Quick Gluten Free Diet Test Question

[Nen]

After the holidays I am going to do a gluten free trial just to see what happens.

I was wondering, is it absolutely necessary to cook with all different pots/pans/utensils, or will I still be able to see if there is a difference still using utensils that have touched gluten food as long as I am not directly eating gluten anymore myself (ie a slice of bread and food like that)?

Do I need that extreme level of sterilization yet, or will just me not downing gluten food anymore allow me to see a difference enough to know if there is a problem or not with gluten?

[domesticactivist]

Some people do see a difference but others don't without eliminating cross contamination. You could try gluten-lite,then, if the results aren't clear, buy a couple cheap utensils and cookware and see if that makes a difference.

Your old stainless steel and glazed crocks should be fine, so if you have them you could just make do with them for your trial.

[Skylark]

First, have you been tested for celiac? You must be eating a normal diet for the tests to work.

When I first went gluten-free, I just scrubbed everything well. The only things I avoided were my toaster (you can't get all the crumbs out of the vertical kind) and my bread cutting board with the crumb catcher. I felt a lot better so then I got to replacing wooden spoons, cutting boards, my toaster, and some old baking tins that wouldn't scrub clean. I gave away my seasoned cast iron pan and got a new one because it's hard to get gluten out of the seasoning. It was all stuff that needed replaced anyway to be honest, except the frying pan.

[Nen]

No I haven't been tested, but I figured this would be the cheaper and more fail-proof route.

Thanks for the replies, I'll have to see how it goes.

[Skylark]

No I haven't been tested, but I figured this would be the cheaper and more fail-proof route.

Cheaper, yes. Thing is if you discover gluten is a problem you have to poison yourself for three months to go back and be tested to know for sure whether you are celiac. Otherwise you will always wonder how dangerous CC is; the consequences if you just have one of those Christmas cookies. Most of us react more strongly after being gluten-free for a while so the challenge can be unpleasant, and even dangerous.

[Lisa]

No I haven't been tested, but I figured this would be the cheaper and more fail-proof route.

Thanks for the replies, I'll have to see how it goes.

The diet can be tricky! Make sure you do your homework, before you declare it a success or failure. Few things are fail proof.

I would suggest you do a lot of reading here. Good luck to you.

[domesticactivist]

I've got to agree with Skylark's post, and add a bit to it.

We are very confident that my son has celiac disease based on clinical evidence. Even if he isn't celiac (defined narrowly as an autoimmune reaction, caused by exposure to gluten, that damages the villi in the small intestine and/or causes dermatitis herpitiformis) he absolutely can not be exposed to gluten without serious problems. We went gluten-free for his joint problems then discovered a range of other symptoms cleared as well. We decided to test him for celiac and found out it was too late - he'd been off gluten and his symptoms at even the slightest exposure ruled out doing a proper challenge. We did a genetic test which did show a celiac risk factor and that with his symptoms was good enough for us to decide to "act as if" we were sure it was celiac. This has meant being extremely vigilant about cross contamination.

At first I was not bothered by this, but then I found out that celiac people really should undergo regular annual screening to make sure they are compliant with the diet and check for malabsorption issues, etc. We are about to do his first blood test, which fortunately our doctor did agree to. Many doctors wouldn't, in the absence of an official diagnosis.

On top of that, when the results come back we'll have some puzzling to do. If he does test positive for gluten exposure, we'll have to wonder - are these numbers much lower than he originally had, meaning we are compliant but he is still healing? Or are they about the same and showing that we are not being nearly careful enough?

I am now in that boat. It honestly didn't occur to me when I went gluten-free that there was ANY chance that I have celiac disease. I just figured it would make everything easier if the whole family was on the same diet. Over the course of the year I've been gluten-free and also on GAPS for 9 months of that, I've realized that:

1. I have gut issues that I hadn't previously acknowledged

2. I have other food sensitivities common to many celiac people, which I hadn't previously acknowledged

3. I contributed to my son's genetic risk for celiac

4. Many of my health issues are dramatically improved by our dietary changes

However, at the same time it has become more difficult for me to stick to being completely free of cross-contamination in every situation. If I don't have celiac and don't notice symptoms upon getting a bit of gluten, then it's really ok to get a bit of cross-contamination. However, now I don't know whether that's the case.

So now I'm about to embark on a gluten challenge and testing. I have no idea if it's going to be miserable or not, but if it is I'll sure be sorry I didn't just get a simple blood test last year!

[Nen]

Hmm, so maybe it would just be easier to try to get a blood test first (while on gluten) to see?

The only hang ups would be trying to convince my doc to even test for it, and if say I did manage to get the test and it came out negative then I might just be completely written off and no doc would bother to try to test again, even though they often come out with false negatives. Doctors are funny like that.

[Skylark]

Hmm, so maybe it would just be easier to try to get a blood test first (while on gluten) to see?

The only hang ups would be trying to convince my doc to even test for it, and if say I did manage to get the test and it came out negative then I might just be completely written off and no doc would bother to try to test again, even though they often come out with false negatives. Doctors are funny like that.

If you have GI trouble, getting the test shouldn't be too hard. Another option is to pick up a celiac home test kit. Open Original Shared Link They will ship to the US for personal use.

Yes, your doctor may "write you off" with a negative result. It's OK because you do not need a doctor's help or permission to be on the diet. Thing is, if you're celiac and have enough autoimmunity that there are antibodies in your blood, you really, really need to know.