How soon after reintroducing non-compliant food will you notice an effect?

[ShellPT]

I reintroduced dairy and did not seem to have any huge issues although I did notice some congestion. On Day 4, I had some gluten, not much but a pretzel stick. The following evening, I had the worse stomach cramps ever! I did have some milk in my coffee earlier that day so I am not sure what was the cause. Today, my stomach still hurts and every time I eat, it becomes aggravated. I use to get this same exact stomach pain before starting my Whole30. I know I had two things back to back and may make it difficult to figure out which item it was. Is it best to give it a few days and then try gluten again? I don't plan on having gluten as a huge part of my diet but if it is the cause of the reaction, I want to avoid it at all costs. Any suggestions?

[Tom Denham]

I would expect you to have a reaction to gluten faster than almost 24 hours later if it is a problem for you, but following the Whole30 plan for about 3 days to reset and then trying more gluten by itself is a good plan. The problem could be dairy and maybe it took two doses to accumulate to produce stomach cramps. If you don't get a reaction to gluten after 2 days, I would try dairy again.

[pjena]

Good advice. I'm finding that this phase (reintro) is harder than the W30! It's so hard to tell what is caused by what and it's easy to overanalyze and attribute things to food that could have nothing to do with food. It's hard! I'm not sure if yogurt caused the slight handswelling or if the finally warm weather and a long walk caused it. If yogurt caused some stomach bloating or if eating too much sunbutter caused it. If yogurt caused me to get a coldsore or if the long walk in the sun, my monthly cycle, the cold I have right now, or something else caused it. I'm going to do as Tom suggested and go back to W30 for a few days and try dairy again later.

[Moluv]

I made a huge mess of my reintros. I went from following the IBS/AIP to eating eggs, nightshades, nuts, and dairy in one week with no "scientific integrity" at all. I have around a 3 day lag time for the worst part of the reaction. Sometimes I get really tired and muscle weak immediately after something (eggs) whereas dairy doesn't make me feel bad until it is on it's way out of my body, then I don't have physical symptoms as much as emotional/stress ones. Sometimes I think I will re-test in a more systematic way, but then, deep down, I already know these things aren't doing me any favors beyond flavor.

[ShellPT]

I would expect you to have a reaction to gluten faster than almost 24 hours later if it is a problem for you, but following the Whole30 plan for about 3 days to reset and then trying more gluten by itself is a good plan. The problem could be dairy and maybe it took two doses to accumulate to produce stomach cramps. If you don't get a reaction to gluten after 2 days, I would try dairy again.

Thank you, Tom! I have gone back to following the Whole30 plan just to feel somewhat normal again. I will try the gluten by itself and then the dairy if I don't have a reaction after 2 days. Maybe the problem is dairy and takes a little longer for me to have a reaction.

[MrsStick]

My gluten reactions are within hours, so it might not be that. The more I eat it, the more quickly the stomach aches come, too.