Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell? - PaleoHacks.com

Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-06-02T16:51:42Z

Ever been at a restaurant and come face to face with a suspicious looking glaze or sauce? Ever been told that the soy-sauce is wheat free by a shifty looking waiter? Ever decide to go ahead and snatch a couple of sweet potato fries off your friend's plate even though they look suspiciously crispy?

I have!!! And my body proceeds to beat the crap out of me as a result.

Examples of punishment: Skin between my baby toe and its neighbour cracks, bleeds and generally makes me regret being born (EVERY SINGLE TIME), hives, sinus troubles, itchiness in places I won't mention here.

How do YOU know you've been glutened?

Answer by Katie for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-06-02T17:12:45Z

Headache/migraine, suddenly full sinuses, grumbly stomach. Every time.

Answer by VB for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-06-02T17:15:27Z

Itchiness (not where yours is), heart palpitations, restless sleep, night sweats, stomach pain, fatigue. I feel weird right away, but I do have a delayed response to gluten. I start feeling worse about 2-4 hours later and at my worst the next couple of days. Sometimes it takes the whole week to recover.

Answer by MiMintzer for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-06-02T17:18:58Z

Last week, at my nephew's pre-bar mitzvah dinner we had a buffet. I thought I picked out ok foods to eat but probably missed something. Within an hour or two I had a terrible stomach ache (unlike anything I've had in months since going gluten free). I was curled up in a fetal position for most of the night. Not a celiac but I do have a wheat intolerance. I'm thinking of doing an n=1 by eating a wheat cracker so I know for sure what my reaction is for future reference.

Answer by JonnyHotcakes for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-06-02T17:24:35Z

I get soreness and stiffness in the joints of my hands.

Regarding restaurants...as a chef I can tell you that no matter how diligent the efforts of everyone working there, unless it's a gluten-free place, the stuff is EVERYWHERE. You have to be very selective about what you order and even that is no guarantee. My staff is well trained, we have labels and lists and charts and special pans and special plates, but we also bake our own bread and dredge hundreds of pieces of chicken and veal, make gallons of sauces and soups and our own croutons. It's in the atmosphere. No one can truly guarantee a completely gluten-free plate unless that is what the restaurant is all about. It's the reality of the situation.

Answer by Roary for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-06-02T17:30:13Z

Respiratory -- coughing and sticky phlegm within minutes of eating. Insomnia for 2-3 days. I'm a diagnosed celiac, FWIW.

Answer by Susan for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-06-02T17:44:02Z

My legs ache like crazy, I get itchy patches of scaly, red skin, I feel mentally fuzzy (adding two plus two becomes a challenge) and I get bone-weary tired -- and not the typical it's-been-a-long-day-and-I've-worked-hard kind of tired. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia 17 years ago and even then I felt like it was a cop-out "catch all" diagnosis which only told me what my symptoms were but not a thing about the root cause. I saw several specialists over the years but nothing helped with the pain and fatigue. It seemed to me as long as the doctor had a label then they were done investigating and had no reason to dig deeper to really figure out what was going on. Although my kids were diagnosed with celiac disease years ago their symptoms were very different so it didn't occur to me that gluten could be an issue for me, too. It wasn't until I went gluten-free last year when I started a primal diet that I realized my issues all along had been gluten! Now when I get exposed to some I wonder how I lived that long in such pain. I was so miserable but had no idea how to fix it so I just had to deal with it. Looking back I feel like I was just struggling to exist, it was hard to enjoy life feeling like crap everyday. Now as long as I stay away from gluten I feel great and have such energy and clarity of mind. Wooohoo!! I definitely don't appreciate accidental contamination or the type of attitude some restaurant staff have about food sensitivities, like "a little won't hurt". Gluten is eeeeevil.

Answer by Ruttan Evolution for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-06-02T17:45:11Z

Immediate symptoms after I've been glutened? Joint pain, fatigue (can hardly stay awake), hemorrhoid flare up, head ache, extreme irritability, dry eyes, balance is thrown off, and foul gas. Later (same day and next day) symptoms progress to stomach pain and explosive diarrhea or difficulty passing stool due to consistency. Also difficulty sleeping, night sweats, and restlessness.

Answer by Christine M. for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-06-02T17:52:46Z

Body aches the next day, like I have the flu. I don't usually get immediate symptoms.

