Jump to content
  • Welcome to Celiac.com!

    You have found your celiac tribe! Join us and ask questions in our forum, share your story, and connect with others.




  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A1):



    Celiac.com Sponsor (A1-M):


  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Our Content
    eNewsletter
    Donate

Aaaagghhh... Ginger Ale?


Em314

Recommended Posts

Em314 Explorer

I am starting to strongly suspect some of this refractory pain is from ginger ale- if I have not somehow managed to find the one brand of diet ginger ale in america that contains gluten (Stop and Shop store brand, diet, if you were curious), then I'm still too sensitive to deal with the acidity or something (if I have too much acidic food at once, it *will* hurt; I've known this for awhile). Went without it for awhile (got the flu and somehow lost the taste for soda as a result); today was my first day having a can of it. This is also the first time the pain's popped back up like this for a few days at least.

So, I'm eliminating that, and we'll see if I stop getting pain flareups that are suspiciously close in time to consuming said ginger ale.

Anyway; frustrated because it looks like I have found a food that "ought" to have been "safe" that seems not so much to be safe. Also, I hurt.

Kinda doubting even of a forum this large anyone else will pop up and say "OMG, I find that brand of soda also makes me hurt!" but if you're reading this and had the same reaction, please share.


Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):



Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):



kareng Grand Master

JUst because it bothers you, doesn't mean it has gluten. Some of the artificial sweeteners make my stomach hurt and bloat.

Opa3 Apprentice

Could be the carbonation (lots of bubbles) or the ????? acid. I know pepsi and coke have phosphoric acid in them. Soda is junk. Gave it up years ago.

IrishHeart Veteran

Ginger ale does not contain gluten.

I cannot drink any bubbly sodas. because I cannot handle all that sugar.... and if it is "diet" that fake sugar stuff is a direct run to the loo for me..

Best to stick with water for now.

Coryad Rookie

Yes I am wondering if its the fake sugar. I get major D and "blah" feeling if I eat or drink the fake stuff... gave up on soda, in all forms, a few years ago.

Em314 Explorer

The odd thing is I don't seem to have the same reaction to diet cola, though perhaps I'm wrong about that. I know ginger itself messes with me (best I can figure is years of classical conditioning being given ginger ale when sick; in its more concentrated forms, ginger actually nauseates me). I'll eliminate the ginger ale as a variable first, anyway.

psawyer Proficient

The odd thing is I don't seem to have the same reaction to diet cola, though perhaps I'm wrong about that. I know ginger itself messes with me (best I can figure is years of classical conditioning being given ginger ale when sick; in its more concentrated forms, ginger actually nauseates me). I'll eliminate the ginger ale as a variable first, anyway.

If you have a problem with ginger, then that would be a red flag to me for ginger ale. It is not what I would call concentrated, but it is present.


Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):



Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):



Takala Enthusiast

When in doubt, test yourself on the elemental form of an ingredient, in this case, you would take some fresh ginger root, wash it off, and grate it, perhaps brew it in plain water in the microwave in a cup, then try it with a form of sweetener that you know you can already tolerate. Then try carbonated water or club soda separately, the next day. If that works, you can put some ginger or ginger brew in club soda with a dash of cider vinegar or a big squeeze of fresh lemon, and sweetener to make "ginger ale," if you want to.

I had to quit "blue stuff" and "yellow stuff," the only artificial sweetener I can go near is "pink stuff," then there is stevia, honey, and agave.

  • 2 weeks later...
jeanzdyn Apprentice

I would like to suggest that maybe you should not drink soda, or anything else, out of aluminum cans. While your problems may well stem from the soda pop ingredients, they might also be connected to that aluminum can.

Long ago I found that I did not like the flavor of soda pop out of a can, but if it came out of a glass or plastic bottle the flavor seemed better to me.

The same with symptoms, some symptoms that occur when drinking liquids from a can did not occur when drinking the same brands of liquid from a glass or plastic container.

