A surefire way to know if gluten in your diet is problematic is to simply stop eating it for a brief period of time, and notice how you feel. If you see radical improvement in your mood, energy, or digestion, or your other seemingly—unrelated symptoms start to ease, you’ll have strong anecdotal evidence these foods aren’t good for you.
Three days is the minimum for this experiment. No wheat, barley, rye, and oat products. (Later you can try Irish oat groats, but due to the high level of cross-contamination with oat products, it’s best to omit them for the testing period). In three days’ time, most the gluten in your system should have been eliminated, and the small intestine will begin the initial stages of its regeneration process. Note that if your bowel evacuation is less than one complete stool per day, you may want to abstain from these foods up to five or six days to allow your body to more thoroughly cleanse itself of the offending substance.
For some, the results may be proof enough to live forevermore without gluten.
Others may elect to have a blood or stool analysis, checking both for true food allergies and inflammation markers. These are not always one hundred percent accurate, and the results may vary throughout one’s life based on a whole host of other factors, but it can be a good place to start. The first blood test I had said I had no allergy to wheat, yet other tests have contradicted this, and my symptoms lifted when I stopped eating it. This may be the case for many Celiacs, since gluten is not a true allergy, per se, but an immune-mediated intolerance.
Still others may not be convinced that cutting out these foods once and for all could be of benefit, or may not want to risk potential inaccuracy of allergy testing. These folks could abstain for 3 months from eating gluten, then gradually introduce these foods back into the diet one by one to identify the trigger, a process referred to as an “elimination diet”. Another route is a “rotation diet,” whereby gluten-containing foods are eaten only once to twice per week to give the body a break from the offending substance. This works best if the food is only of mild irritation to the body (again, judging by the severity of your symptoms).
However, not only are these processes tricky to manage, and require tremendous diligence, there’s no guarantee the symptoms won’t return when you reintroduce gluten into the diet. If you suspect you have Celiac Disease or other more serious gluten intolerance, do not go back to gluten. If this is the case, you may choose a gluten-free diet, or consult your healthcare provider about testing for food allergies and inflammation levels in the body.
Potential Food Allergy or Gluten Sensitivity Symptoms Include:
Headaches
Difficulty concentrating or remembering
Depression, anxiety, irritability, and mood disorders
Exhaustion and fatigue
Muscle weakness
Rashes, patches of itchy, flaky, or discolored skin, eczema
Chronic colds
Nausea
Diarrhea
Constipation
Gas and bloating
Asthma
Irregular or absent menstruation
Infertility and/or miscarriages
Joint pain
Thyroid imbalance
Other autoimmune diseases
Seizures
Nutritional deficiencies
Does any of this sound familiar? You don’t have to suffer anymore—you owe it to yourself to scrutinize gluten as a cause or contributor to your health problems!
Simply excluding gluten may not be so simple. If you’re confused about where to start, give me a call. It’s helpful to have a gluten-free guide.