Answer by MathGirl72 for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-06-02T17:54:10Z

Heartburn so bad I want to die. I knowingly consumed crap last night and regretted it at 3 this morning. My stomach is still a little uneasy, but I deserved it. And, to top it off, the chocolate cake was awful.

Answer by Nivanthe for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-06-02T18:05:19Z

My throat tightens, and it becomes a bit harder to breathe. Usually followed by congested sinuses in the morning.

Answer by TruthinessInc for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-06-02T18:29:09Z

First I get a weird "feeling", the only thing I can describe it as is my Spidey Sense, then I notice I have frothy belly, a bit of cotton mouth and then my guts begin to take over everything from my body temperature to aches and pains, my over all mood because quite..umm...mean...my partner at tht time sends for an old priest and a young priest.. .http://mindreels.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/exorcistkarrasmerrin2.jpg?w=627&h=355 and then the battle begins...for the next 3 days this guy http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ljxunxf0u31qd42rao1_500.gif dances his way through my GI and I curse whom ever sprinkled me with their gluteny fairy dust..grrr....

Truth.

Answer by red_leaf for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-06-02T19:30:40Z

My sinuses feel congested and inflamed, usually leading to a nasty sinus pressure headache not soon after ingesting the stuff. Bloating to follow. It's mostly the sinus issues that get to me, though.

Answer by Kelly for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-06-02T23:41:54Z

Itchiness and abdominal pain first, then diarrhea/constipation/intestinal spasms, eczema outbreaks, swollen and bright red eyelids, followed by a few days of intense anxiety, insomnia, joint pain, and IBS symptoms.

Answer by thhq for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-06-03T00:19:33Z

I don't know. I have no adverse reaction whatsoever.

Maybe it's explained by never avoiding gluten. The following abstract may explain:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21671042/

The proteases needed to digest gluten are more abundant as more gluten is eaten. As long as your GI tract is well populated with them gluten digests just like any other protein.

Answer by Team Oberg for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-06-03T02:50:30Z

It feels like I ate broken glass, like I can actually feel it ripping my intestines apart. I also bloat until I look 7ish months pregnant and get some pretty interesting noises coming from my stomach. It is like listening to death metal coming from my tummy.

Answer by Lady_Arwen for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-06-03T03:13:15Z

It varies with the dose ... - used to be far worse but now can be a couple of zits, greater muscle soreness (inflammation) after gym work out, mild gas/abdominal pain. etc. Not fun.

Answer by Moonablaze for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-06-03T07:22:53Z

I wish it was as mild for me as most of these comments. One crumb contaminating my food is all it takes. I get 6-8 hours with no symptoms that gradually give way to a little upset tummy. Then wham, feeling like I've been punched in the stomach followed by an URGENT need to get to the bathroom. Once my guts are empty (2-3 hours later) I'm left with a bad stomach ache (kinda like sore muscles but going all the way through my belly) and a headache. I'm usually pretty exhausted by this point and I'll sleep (poorly) for up to 14 hours. Whenever I wake up I'll find myself too weak to do much of anything Basic, low impact household tasks like folding laundry will leave me exhausted after a few minutes. so I'll nap and realize my brain is too foggy to read anything so I'll watch reruns on tv (last time I was too fried to even follow the storyline of an hour long procedural drama). Still stomach pain, headache, other muscles start hurting if I push it and do something wild like going up and down a flight of stairs. I might try to get down some soup or rice or apple sauce or something around 24-36 hours after I first got sick. Day 3, I start to feel functional. I managed to work last time but a short day and with lots of rest breaks. I get joint pain that lasts about a week and my immune system is shot for a while. I almost always get a cold within a week of a gluten exposure.

While I can't get a biopsy because I'd been mostly gluten free for a while when I realized just how sick I got when I had it, I've had a DNA test which confirms I have 4 of the known genes for celiac (out of 6).

Answer by Violet9 for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-06-03T15:29:29Z

The first symptom I experience is a scary feeling of sudden spaciness, like it's hard to focus my eyes on anything. I feel like I'm in a bell jar, separated from the other people around me by some invisible barrier. And I feel a huge plunge in mood that comes on very fast, like a very intense despair that enfolds me. The world looks insubstantial and flimsy. This all probably comes on within an hour of ingesting a tiny bit of gluten.

Depression continues for 2 to 3 days afterwards. I also experience rashes, hives, migraines, joint pain, facial swelling, and anxiety. I hate gluten.