Em314 Explorer

Eliminating the ginger ale has eliminated the pain, btw. I doubt it was gluten; I think it was added the acidity not doing good things for my already-damaged insides, but may also have been the ginger. I still seem to tolerate diet cola just fine, but that may simply be the result of cutting back on soda overall by eliminating ginger ale (right now, I'm content knowing the change I made seems to be working/don't feel compelled to experiment).

dilettantesteph Collaborator

Just be sure to keep track of this. I had problems with all sorts of things, including some sodas. If I hadn't kept track I wouldn't have been able to get healthy. Sometimes you think that you will remember and you don't.

Good for you for noticing promptly and figuring it out.

  • 11 months later...
jeanzdyn Apprentice

This past November I was ill.  I had digestive system discomfort with severe nausea and I had dizzy spells.  I finally tracked down the one thing I had consumed that I did not use for many years prior to this event.....  chewing gum containing ASPARTAME.  

Aspartame is nasty stuff!!  I was so sick for so many days, accompanied with the dizzy spells, which become more severe as the days passed!!

I chewed gum on 3 separate occasions, and I spit it out after only an hour or so, but that was all it took!!  I was sick for the next 3 weeks.

 

I feel that many of these sensitivities and symptoms and issues may be heightened by being gluten free.  If you are gluten free your body can stop attacking itself because of the gluten and now it's attention becomes riveted to other things!!  Kind of like an unending nightmare.....

 

Anyway, BEWARE OF ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS!!!

NoGlutenCooties Contributor

This past November I was ill.  I had digestive system discomfort with severe nausea and I had dizzy spells.  I finally tracked down the one thing I had consumed that I did not use for many years prior to this event.....  chewing gum containing ASPARTAME.  

Aspartame is nasty stuff!!  I was so sick for so many days, accompanied with the dizzy spells, which become more severe as the days passed!!

I chewed gum on 3 separate occasions, and I spit it out after only an hour or so, but that was all it took!!  I was sick for the next 3 weeks.

 

I feel that many of these sensitivities and symptoms and issues may be heightened by being gluten free.  If you are gluten free your body can stop attacking itself because of the gluten and now it's attention becomes riveted to other things!!  Kind of like an unending nightmare.....

 

Anyway, BEWARE OF ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS!!!

 

Aspartame is evil stuff.  It gives me an almost immediate headache.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Celiac.com:
    Join eNewsletter
    Donate

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A17):
    Celiac.com Sponsor (A17):





    Celiac.com Sponsors (A17-M):




  • Recent Activity

    1. - trents replied to GlorietaKaro's topic in Super Sensitive People
      2

      Am I nuts?

    2. - lalan45 replied to xxnonamexx's topic in Post Diagnosis, Recovery & Treatment of Celiac Disease
      29

      My journey is it gluten or fiber?

    3. - Russ H posted a topic in Celiac Disease Pre-Diagnosis, Testing & Symptoms
      0

      Anti-endomysial Antibody (EMA) Testing

    4. - Scott Adams replied to JoJo0611's topic in Post Diagnosis, Recovery & Treatment of Celiac Disease
      1

      Just diagnosed today

    5. - Scott Adams replied to GlorietaKaro's topic in Super Sensitive People
      2

      Am I nuts?

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):
  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      132,805
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748

