I have been totally gluten-free for six weeks. I know that’s not really very long but it has been challenging due to the fact that I am a vegetarian too. Today I was wrongly informed that some bread was gf and ate a couple of small bites before being told there’d been a mistake in the kitchen and it wasn’t gf after all. I’m lucky as I’m not celiac and only suffer from mild stomach discomfort after eating gluten. I am mainly trying gf in an effort to reduce my thyroid antibodies from 1300. Have these two small bites of gluten bread totally invalidated my efforts over the last six weeks? Is it possible actually to reduce my antibodies by going gluten-free? That’s assuming I don’t regularly experience this accidental glutening. I feel quite disheartened. What do you think?
Any comments would be appreciated.
Best wishes to all
Caroline
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Caroline888
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Damage, I believe it would depend on your gut health. The better the health of the gut the less likelihood of a reaction from small amount of gluten especially if not coeliac.
I wouldn't worry to much - especially as stress is bad for your gut!
I am coeliac and find when "glutoned" camomile tea really helps and also its anti-inflammatory so good for antibodies too.
Thank you so much for your kind reply. I will persevere with the gf diet and incorporate lots of camomile tea too! I feel better for reading your advice and am grateful for it. I’ve always had stomach ache after meals and it was only after going gf that I realised it is probably related to the gluten in food as my stomach ache after food is mostly a thing of the past. I know I’m lucky to have such mild symptoms but so want to reduce my antibodies if possible.
Being celiac must be so much more difficult. I hope you are able to manage it well. Glad that camomile tea helps you.
Thanks again for taking the trouble to help and advise me.
Thank you Cooper27. Certainly I'll be even more careful in the future. Perhaps, in the future, I'll leave bread totally off the menu when away from home! Thank you for your positive way of looking at things.
No problem You don't have to avoid bread in future, but you do need to learn to read how clued up your server is when you eat out. If they don't sound familiar enough, base you decisions on that, and get whoever is with you to try a bit of the bread first. If they say it's just like normal bread, it probably is normal bread!
Thanks Cooper27. I thought I had it covered because the menu actually did specify gf against some of the meals. I am reluctant to eat anywhere that doesn’t actually identify some meals as gf. The waitress said, when asked, that the meal I selected was always gluten free and when it came I double checked that the bread was in fact gf. I still got caught out as she came back five minutes later (after the two small bites😟) and said it wasn’t gf after all as they’d made a mistake in the kitchen.
I’m not sure I would be able to tell the difference between gf bread and ordinary bread. As evidenced by the two bites! I’m not really a bread fan and don’t have good taste buds either so probably best to give it a miss. My husband loves his bread so it might be worth using him as my taster😊. Good suggestion!
Thank you so much for your help and advice. I feel so much better after contacting you all on the forum. Yesterday it felt like a tragedy. Now I realise it’s something that is likely to happen from time to time and we just have to learn to live with it!
't want Being a coeliac I think you'd know if you had eaten gf bread - tastes like a bath sponge, the only way to make it edible is to toast it and put loads of marmalade on it. I very rarely eat gf bread but sometimes I so crave bread ! Unfortunately a lot of the serving staff are unaware of gluten free. Once in a restaurant I was told the only gf thing I could eat was breaded scampi !!! I've also had salad served with a small baguette popped on top of the salad !! Being coeliac I get such an horrendous reaction so very rarely eat out because I don't want to be knocked off my feet for a few days for their ignorance !
Being a celiac is, I know, so much more of a problem than I have. I expect you become expert very quickly in avoiding gluten. I completely understand why you wouldn't want to eat out - it sounds a nightmare. At least going gluten free seems to be increasingly common so we can only hope that in time restaurants will become more knowledgeable and meals more varied.
Thank you for taking the trouble to reply to me. Hope you stay well despite all the difficulties involved.
