A for sure but the poison is also in the dose. The only symptoms I feel are intestinal and the dose determines the duration of the pain. I'm done experimenting though some very helpful people have pointed out that my symptoms are psychosomatic. 'Course I've been hearing that I'm too emotional, too high strung, too sensitive for fifty years. Into my second gluten-free year, I'm not "too" anything anymore. Funny how that happened...

Like PaleoChimp said, I notice symptoms no matter how much I've eaten, but the larger the dose, the worse and longer acting the symptoms. Small doses (crumbs, etc) equate to diarrhea and sour stomach for several days, usually. A larger dose (a bite or more of a cookie or bread, a beer, etc.) leaves me vomiting repeatedly, to the point of just hurling up bile on a completely empty stomach, within 30 minutes of ingestion, and also with quite scary cognitive/mental/neurological side effects....I nearly completely lose the ability to speak and cannot think clearly at all, have poor coordination, and pretty much stay curled up on the floor, limp, as long as I am not actively vomiting. I also get a terrible headache. Sometimes ocular migraines persist intermittently for days, and of course I will have diarrhea and sour stomach for several days, too. I also break out all over my face. Needless to say, I no longer experiment. But I've learned that picking toppings off of pizza (with no visible crumbs attached) is enough to glutenize me, and I cannot drink liquors that have been distilled from gluten grains.

I suffer no ill reaction really. If I've been really good and totally abstained from it for a few weeks and then eat a huge pile of something glutenous, I might having a slight feeling of malaise the next day or two, but nothing significant.

I'm ok in small amounts, as was tested last night with a slice of homemade pumpkin pie:), but anything more than that and now I have some severe reactions.

So here's the deal. I like ramen. I LOVE ramen. I live in NY where we're lucky enough to have places that make their noodles in house, and when that bowl of deliciousness arrives and starts steaming my face? I melt. Since I went Paleo I've really gone strict as my Rosacea cleared up and I feel great. So.. no ramen until last month. A new joint opened within walking distance of my house and I know the owners/chefs so guaranteed to be good. I walked over. Sat. Ordered. Then proceeded to empty that bowl - I think it was dry when I left. So good I can barely tell you. That night I started to feel weird and for the next five days was in complete and utter agony. It literally hurt to sit. It was as if I had a horrible bone breaking disease, every bone, every joint, every part of me was in agony.

I went back last week and told my friends what happened so now its experiment time as they are willing to accomodate me. I had a nice steamy bowl but with a half order of noodles on the side. I had a thought that if I kept them separate then no starch would leach into the bowl and I could dip what I wanted. I ate less than 1/2 the 1/2 and had maybe an hour of body weirdness so I'm on the right path to finding a balance.

It definitely not something that I want to do on a daily basis, again I have done nothing but get even healthier since omitting gluten, but I fully admit that its nice to have a treat now and then that doesn't want to try and murder you.

I don't think its that black and white...or should I say there are plenty more shades of grey...?

I didn't grow up eating much wheat; I ate grains, but they were traditionally sprouted. I basically ate a traditional Russian diet, which, though carb-heavy, was, I suppose, alright for a growing kid. When I moved to the city I started eating processed food and WHEAT. Now all I remember was that although I'm definitely not an acute, highly sensitive celiac, I used to have a lot of digestion issues; stomach aches, gas, etc. All the time. I remember my tennis practice suffering, because running around with a hurting stomach is no fun at all; my teacher would put it down to me just being useless, and I was too scared to mention my stomach pain because I've always feared doctors/hospitals, and was afraid I'd be sent to one if I mentioned my discomfort.

These things all stopped abruptly when I dropped wheat. I transitioned to palo very slowly, and dropping gluten grains in particular was a first step.

Fast-forward now, I've been grain-free for a year. Last week, I had dinner at a friend's house who promised she'd let her mum - who was doing the cooking - know I was 'intolerant' to grains. However, something went wrong and flour ended up thickening the mushroom sauce of the ill-fated beefstroganoff. I spent the night immobilised with stomach pain, curled up in a fetal position. There was no question of it being psychosomatic since I didn't know of the presence of the...spawn of satan (lol at the tag, by the way!)...in the sauce. The next morning, my friend calls me, drowning me with apologies and asking if I was alright. Well, by then I was. I'm glad I survived that night without trying to obtain illegal morphine from someone.

That is just one story, mind you. All my gluten encounters since have ended in feeling like I'm being eviscerated.

So...here the issue isn't really the dose. But I used to eat wheat without really knowing it was messing up my stomach, so perhaps its a matter of exposure. The more you expose yourself to toxins and allergens, the less you notice the stress you're putting on yourself.

