Celiac post Whole30

[Patronick328]

I couldn't find a good spot to put this in the after whole30 forum, so I figured I'd try here.

I finished my Whole30 on March 27. This past weekend I had bread for the first time and have had stomach pains and it appears either bloating or something as my stomach looks bigger than normal since then. Is it possible that I actually had a gluten allergy all along, but my body found a way to cope with it, but then not having any gluten for 40 days or so, my body is now saying that I may have an allergy?

[Melissa Urban]

Patronick, the Whole30 would not have created a gluten sensitivity. However, a few things happen after the Whole30. First, awareness is greatly increased. It's possible that gluten (or some of the other compounds in wheat, like fermentable carbohydrate) always made you feel pretty crappy, but you simply walked around feeling kind of crappy all the time, because that was your "norm."

Second, the body goes through changes during the Whole30 that can make the reintroduction period more unpleasant. When you're eating inflammatory, gut-disrupting foods, your digestive system changes to try to buffer the inflammation. Your mucosal layer builds up in the intestines, to try to protect the lining from inflammatory compounds. Your flora and fauna change. Your immune system is on high alert. When you remove these foods from your diet, your body gets to heal and recover. Flora and fauna die off, the extra mucosal layer sheds, and your immune system can "relax" a bit. So what do you think happens when you reintroduce those foods again? The body is simply not as well prepared to handle them! So you react more strongly than you did before the Whole30.

Finally, it's entirely possible that you've had gluten sensitivity all along, but your body managed to cope with it - and now that your body has changed and your awareness has increased, you are all too aware of the consequences of eating these foods. Regardless, I think it's clear that bread does your health some harm, and it's up to you to decide whether the effect you notice make bread and related products "worth it" going forward.

[Patronick328]

Melissa,

Thanks for the info. Do you think it'd be worth having tests done to see if there is some sort of gluten intolerance, or is my stomach basically telling me that without having to get pricked with needles?

[Emily]

I'm just curious--if you got the blood work and it was negative for the gluten intolerance, but bread still made you feel poorly, would you still eat bread?

If I was you, I would listen to my body and avoid the needles, but I hate needles!

[TheLazyCaveman]

Patronick, I agree with Emily here. If you know that gluten makes you feel crappy, and extra test isn't going to tell you much. Plus, issues with gluten are quite varied, and you could be anywhere from gluten sensitive, to wheat allergy, to full-blown Celiac. I wrote a piece for Whole9 about this topic: http://whole9life.com/2011/11/gluten-free-part-1/

Another thing to consider: a positive Celiac test leads to high insurance premiums, especially for life insurance.