Thank you - I'm afraid you have to be brave and speak up when eating out - a lot of people don't realise the consequences of being intolerant to gluten, plus they tend to think it's a fad diet ! I tend to go to one regular place that know of my preferences and are always helpful - even increasing their gf range, but I always feel safer when cooking for myself. Take care
I know what you mean about people embarking on fad diets! I've heard people say a gf diet is a slimming diet. I agree, it is, but only because you can hardly find anything to eat!! I've lost half a stone which I couldn't afford to lose. I have to find a way to get more calories in. Fortunately I love nuts and hope healing my gut doesn't ultimately mean I have to give those up too😢
I'm so glad that you do have one favourite restaurant which caters properly for you😊. We all need someone else to do the cooking for us now and again! Keep well.
Nuts are good for you ! I lost 1 1/2 stone after being diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and coeliac at the same time. I'm tall and skinny ! Thankfully I put it back on ! Once you get your head around it I find it's a lot easier to cook at home. Most supermarket gf food is crammed with sugar, additives and crap anyway. Made me laugh when visiting friends in Florida recently, they label most of their tea's in the supermarket as gluten free !! Bit over the top lol xx
Shampoo and conditioner a are labelled GF too now... Although I don't mind so much, as hair can fall in food, I think that sort of thing add to the eye rolling type!
While GF is becoming more widely available, I get frustrated by how few places take it seriously though - a hospital cafe once treated me like a nutter for asking if their chips were gluten free, or if they cooked anything else in the friers alongside them.
That's so good to hear, that nuts are good for you. My breakfast every day is nuts, dried apricots and natural yoghurt. My favourite meal of the day. And probably the most calorific! I've never been one for cakes and biscuits. Don't care for bread much either. I am glad though that gf pasta is available. Not sure it's very nutritious but I love it with chilli pesto!
I think it's almost inevitable we will lose weight on such a restricted diet, especially to begin with whilst we sort out what we can and cannot eat. Glad to hear you managed to put some weight back on. It gives me hope for the future.
No I've never been much of a fan of cakes and biscuits. But I used to make my own bread, nothing beats the smell and taste of real bread with no additives, preservatives etc. Groan !! Fortunately I love salads and vegetables - I do eat meat but not a lot - there's some good online gf recipes - ignore the bread ones tho, they never turn out like the picture let alone taste edible ! Quinoa cooked in stock, or falafals made with gram flour (chickpea) flour - you can get so much flavour in them.
I'm not much of a chip shop fan but some do gf days - using the fresh oil. I don't understand why chip shops and restaurants don't have separate chip fryers anyway !!
I also miss chinese food, but we do have a local restaurant that will cater for me if I take my own gf soy sauce - obviouslyI'm on edge tho in case of contamination.
Oh I do agree! Homemade bread is a different thing entirely. As a child, we always ate fresh homemade bread, thickly sliced and spread with butter! It was wonderful. Not being able to eat supermarket bread is no sacrifice to me and as you say gf bread is pretty tasteless.
I'm not really much of a foodie. Cheese, nuts, fruit, salads and a little dark chocolate are my mainstays! But I'm having to be careful with cheese as my cholesterol is a bit high and my gp keeps mentioning statins😢. Giving up cheese would be a huge loss to me. I'm generally good though and stay with the lower fat cheeses and small portions.
I have eaten a few quinoa dishes which were ok. Must look out for some recipes online. I particularly want to make some more lentil dishes as they are tasty and a rich vegetarian source of iron.
Glad you've managed to find a good local Chinese restaurant although, being celiac, I completely understand that you will not be truly relaxed about food that you haven't prepared yourself. I realize that i am lucky not to have celiac disease; I am only seeking to reduce thyroid antibodies by going gf. I do feel better for it though!!
My gp has been trying to put me on statins for 3 years !! Have friends that are on statins and not received good reports from them, aching muscles, fatigue etc. I can manage them on my own thanks lol !! Have also been told for 10 years I'm borderline diabetic. Saw endo last night for blood results - no I'm fine - he said they changed the way they did the tests 3 years ago and I'm not borderline - good news for once !
