I do them anyway, especially when it comes to the health and safety of my customers. If you're paying, then you have the right to either pay extra, because a gluten free cake would cost more in actuality to make ingredients-wise, if that's the issue. Or you can take your business, and your big fat check, elsewhere.

Oh, also, keep in mind, if you've gone gluten free for any length of time, the tendency for most people is to get more sensitive. That is, they react to smaller and smaller doses of gluten over time. So, while a piece of cake may not have made you sick in the past, after a month Gluten-Free, it might be more than enough. Do you really want to run the risk of hightailing out of your reception to find the bathroom? <_<

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lovegrov Collaborator

Without reading any of the literature or researching it, my understanding is that people with Type I are more likely than most to have celiac, not that you're more likely to develop Type I if you have celiac. Glad you told your fiance.

richard

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Takala Enthusiast

Get a separate, smaller gluten free cake for yourself.

Should be an interesting honeymoon.

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kareng Grand Master

Many cities have gluten-free bakers. Google " City gluten free". And see if any turn up.

I can understand why the baker might not want to attempt gluten-free. Her kitchen & pans would not be safe. She couldn't make a really gluten-free cake. Maybe she would ice & decorate one that you made?

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srall Contributor

Cautionary tale: I went gluten and dairy free as part of a cleanse, because I'd been feeling like utter crapola for several years. After trying the diet for 2 weeks I thought that gluten was just too hard, so I kept testing it and kept getting sick. So, I decided that being gluten/dairy free was just the price I'd have to pay to feel wonderful. At that point I was willing to feel like getting out of bed most days. But I think my body was rejecting the gluten/dairy I could still sort of function.

Six weeks later we traveled to RI for a convention and brought our almost 7 year old along since it was her birthday weekend. We were at a hotel that really didn't have good options on the menu so I decided that I would just be gluten/dairy free when I was home and it was easy. My immune system went into full on attack. My joints were so swollen and I was in so much pain I could barely walk. I had a DH rash over my entire body...it was the worst on my butt...sorry but I thought for your honeymoon, well...you might want that to look nice. Oh...also on my face, neck and chest. On the day my daughter turned 7 her dad was at the convention and she watched cartoons in the hotel room all day while I slept. I could barely walk to the bathroom. I for the life of me don't know how I made it back home (3 planes...2 connections, one crabby child and me. I don't really remember that day).

I was in bed for 3 weeks, sleeping 16 hours a day.

I was completely shocked. I'd never had a reaction like that until my body was "clean."

Like Takala said, get a little gluten free cake for yourself, or forego it (you'll get used to this part of Celiac). I am not surprised your fiance is supportive. It's really not the worst diagnosis ever, even though it's overwhelming.

Best of luck to you. I would never be the one to tell you to cheat with gluten, BUT if you did, I wouldn't pick that time of your life.

eta: Both my mom and 40 year old brother have diabetes. My mom was a dietician who never drank, smoked, she ate healthy, exercised, but probably had undiagnosed gluten intolerance until she was in her 60's. My bro just wont' accept he needs to go gluten free even though he's been the sickest of the three of us. I'm 43 and tested for diabetes every year. Still okay...but numbers are high side of normal.

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alicewa Contributor

OUCH! Probably best to stick to the gluten-free diet!

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domesticactivist Collaborator

I'm so glad you told your fiance! If you haven't been gluten-free yet, the cake will probably give you the same reactions as before. But if you've been gluten-free the past couple weeks I really wouldn't want to chance it for my wedding night! Why chance ruining your honeymoon for a piece of cake, no matter how delicious?

I understand the baker not wanting to do gluten-free. Not only is her work space completely contaminated, but she probably doesn't know how to make a decent gluten-free cake!

My mom actually had all gluten-free cakes at her wedding, well before we knew gluten was a problem! The baker she chose for the beauty and taste of her cakes happened to be completely gluten-free. Of course, we live in Portland where there is a lot of selection.

If it is too late to find a competent gluten-free baker in your area, I'd go with the suggestions to bake up your own gluten-free cake and stick with the cake you have chosen - for the guests. If you can find a good gluten-free baker I would fire yours and switch. It's not like the baker was going to make your cake 2 weeks in advance :)

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Jenniferxgfx Contributor

I didn't know I had celiac when I got married, but I had chronic pain and GI issues that affected our honeymoon activities... While we expected them, if I'd known then what I'd known now, I'd have gone completely without cake if a gluten-free option wasn't available. Share and feed each other decadent beautiful berries, or chocolates, or anything but those fancy pants special order vegan cupcakes from Freed's in Vegas, which actually weren't very good cupcakes anyway.

