Can going gluten free cause gluten sensitivity?

[hose1975]

Hi all

I started a gluten-free diet in January (at the same time as going low carb for disordered blood sugars) and have seen a wonder decrease in GI issues and the severe whole body and eye itching that has plagued me for as long as I can remember.

I have previously tested negative for coeliac disease, so don't know whether I have it or not. However, my question is this: can going gluten free cause gluten sensitivity to the point of symptoms in people who weren't previously sensitive? I'm pretty certain that going gluten free doesn't cause CD I'm a little worried that when I try a gluten challenge and if I have symptoms that people will say I did it to myself. Yeah, I know it's not exactly rational.

Interestingly enough I am itching like a bugger today and I wonder whether it's because I was preparing food at the same time as my husband was baking with my five year old; they were adding the flour for cookies to a bowl at the same time as having an electric whisk on and I'm pretty sure the flour would have gone everywhere. I would have been about two metres away from them, if that. A shared kitchen is hard.

[Hidden]

Hi there, I'd say that going gluten free can show gluten sensitivity when reintroducing gluten to your diet if you are sensitive or intolerant to it.

So if going on a gluten challenge causes symptoms then why beat yourself by saying yeh I caused this myself, as this is irrational. A gluten challenge is called a challenge for a reason and if you don't have any reaction then it proves a point, whereas if you have a reaction this also proves a point. So it's not like hitting your toe with a hammer to see if it hurts, which's irrational. None of us can help having a bad reaction to gluten and fearing being made ill with gluten is a natural emotion, a rational emotion.

You might like to look into NCGS (non coeliac gluten sensitivity) as we have some members with this.

Here's a couple of links from the archives:

healthunlocked.com/glutenfr...

healthunlocked.com/glutenfr...

Now as for sharing a kitchen when wheat flour is being used I would wait until you have the kitchen to your self and I wouldn't bake something that is gluten free with ordinary cookies.

That's my 2p's worth and good luck.

[hose1975 in reply to Hidden]

Thanks, Jerry.

[MTCee]

This is an interesting question that I have long pondered myself. I went on a low carb diet a few years ago to reduce my weight, but I began to feel so much better health wise I stayed on it regardless of what happened to my weight. When I occasionally reintroduced carbs, I had no problems with anything apart from those foods containing gluten and so I assumed that regardless of a diagnosis I was gluten intolerant. But I did wonder if I'd done this to myself in some mad sense. Perhaps gluten was one of those things that once you purge it from your diet is hard to include again? I know it's far more rational to assume I must have had a sensitivity to it before without me knowing because it is so hard to avoid in a normal diet and I had effectively put myself on a gluten free diet by going low carb, but since we still don't fully know how gluten effects us, I still wonder about this in my weaker self punishing moments 😅

[Hidden in reply to MTCee]

Hi MeTeeCee, I think that you're looking g at things back to front blaming yourself sometimes. So here's something to think about after WW2 we had many troops who had been on near starvation rice based diets in Japanese prisoner of war camps. And when they returned to a normal diet did they all suddenly have issues with gluten? It is in fact after we have had famines that CD has been diagnosed in some individuals in the past.

So in my opinion if after going on a low carb diet you can eat carbs but only carbs that do not contain gluten then you have accidentally stumbled on the fact that for whatever reason your body does not respond well to gluten.

And it is you who is suffering because of these negative and self destructive thoughts, so try and change how you see things and accept that gluten is toxic to you instead of beating yourself up over it.

Here's a past post about the psychological aspect of having CD:

healthunlocked.com/glutenfr...

And this:

withoutgluten.co.uk/advice/...

So try to change how you think...

That's my advice,

[MTCee in reply to Hidden]

Thanks Jerry. I needed to hear that. I think that people who have no problem with gluten tend to imply that those that do are somehow making it up or have brought it about themselves somehow and it can make you wonder that yourself sometimes too. It's as if because you reject their food, you imply that you reject them and they react badly to that. I will read the links. Thankyou.