I love lemony lentils - think recipe is on line. Also saw a raw vegan gf blueberry 'cheesecake' on line yesterday. Base is made of seeds and dates, 'cream' made with blitzed soaked cashew nuts, then topping with remaining blitzed cashew cream blizted with blueberries and topped with lime zest ! Nuts, seeds and blueberries ?? Got to be good for you lol !!
Doctors are keen to get us on statins for some reason - probably financial! Like you, I would rather manage my cholesterol by means of diet and certainly don't intend to start taking statins. Hopefully it will come down on its own anyway when I am taking the optimal dose of levothyroxine. If it doesn't I'll persevere with the low-fat diet.
I am so pleased to hear you're not borderline diabetic, you must be really pleased and relieved!😊
Thank you so much for your recipe suggestions. I am going to try a lentil bake I've found on line "very veggie lentil bake". Looks good tho obviously I would not serve it with the garlic bread they suggest! if you are vegan they just suggest leaving out the cheese. I think it would still be tasty. Your recipes for lemony lentils and 'cheesecake' certainly sound worth a try. Delicious and healthy. Can't be bad!!
Yes good news for once about diabetes. Addisons blood tests not back yet though. Was hoping to go without carbimazole under endo's supervision as I'm only on 5mg. Apparently 50% of people can come off it after a couple of years as the thyroid has stabilised. Turns out latest tests show I'm back to being overactive - wondered why I'd been able to stop up until 10pm the last few nights lol !! He's suggesting I have the radio iodine drink/tablet to destroy the thyroid and then go on thyroxine. I'm wondering what to do !!!
I was only diagnosed with hypothyroidism last August and am still learning - mainly from this site - so am not able to comment on your specific situation. Hope you can get some advice from others on the site who are familiar with iodine treatments. It's great to have true experts to call on isn't it?
My current doctor knows nothing. I am currently only taking 58.3 mcg levo. He is happy that I am in range so I struggle to get an increase😡.
I'm planning on changing to another gp towards the end of the month. She has already helped me a lot on the phone and arranged half a dozen related blood tests. Mainly for autoimmune diseases. Fortunately, they all came back negative which was a relief! They were so long coming back that I did get a bit worried. Hope that you have a negative result for Addisons and that it comes soon. All I know about Addisons is that it's quite rare so hopefully you won't have it. The good gps like to rule everything out which is a good thing really but it can still make us a bit anxious. Fingers crossed all will be ok and you will get help deciding what to do about the proposed iodine treatment. I'm pretty sure I've seen it mentioned quite a lot on the forum so there should be plenty of information available. Whatever you decide to do, I hope it all goes well and you continue to make good progress.
Yes I was going to put a message on to ask advice re: radioactive iodine. Unfortunately the majority of GP's know less than us on the forum !! My GP wanted to recently put me on levo as she thought my thyroid had gone underactive despite not checking my bloods, yet I'm on carbimazole for overactive. I said to endo it was crazy for me to take one to lower thyroid and another to increase it !! He agreed saying GP should not be prescribing me levo should be authorised through an endo consultant !!
Unfortunately I already have several auto immune diseases, lupus, Sjogrens plus thyroid problems, but heyho it could always be worse - onwards and upwards as they say lol.
Sorry to hear you have other autoimmune diseases, hope you are able to manage them well. You sound to be a very positive person, which is always helpful!! I have one other autoimmune disease which I've had for 8 years: oral lichen planus. Mostly, this doesn't cause me any problems apart from the fact i have to see the dentist every six months and I have dentist phobia!! I have only had two painful flare ups in all that time so know I'm lucky.
Your gp sounds to be on a par with mine! Not good at all. But at least your endo sounds okay. Hope you get stabilized soon.
I've got a dentist phobia too lol !! I've had lupus for many years resulting in vitiligo - white patches all over my skin - I look as if I'd had a bad spray tan !! and hair loss through alopecia, fortunately my hair grew back - ok it's white - but it's the fashion lately !!