Answer by Andrea for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-06-03T17:47:57Z

On two occasions I ate sweet potato tots at a restaurant that I later learned had a gluten coating. At both of those meals I had tummy "pangs" within 30 minutes of eating the tots. On a couple of other occasions (once when I wasn't paying attention and took a big bite of a flour tortilla and the other when I forgot that Sun Chips were multigrain and ate 3-4 chips before I realized what I had done) I had some ankle swelling and increased nasal/throat congestion in the following hours. Oh, also, noisy intestines.

Not celiac - but following pretty strict gluten free due to Hashimoto's thyroiditis.

Answer by Michael for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-06-03T19:45:16Z

1,5 hours after contamination I become very thirsty. Getting 2 liters of H2O for cleaning my gut from this gluten-crap.

The party gets noisy. People will think I am hungry, but its just "battle noise".

I dislike people around me. Leave me alone you gluten-addicts, my...

Well, the night is light. Sleep is not recreative.

Next day I see parts of my intestinal mucosa flushing on the way to the open sea together with the yellow rest of the gluten party.

After 2 days I am back on the track. Get me bone broth please!

Not funny.

Answer by Zqe for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-10-21T13:46:05Z

My throat swollen in the very next day. Takes 2-4 hours. To go away. And eatting anything will caused me thorat swollen every day. Frustrating. Did not tell doc yet. Til I figure which is which to avoid. Cannot drink alcohol either immediate swollen nearly shut. Allergic to wheat and rye. I am thinking if its the same or not.

Answer by Zqe for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-10-21T13:51:10Z

Oh yeah, usually drink alcohol many times without a problem til that day scared the crap outta of me.

Answer by tina for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-11-29T08:21:12Z

i get a headache within 20ish min or so... followed by the brain fog... then sore stomach...massive gas, then hours visiting 'ole loo... then insomnia, mouth sores, flemy throat, being really tired, anxiety....and on and on... lasts a couple of days, but i get better with in a week.... this really sux!

Answer by Joy for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-12-30T12:53:03Z

I am thrown into hell for 4 weeks! It slowly builds, starting with gas an hour after eating. I wake up choking b/c my throat is dry and swollen. I have lost my voice for days due to laryngitis, nasal passages swell on and off. Severe bone pain comes back, and it brings involuntary muscles spasms. My insides feel swollen and tender. I have the sensation of a pole through my abdomen. Severe brain fog, confusion. Stuttering back. Severe mood swings, very ragey. My body is racing, it feels like an out of body experience. Dizziness and clumsiness back. I drop everything, knock everything over. Can't sleep at night, up at least 5 x a nite, and can't get up in the morning. My psoriasis kicks into overdrive, my skin gets very sensitive and itchy resulting in lots of scratches and scabs on my arms. There is a mental disconnect as well. Cannot socialize, cannot handle groups or crowds. Anxiety attacks in stores. They finally put me on steriods. The first time I accidentally did it to myself, this time I ate at a restaurant with a great gf menu, in Boston. I'm still weaning off my steriods from the first time....I am a waste case!

Answer by andrew for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-12-30T18:54:21Z

I made this mistake Christmas lunch. I was invited to have lunch with friends and EVERYTHING seemed to have wheat. It was either refuse most things and be extremely rude / unappreciative, or decide " it's only one day, it won't kill me" which I did.

By the time I got home I was bloated, vicious stomach upset etc etc. And the next day asthma was really bad, wouldnt respond to usual inhalers and I had to resort to prednisone pills.

Shan't make the polite mistake again!

Answer by karmapolicia for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-12-30T19:40:06Z

Pretty much immediately (I'd say within 10 - 15 minutes) i start to get a headache and the mental fog comes on.
Then within an hour, scaly patches start forming at my joints.
Most of the time I get diarrhea, bloating and gas pretty quickly - sometimes in like 20 minutes, usually longer in the range of an hour or two - and severe heartburn/acid reflux that evening.
Then within a few days, I end up with ear and sinus troubles, fatigue, muscle and joint pain etc.

Isn't it SUCH a picnic? Hard to believe I walked around feeling like this for years blaming it on all sorts of things and going on "whole grain diets" and eating wheatier, glutenier breads and what not. Oy vey...

Answer by Michelle for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-12-31T05:06:01Z

Sinus infections. I don't tend to have any reaction with small cross-contamination (haven't been screened for celiac yet, so I'm not making a big deal of it yet), but eating a serving of something that obviously has gluten in it will leave me with a respiratory infection within 48 hours. I also tend to get a little bit of an upset stomach, but not always. I also tend to feel uncomfortably full ridiculously fast when something has been tainted with gluten. But I also get that with lean pork...