I mean, this is different, but do you acutely feel each car honk, each shove on a crowded street, as fight-or-flight stress? No, because we're just attuned to chronic, low-level stress. My thoughts are that its similar when it comes to stressors like gluten for non-celiacs. Everyone's gut is harmed by gluten to an extent; but some feel it more acutely than others. Primal eating undoubtedly sensitises you more to toxins.

Its part of being alive; it helps you avoid harmful substances.

Lots of Paleo Love!

Milla

I'm A-not-OK. I don't eat a lot of commercial foods, so if I eat gluten it's not a tiny amount. I don't do it any more because it hurts in my stomach, it hurts a lot in my intestines, it hurts like heck when it hits my bowel, and it hurts like h*&%( when I poop.

There is a stuffy nose, puffy eyes, hacking cough, GERD and bloating that goes with it. Healing takes a week or so after it's out and that's the symptoms I can feel.

Neither. I have no negative reaction to gluten whatsoever. I don't go out of my way to eat it in large amounts (aka seitan), but I make no attempt to avoid it either. I think that being highly active helps metabolize it, but it might also be successful adaptation to a standard European diet.

The dose always does make the poison, right? But in the case of gluten, dosage is miniscule to cause a reaction for me.

Reaction is fiery under the skin. This within 2-6 hours. Red bumps appear within a day. The itch is interminable. Total duration of rash can be 3 weeks (or more).

"Exposure" can be in the form of microquantities in restaurant meal or contamination of cooking surfaces (or the hot, dangerous mouth of a beer drinking temptress).

I'm an "A." If I eat anything with gluten, I get depressed and fatigued the next day, and my joints will ache. But I haven't eaten bread or pasta in so, so long that I don't even crave it anymore. Now I just see it for the poison that it is.

Also, after listening to a radio show (www.blogtalkradio.com/undergroundwellness) called Wheat Belly, I now realize that many people respond badly to modern wheat products because the chromosomes have been changed so much since the 60's that it's not even genetically recognizably wheat anymore. So it's extra not paleo!

I'm an A.

When I eat the junk it causes a relapse in my seasonal allergies....except, y'know, out of season.

I had seasonal allergies for most of my life after 15 or 16, and then this year after going Paleo, they completely disappeared. I used to tempt fate with delicious, NY pizza, but would pay for it with 5-7 days of stuffiness, runny nose, itchy eyes and constant sneezing. I have no desire to revisit that miserable part of my life, and so this year for thanksgiving I was completely gluetn free...and it was delicious!

I can also report bloating, diarrhea, gas and pimples. Forgot to mention aching/throbbing, stiff joints. Fun stuff! Makes me laugh when people say, "Oh my...I could NEVER give up pasta/bread/pizza/cookies/etc..." or "Don't worry...you'll get the gut, it's just a normal part of aging!" Ha...riiiiight. Not MY aging.

I don't know how I react, because I no longer have contact with gluten, knowingly.

Actually, that's not quite true. I have de-glutenized in my day to day life, but on some days I eat a bit of this or that, aware that it contains gluten.

No noticeable symptoms. I suspect if I ate a lot, my symptoms would be noticeable.

I haven't had a wheat flour accident for a while (I never eat gluten on purpose), but the last time I got extreme bloating and belching almost immediately. I feel like I just get fuller and fuller and fuller. The next day I wind up with watery diarrhea, but no pain. That can go on for 1 to 5 days.

Malt is a completely different animal (if there's beer or malt extract in something). I get sick 8-12 hours later, vomiting, horrible nausea and a headache that nothing will cure. This lasts for the next 12 hours or so after the initial barfing.

I seem to be B, although I haven't tested to see just what the dose is. I used to get these nasty headaches almost daily, always at the same place: the base of the skull on the left side in the back. It'd feel like a rope was being pulled tight from my left eye around the top of my ear and down to a knot in the middle of my back, with the pain centered at that point in my neck. Going low-carb years ago got rid of 90% of them, but I'd still get one now and then, and could never find a pattern to explain them. Since eliminating gluten, I've gotten maybe one or two of those in the past year, which has been remarkable. I think there have been improvements in other areas like mental fog and energy level, but those are harder to quantify, so the headaches are the main symptom I can judge by.

After "cleansing" my system by very carefully avoiding all possible trace gluten for several weeks, I've relaxed that somewhat since then. I don't eat anything that intentionally contains wheat, with the one exception that I take Communion a few times a week (our hosts are pretty small, maybe 1/4g each, or .025g of gluten). If I buy something like nuts, I don't insist that they were processed in a wheat-free facility. So far, I haven't noticed any ill effects from that low a level of consumption. Of course, it could still be affecting me in unnoticeable, longer-term ways; but as long as I feel well, I'll consider myself fortunate that I don't have to be as careful as some do.

I break out like a 15-year-old boy going through puberty. But usually only if I've eaten large amounts.