Oh I so love white hair! I even like the grey that young people are wearing these days - as you say it's very fashionable. Just don't care to see any signs of regrowth😡 but clearly you don't have to worry about that !! Glad it grew back. At least it's more acceptable for women to wear wigs, which I would do if I lost my hair. I'd have a collection i think, one for every occasion!!
Me too - every colour of the rainbow. I did have to wear a wig many years ago hopefully they have improved the design now because it was like wearing a woolly hat all the time !! Hubby has a white beard so we look like Mr & Mrs Santa Claus lol !!
My husband also has white hair and a white beard and has been called Santa!! I don't quite match tho I do have two whitish wings of hair at the front which I like. The rest is taking its time catching up! So glad your hair grew back, that must have been devastating. Thank goodness for wigs, even the woolly hat type!! I don't think I could carry off a bald head, though lots do and look great!! I just don't think I'd have the courage. So good that wigs have improved, though they would probably still be a bit warm in this weather.
Hope you've posted re. the radioactive iodine treatments and received some helpful replies. What would we do without this site?
All the best
Caroline
Do be aware that although going gluten free may help your gut health and health in general (I lost all my excess weight slowly after going GF and my Hba1c came back to normal levels) it may not lower your antibodies. Mine have remained the same, even after 2 years. I also went dairy free, again no change to my antibodies, but I did lose much of the bloating ì'd previously suffered from. I've been GF for nearly 2 yrs now but antibodies unreduced. I do know people for whom it helped lower the antibodies, but it doesn't work for everyone.
I'm currently working through the Hashimotos protocol (Izabella Wentz) not yet sure if it has helped antibodies, but it does say you need to address vitamin deficiencies (selenium, magnesium, zinc as well as the usual ones), and work on healing your gut. I don't know what else you've tried, but thought I'd suggest you could look into a gut healing diet? Include some decent probiotics and look into Kefir/kefir water.
Yes, I really like Izabella Wentz, she's the reason I ditched gluten and also dairy. I've fixed a lot of the vitamin/mineral problems. Gut healing may well be my problem as I have to take a painkiller (NSAID) for chronic lower back pain. Unfortunately that may be messing up my gut health to some degree. I found boron is good with reducing pain but I had a recent re-injury so had to go back on them again. I think Kefir is contra-indicated with histamine intolerance, which I have, but I can look into it.
Thanks Jadzhia for your reply. I do realize that a gf diet won't necessarily reduce my antibodies but have seen on this forum that it's worth trying. And as you say there are other health benefits. I didn't realize I would feel better generally if I went gluten free - that has been a surprise to me! My stomach is a lot happier!! I always thought the stomach aches I had regularly were down to stress but I know better now.
So glad to hear that your going gluten free has helped you so much, even if your antibodies have not reduced. Hope you continue to do well.
Thank you so much for taking the trouble to help and advise me.
My starting point with the antibodies was 1115 almost 2yrs ago. I went GF and am now down to 199. I too was gutted when I was accidentally given the wrong food (a few tiimes) and had a day of tummy upset but don't be disheartened...you've taken 100 steps forward and a tiny step back with the hiccup. Keep going...☺
Thank you Janey. I feel so much more positive now😊. As you’ve said, I did feel gutted! It felt as though all my previous efforts were for nothing. Now I realise I have to be realistic and despite taking every care to avoid gf, it can still happen. We just have to get over it and soldier on.
Hi Caroline, I’m trying to reduce my antibodies by going gluten free but it’s only been a week for me. I found the following article really interesting. I’ e added myoinositol and probiotics to my vitamin regime and I’m hoping it’s going to help. I’m going to retest my antibodies again in 6 weeks and see if there’s a difference, I will post my results.
Good luck on your journey hope you find the answer 😜
Thank you so much rosserk for your reply and for the link which looks very interesting. I shall be looking at it in greater detail later. I shall look forward to seeing your results when you post them. With all the different pills I’m taking I feel I should rattle. Might try probiotics tho as have seen so many good things about them. All my vitamins are optimal except my ferritin which I’m taking ferrous fumurate for. I also take vitamins d, k, c and magnesium.
All the best. Fingers crossed that your results show you are making good progress.