That said, YOU are the bride and it is YOUR day with your husband to be. If they won't work around a health concern, in your shoes I'd either have a friend whip up some gluten-free cupcakes just for you and your future husband, or see if another baker would help you out. And I'd make sure everyone knew how inflexible an insensitive that baker was for your special day.

If I could have had my wedding and honeymoon without IBS, GERD, DH, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and sensory overload, I'd have been all over it. I had a wonderful time eating delicious gluteny food for that time, but a dietary inconvenience in exchange for even more quality time with my wonderful partner would have been well worth it. No food feels as good as my partners' companionship feels.

I'm glad you told your fianc

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Skylark Collaborator

OUCH! Probably best to stick to the gluten-free diet!

You couldn't pay me enough to risk messing up something like my wedding day with gluten. I didn't used to react so strongly. Now if I get into traces of gluten it's cramps diarrhea for the rest of the day.

Any chance you can get a family member to make you a cake from the Betty Crocker mix and put it out on the cake table at the wedding? Whole Foods also has frozen gluten-free cakes.

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ravenwoodglass Mentor

You couldn't pay me enough to risk messing up something like my wedding day with gluten. I didn't used to react so strongly. Now if I get into traces of gluten it's cramps diarrhea for the rest of the day.

Any chance you can get a family member to make you a cake from the Betty Crocker mix and put it out on the cake table at the wedding? Whole Foods also has frozen gluten-free cakes.

In addition to Whole Foods some Wegmans carry some really good and lovely premade gluten free cakes. They also make eating gluten free easy as they label all their gluten-free stuff with a circle G.

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Katrala Contributor

I'm gonna go against what others have said.

It's your wedding day.

You said you don't have extreme outward reactions.

If it were me in the same situation and I had just been diagnosed, I'd be eating my cake.

Now, if you're gluten-free for awhile before hand, you may have other reactions, etc. If you're not going to have outward reactions and this whole thing is new to you, it's not going to be the end of the world if you do. Even if it's only for those "feeding each other" pictures.

And for those that are upset at the baker, I don't blame her one bit. Baking gluten-free is a huge undertaking and the whole "customer is always right" thing goes out the window, IMO. I'd much rather a baker tell me upfront they aren't interested in doing it than tell me they will try and try to bake a cake in a gluten kitchen, etc. without really knowing what they are doing. Do you really expect a gluten-only baker to go buy new pans, etc. just to bake one customer's wedding cake?

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alicewa Contributor

Thanks for your replies. I was worried as my doctor told me to imagine that next croissant being my type 1 diabetes as he seems to think there's a connection.

From what I see elsewhere it seems like long term complications from celiac are unlikely on just one occasion. Especially if I only have one piece and since I was only diagnosed recently.

I think I'll stick to plan and have a piece of the rest of the wheat cake and enjoy it. I'll let you know how it all goes. :P

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sariesue Explorer

I was dx'd with wheat intolerance last year while planning my wedding, I bounced back and forth between having a gluten-free cake and meal for myself and just eating the meal I wanted. Since I hadn't gone 100% gluten-free yet and was only doing "gluten light" I figured one night wouldn't hurt. So I ate, the gluten cake my mom made, gluten pasta, bread, crab cakes, and pork gyozas plus drinking. I was so sick and out of it I don't remember my ride in the stretch limo to the airport, I felt like hell during the 12hr flights and the layovers, plus I was sick for most of my 2 week honeymoon. It's not worth it.

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GlutenFreeManna Rising Star

Thanks for your replies. I was worried as my doctor told me to imagine that next croissant being my type 1 diabetes as he seems to think there's a connection.

From what I see elsewhere it seems like long term complications from celiac are unlikely on just one occasion. Especially if I only have one piece and since I was only diagnosed recently.

I think I'll stick to plan and have a piece of the rest of the wheat cake and enjoy it. I'll let you know how it all goes. :P

Your dr probably told you this as a way to give you will power to avoid gluten. Most of us think of it as poison or think of the terrible diseases that other undiganosed family members suffered. Eating one piece of cake will probably not cause type 1 diabetes but cheating on your wedding day could make you sick enough you won't enjoy the honeymoon. Even if your symptoms were not bad before they may be much worse now that you have been gluten-free for a few weeks.

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pricklypear1971 Community Regular

Well, I don't know what the science says about untreated Celiac leading to Diabetes...but my genetic tests show me I am STRONGLY at risk of developing Diabetes.

Now, that wouldn't scare me except that one of my blood tests shows "prediabetic". That test may be showing that result from my iron anemia - which us why I must work to get it straightened out quickly...

