Reasons why you might feel sick once you go gluten free

shaumom

This is for folks who go gluten free, but still feel sick, or start feeling sicker than ever.

1. If you are a celiac (diagnosed or not), you may not be eliminating ENOUGH gluten. The level of contamination that can get a celiac sick is pretty insane. Just track down some cross-contamination rules at celiac sites and try them out, and it may help.

2. You may be lactose intolerant. Part of the villi in the intestines are required to make lactase, the enzyme needed to digest lactose. For celiacs, this can be damaged and make you temporarily lactose intolerant until your body has healed up (which usually takes 6 months minimum, but can take a couple years).

In folks who have had very severe stomach flus, it can damage the villi and cause this same issue. food allergies can also cause issues with this. I have not heard that gluten intolerance does the same thing, but it would not surprise me if it did.

3. Xantham gum, or other gums. Xanthan gum is know to cause gut issues in a small % of the population, and you get a LOT more of it with gluten free foods. Fewer folks have issues with other gums (guar gum and arabic gum), but some still do, and you will also be getting a lot more of these in GF foods as well.

4. You could have a mild allergy or intolerance to something that is much more common in GF foods than it was in your previous diet, or that is simply still common in your current diet.

5. If the illness starts kicking in after you have been gluten free for a while, you might want to check your vitamin levels. Wheat is fortified with certain vitamins that many of us don't get regularly in our diets. If you have not either started taking vitamins when you went GF, or started eating foods that give you the nutrients that were fortified in wheat, you may be low in them.

nvmomketo

I'm a celiac.
Going GF made things worse for a week or so. I still remember that migraine. Yikes.
It took me over 9 months for my autoantibodies to finally return to normal levels. I still had symptoms resolving then. For some, going GF is not a quick fix.

GottaBurnEmAll

I *still* get issues with lactose after gluten exposure, even after 20 years of being gluten free! It's annoying and one of the reasons I'm pretty vigilant about things.

MostlyWater

DH HATED the gluten free stuff I used to make cakes and cookies and breads for him. He lost weight, was often hungry, and got every cold that went around.