Answer by Janknitz for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2012-12-31T06:55:22Z

I'm not sure I was "glutened" but something made me miserable. I've been low carb about a year and a half and Paleo as well for about a year. We traveled to see family and had a day of get togethers. At a diner I had about 5 or 6 sweet potato fries. Yes, they were crunchy, but I didn't think they were coated in flour. For dinner I had homemade brisket which was in a sauce that I know contained brown sugar, but not any grains. There was also some chicken braised in a fruity sauce, and a few gluten free crackers.

The next day was horrible. My entire body ached and I was naseaus. We were touring the Queen Mary in Long Beach (boy, that sounds pretentious, but it's a museaum!) and the day was cold and rainy. I felt miserable all day. The walking, up and down many flights of stairs, was painful. I felt like one does with a high fever, but no fever. I didn't feel better until late in the evening when I finally fell asleep under a warm blanket. Today was much better although I did have a visual migraine (right on schedule because there was orange juice in the chicken sauce) and the runs. NOT fun.

I am not celiac and never thought I was particularly gluten sensitive. I don't even know if there was any gluten, but it does put me off even a slight planned indulgence ever again!

I did have these episodes of "false fever" infrequently before going Paleo, and I always had some degree of the body aches I experienced yesterday UNTIL going Paleo. since I went Paleo I have never had that experience until now. I don't know if it felt worse because I'm so unused to it now, or because it was worse. In any case, I was very careful about what I ate today, while we were on our journey home. So good to be home to my own bed and my "normal" diet!

The counterpoint of yesterday was that I spent it with my 26 year old niece who has a diagnosis of fibromyalgia and intractible migraines. I watched her eat tons of sugary grains over the course of a few days. She is huge, and continues to try medication after medication to try to control her symptoms, with no relief. Meanwhile, her doctors have advised her to eat a vegetarian diet that she has translated to carbs, carbs, and more carbs cooked in unholy amounts of PUFA's because she's "intolerant" to meat (probably tested with CAFO's) and, of course, "saturated fats are bad for you". Sigh. . . . Incidentally, she also has a seizure disorder and her mother who eats the same way has high blood pressure and pre-diabetes, but it's "OK because I'm on statins and the doctor is "watching" my blood sugar."

If I had not eaten the meat served there would have been nothing else for me to eat (not a green veggie in sight) and since we were far from home I couldn't use my usual strategy of preparing and bringing food I CAN eat. I need to come up with a much better plan for visiting family!

Answer by Chris for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2013-02-18T19:57:03Z

Yesterday was the 2nd time I unknowingly consumed gluten. I have not been dx as celiac, but rather have tried an elimination diet due to suspicions of a gluten sensitivity. I ate "rice" crackers & a couple of different cheeses. One was a sharp cheddar ball and the other was a goat cheese with cranberries and cinnamon. I read all of the ingredients and none stood out to me as a sneaky gluten component. Then 30 mins later the bloated belly I had banished 4 weeks prior returned with a vengance and began to yell at me. With the bloat came, well, gas. I felt gross for the first time in those 4 weeks. I knew I had been "glutened". I re-read the packages... Nothing on the cheddar cheese ball was suspect. The "rice" crackers themselves did not contain gluten, but in teeny-tiny lettering I read that it was "made on equipment that also handles wheat products". I could have slapped myself... The goat cheese also did not look suspect upon a second look, but it did contain rennet and an online site said to be weary of rennet if you are gluten sensitive or celiac. It's all so nuts. I had trouble sleeping and kept waking with an asthmatic cough and post nasal drip from the congestion that filled my sinuses. I also had a very distrubing dream. Today, my tummy doth protest too much. I'm drinking green tea, warm lemon water and I've eaten only whole foods including a homemade batch of chicken soup. I'm hoping I don't get the headache I fear will arrive tomorrow or the next day. Living with a gluten sensitivity, I'm learning that one can never be too viligant. And if in doubt, pass on it. The days or even weeks of healing are not worth it!!!! Best to all!

Answer by Kelleil for Uh-oh, you've been "glutened"! How can you tell?

2013-02-18T20:14:58Z

I get itchy in my lungs/windpipe, followed by difficulty breathing and moderate dizziness. Then my face breaks out into a rash. Then my joints ache.

I don't get any gastro signs, so I'm not celiac. I'm a purely IgE type wheat allergy.