    lalan45
    Newest Member
    lalan45
    Joined
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):
  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      121.5k
    • Total Posts
      1m
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):
  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • trents
      Welcome to the celiac.com community, @GlorietaKaro! As Scott indicated, without formal testing for celiac disease, which would require you to have been consuming generous amounts of gluten daily for weeks, it would be not be possible to distinguish whether you have celiac disease or NCGS (Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivity). Their symptoms overlap. The difference being that celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder that damages the lining of the small bowel. We actually no more about celiac disease than we do about NCGS, the mechanism of the latter being more difficult to classify. There are specific antibody tests for celiac disease diagnosis and there is also the endoscopy/biopsy of the small bowel lining. Currently, there are no tests to diagnose NCGS. Celiac disease must first ruled out. Researchers are working on developing testing methods to diagnose celiac disease that do not require a "gluten challenge" which is just out of the question for so many because it poses serious, even life-threatening, health risks. But we aren't there yet.
    • lalan45
      That’s really frustrating, I’m sorry you went through that. High fiber can definitely cause sudden stomach issues, especially if your body isn’t used to it yet, but accidental gluten exposure can feel similar. Keeping a simple food/symptom journal and introducing new foods one at a time can really help you spot patterns. You’re already doing the right things with cleaning and separating baking—also watch shared toasters, cutting boards, and labels like “may contain.”
    • Russ H
      I thought this might be of interest regarding anti-EMA testing. Some labs use donated umbilical cord instead of monkey oesophagus. Some labs just provide a +ve/-ve test result but others provide a grade by testing progressively diluted blood sample. https://www.aesku.com/index.php/ifu-download/1367-ema-instruction-manual-en-1/file Fluorescence-labelled anti-tTG2 autoantibodies bind to endomysium (the thin layer around muscle fibres) forming a characteristic honeycomb pattern under the microscope - this is highly specific to coeliac disease. The binding site is extracellular tTG2 bound to fibronectin and collagen. Human or monkey derived endomysium is necessary because tTG2 from other mammals does not provide the right binding epitope. https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/26/3/1012
    • Scott Adams
      First, please know that receiving two diagnoses at once, especially one you've never heard of, is undoubtedly overwhelming. You are not alone in this. Your understanding is correct: both celiac disease and Mesenteric Panniculitis (MP) are considered to have autoimmune components. While having both is not extremely common, they can co-occur, as chronic inflammation from one autoimmune condition can sometimes be linked to or trigger other inflammatory responses in the body. MP, which involves inflammation of the fat tissue in the mesentery (the membrane that holds your intestines in place), is often discovered incidentally on scans, exactly as in your case. The fact that your medical team is already planning follow-up with a DEXA scan (to check bone density, common after a celiac diagnosis) and a repeat CT is a very proactive and prudent approach to monitoring your health. Many find that adhering strictly to the gluten-free diet for celiac disease helps manage overall inflammation, which may positively impact MP over time. It's completely normal to feel uncertain right now. Your next steps are to take this one day at a time, focus on the gluten-free diet as your primary treatment for celiac, and use your upcoming appointments to ask all your questions about MP and what the monitoring plan entails. This dual diagnosis is a lot to process, but it is also the starting point for a managed path forward to better health. This article has some detailed information on how to be 100% gluten-free, so it may be helpful (be sure to also read the comments section.):    
    • Scott Adams
      Your experience is absolutely valid, and you are not "nuts" or a "complete weirdo." What you are describing aligns with severe neurological manifestations of gluten sensitivity, which is a recognized, though less common, presentation. Conditions like gluten ataxia and peripheral neuropathy are documented in medical literature, where gluten triggers an autoimmune response that attacks the nervous system, leading to symptoms precisely like yours—loss of coordination, muscle weakness, fasciculations, and even numbness. The reaction you had from inhaling flour is a powerful testament to your extreme sensitivity. While celiac disease is commonly tested, non-celiac gluten sensitivity with neurological involvement is harder to diagnose, especially since many standard tests require ongoing gluten consumption, which you rightly fear could be dangerous. Seeking out a neurologist or gastroenterologist familiar with gluten-related disorders, or consulting a specialist at a major celiac research center, could provide more validation and possibly explore diagnostic options like specific antibody tests (e.g., anti-gliadin or transglutaminase 6 antibodies) that don't always require a gluten challenge. You are not alone; many individuals with severe reactivity navigate a world of invisible illness where their strict avoidance is a medical necessity, not a choice. Trust your body's signals—it has given you the most important diagnosis already.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

NOTICE: This site places This site places cookies on your device (Cookie settings). on your device. Continued use is acceptance of our Terms of Use, and Privacy Policy.