Although I go out of my way to wholly avoid gluten when I have pie where there is gluten in the crust, etc (like yesterday) it doesn't bother me at all.

I wonder, though, if I were to have a whole sandwich or something if I'd feel something. Leftover plan?

I'm an A. Even a few small bites of something with gluten and I'm wrecked for three days solid. Headache often going to migraine, foggy brain, exhaustion, achy joints, throbbing bones (!!), bad temper, digestive issues. I get facial edema bad enough to affect my vision. Bleah. Misery.

I can't believe I survived 40 years with those daily symptoms. I firmly believed my whole-grain bagels, whole-grain cereal, and whole-grain fill-in-the-blank were the staff of life...ha! Not so much!

gas, bloating, chapped lips, dark circles, bad mood, low energy, dizzy, foggy vision, crave for sweets, sweet taste in mouth, overall feeling of being full of yeast, at my worst it caused such a bad chemical imbalance i was having anxiety attacks and pretty shizophrenic....

I can tolerate small amounts, but not without minor side effects like achy joints, headaches, breakouts, etc. I'm no celiac sufferer, but it definitely doesn't play nice with me. And it's not just gluten, but grains in general, who don't makey nicey with my system.

Diarrhea, bloating. I moved to Paleo about 3 months ago, haven't had gluten since then, afraid to try it. I had some rice once though, and while it didn't make things great, it wasn't as bad as gluten.

Update: I had a bit of gluten via way of soy sauce, and it resulted in diarrhea within 30 minutes of digesting it. I don't think it was the soy the problem, since gluten-free Tamari soy sauce doesn't have the same effect on me.

I can eat a small amount and feel fine. Example: 1 slice of pumpkin bread from starbucks, nuts with wheat dust, etc

If I eat more than that I feel sluggish, grumpy, sick to my stomach, and generally ill. Example: anything more than the above in one day .... thank you family of gluten-eaters and your darn delicious carrot cake ... * grumbles to self *

What makes me feel better? Kombucha, pickle juice, or some apple cider vinegar. The kombucha works the best though. :)

A. Today I put a little cream cheese in my eggs from the tub in my mom's fridge. Tonight I am in intense pain and frequently running to the bathroom because there must have been a crumb from my grandmother double-dipping when eating a bagel last week. Tomorrow I will likely sleep most of the day and have achey joints all week. My rosacea is already starting to show up and probably won't be back to the levels of this morning for 2-3 weeks.

A. I feel like death...I get achey joints, my muscles become sore, i get headaches, i get gassy, and my mouth gets a strange film in it.

You don't even wanna know how I feel post Thanksgiving...ugh.

I tolerate small amounts- anything more than a flour tortilla or two, and I take digestive enzymes which usually help me avoid symptoms. When I do have symptoms, I get painful bloating. I seem to have become less sensitive lately; in the beginning, if I got glutenized it resulted in three days of misery.

I get itchy skin, and it is dose dependent. A couple pieces of toast is enough to start feeling the tingle the next day. On my old regular diet the itch became unbearable before I figured it out. Somehow though beer doesn't bother me.

A. I want to die. It's just me, the bathroom, and my misery. I don't even care about the other symptoms. Being unable to function or sleep due to horrid gut cramping tends to distract me from the secondary stuff. I'm celiac, though.

A. Happened today when I ate a couple of bites of salad BEFORE seeing the croutons hidden beneath. I know, rookie mistake, but we've eaten at this place many times without issue. Now I'm stuck at work with a killer headache (my EYES hurt), brain fog, and fatigue. The mood disturbances, gastro issues, and facial breakouts will begin tomorrow. I am Celiac and gluten-intolerant besides (several alleles).

I'm definitely an A, but I have very few physical symptoms. However, after gluten, for the next 36 hours I'm a headcase- anxious, prone to tears, picking fights, not emotionally resilient. Prolonged exposure brings on IBS, but it's always the mental side effects that come first.

Ill let you know tomorrow.

Both... :) Depends on what/how much I've eaten when I get "glutened"... if I've fasted or eaten very little, I immediately get a response (itchy ear/nose/throat)... then the later symptoms (see below) If i've eaten heavily, then it takes a while, but I get GI issues (bloating, extreme thirst (leading to) diarrhea, nausea - for at least 2-3 days). HTH

In between. I don't noticeably "get glutened" with trace amounts. Eating a small amount (eg. a few cookies) is likely to result in gas and maybe minor joint pain, which are totally tolerable effects on an occasional basis. Diarrhea from larger amounts, likely from the fiber (I have the same problem with some squashes).

However, I'm more concerned that the relatively mild effects indicate a larger problem, and that eating these foods on a regular basis is likely to result in more serious cumulative effects. So I avoid them.