Type 1 Diabetes is called an autoimmune disease, which can be triggered like any other autoimmune disease. My rounds of corticosteroids may have been the trigger...since my body was not regulating sugar after going on them (and coming off them).

I do know that I feel very odd when I eat gluten, have a DH breakout, or eat extreme salicylates (dyes, preservatives). That INCLUDES having a hard time regulating sugar.

So, if your doctor knows your genetics are skewed towards Diabetes (family history or genetic testing) s/he is very wise to warn you - Celiac itself is closely linked to Diabetes. Whether continuing to eat gluten contributes to Diabetes onset -who knows. We each have our own path with this

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ravenwoodglass Mentor

I just wanted to add congrats on the upcoming wedding. I do hope if you do choose to risk it with the cake that you don't have too severe of a reaction. If you do it might also be a good idea to make sure you have a pain reliever, some liquid name brand Pepto Bismal and some immodium with you on your honeymoon, just to be on the safe side. Hopefully you won't react badly but if you do it is best to be prepared.

Most of all have a great wedding day and many years of coming happiness.

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Reba32 Rookie

I'll also suggest a heating pad or hot water bottle to your honeymoon pain reliever kit.

I wouldn't suggest eating the cake at your wedding, or anything else with gluten in it. You've been off gluten for a while by then, and you will definitely have a more noticeable reaction than you have in the past before going gluten-free. You can bet on it. Why ruin what is supposed to be the best night of your life, and then also your honeymoon, just for one piece of cake?

Find a gluten free baker who will do a cake just for you and your soon-to-be husband. I'm sure they'd be able to match it to the other one.

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alicewa Contributor

I'll also suggest a heating pad or hot water bottle to your honeymoon pain reliever kit.

I wouldn't suggest eating the cake at your wedding, or anything else with gluten in it. You've been off gluten for a while by then, and you will definitely have a more noticeable reaction than you have in the past before going gluten-free. You can bet on it. Why ruin what is supposed to be the best night of your life, and then also your honeymoon, just for one piece of cake?

Find a gluten free baker who will do a cake just for you and your soon-to-be husband. I'm sure they'd be able to match it to the other one.

Aren't some hot water bottles filled with wheat?

I just can't not eat the cake. I want to have what everyone else is having :angry:

It's too late by now anyway. Usually my reactions are over within 12 hours. I don't think it would be more than 24-48 hours and we'll be flying over to Spain for the honeymoon 2 days later. Maybe I'll try and strengthen my immune system and be well rested before the day so I withstand the *attack* better. :huh:

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GlutenFreeManna Rising Star

Aren't some hot water bottles filled with wheat?

I just can't not eat the cake. I want to have what everyone else is having :angry:

It's too late by now anyway. Usually my reactions are over within 12 hours. I don't think it would be more than 24-48 hours and we'll be flying over to Spain for the honeymoon 2 days later. Maybe I'll try and strengthen my immune system and be well rested before the day so I withstand the *attack* better. :huh:

What we have been trying to explain is many people's reactions get WORSE the longer they are gluten-free. I really hope this is not the case for you if you cheat on your wedding day. I don't condone cheating but if you are determined to have regular cake on your wedding day perhaps your should cheat a week or two earlier than that once with a piece of cake to see how bad the reaction will be. Then decide if you really want to put yourself through that on a big important day. It's really not too late to get yourself a separate gluten-free cake just for you and hubby. They can taste every bit as good as regular gluteny cake. I reccommend Pamela's cake mixes to you. They are simply wonderful. Betty Crocker's good but the yellow cake mix is a little dry.

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srall Contributor

Aren't some hot water bottles filled with wheat?

I just can't not eat the cake. I want to have what everyone else is having :angry:

It's too late by now anyway. Usually my reactions are over within 12 hours. I don't think it would be more than 24-48 hours and we'll be flying over to Spain for the honeymoon 2 days later. Maybe I'll try and strengthen my immune system and be well rested before the day so I withstand the *attack* better. :huh:

I was going to let this go, because even after hearing other's experiences about their own weddings/honeymoons, or that first glutening after being gluten free I can see you are still determined to have the cake. I remember for MONTHS after going gluten free having to come to terms with a life without pizza or a cheeseburger ever again...at least not the way I wanted them. It's extremely overwhelming at first.

I just wanted to reiterate that I had a terrible rash over my whole body, slept constantly...and here's the big thing: Do not have any memory of much of the following weeks after being glutened for the first time after being "clean" for awhile. If I felt like I really needed to cheat, I would clear my schedule for a few days and have had it. I am sorry, I truly truly truly wish you the best of luck on your wedding and honeymoon, but I personally think you are taking a CRAZY risk

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