It really is! I'm so grateful for the support. Without this site, I would feel so alone as no-one else understands the problems. Even the doctors seem to have no idea😢. It's great that we can all try to help each other.
If your gut is in a bad condition and gluten is responsible for the high antibodies, then there is at least at the moment some level of sensitivity or allergy to gluten. (The second most common cause is dairy.) If the above is the case, the antibodies for the gluten can take 4-9 months to go down. This is dependent on also what type of sensitivity you have, whether it's IgG or IgA. IgGs are faster to go down than IgAs. My thyroid issues and thyroid antibodies were due to dairy and in my case even traces of dairy will get the antibodies up and will take about 6 months to go down.
I don't actually understand the abbreviations IgG . I've looked them up but apart from learning they have something to do with celiac and non-celiac sensitivity i am none the wiser😦. I am not celiac. I have only been tested for TPO antibodies and these are high at 1300. I truly dread the thought that I might have to give up dairy as I am a vegetarian and am already struggling to stick to a gluten-free and low-fat diet (my cholesterol is 6.6). My weight is dropping like a stone and I am already very slim! Thank you very much tho for your reply. I know I am fortunate that my symptoms with regard to gluten are mild. I am struggling to cope with it all at the moment as my doctor thinks the TPO antibodies are of no importance and therefore offers no useful advice. I am hoping to change to a more knowledgeable doctor later this month.
Thank you so much for taking the trouble to reply. I do appreciate your support.
....i remember being gutted too and i get cross with myself!! I think its all in same package!! And i text keniesiologist saying i was failing and he reminded me we are all human and it doesnt matter in scheme of things to cut myself some slackhaha i still lost weight and healed gut with a few slips
So good to hear that you have done so well despite the odd slip-up! As you say, we are likely to make mistakes now and again however careful we are.
My accidental glutening was on the first day of a short, much-needed holiday and without the support i received from the forum, I know it would have spoilt the weekend for me. Posting on the forum was the very best thing I could have done and the help, advice and support truly saved the day! I am so grateful to you and all the others on this site who took the trouble to make me see that one slip-up was not the end of the world. You helped enormously. Thank you so much.
😊👍🏼. Ur welcome, moral support the order of the day with some of the feelings that can come in!! Reckon we are our own hard taskmasters 😊🙈 let me know how you go x
I am home again now so everything seems easier😊. I am going to look into healing my gut next. It looks somewhat daunting but at least I am now going to make a start!
Yes I do feel better having gone gf!😊 My stomach is in a much happier place. I will try a probiotic and look into including some healing foods in my diet. I am reluctant to give up dairy at this stage as I have low bone mass and would struggle to get enough calcium without popping even more pills! I am a vegetarian who doesn't like eggs - my diet is so restricted already😢. Hopefully cheese can stay on the menu!
Hope you have a good day. Summer seems to have arrived at last😊
And you!! Make best of it 🌞Lol vit D, - Please don't get too daunted by the large flow of helpful info, I know I have done in the past 😳 ...Have been the Worlds worst at procrastinating (which seems to be a symptom for many)
You are in right place for sure as it's true expert knowledge territory, such a blessing xxx
Thanks. Do take K2 .. and vitamin d .. and magnesium ..and vitamin c and iron.. and a multivitamin. Sometimes it seems that I take more pills than food!!
There are 3 different tests for food allergies. IgG is to test sensitivity and IgA and IgE for different type of allergies. In addition there are also intolerances. So if talking about non-celiac gluten sensitivity, this can be seen in the IgG test for gluten. IgG sensitivity can be overcome by sticking with a very strict diet with no gluten for 6-12 months or until the gut has been healed. After this the sensitivity often goes away.
I was tested for 288 foods. I had 7 sensitivities and a IgA allergy to dairy. I also have sensitivities to some additives, the worst being E250. So I'm on a diet with no dairy, wheat, gluten, egg, nuts, sunflower seeds (and wow in how many places this is in the form of oil - the most inflammatory oil).
If your doctor is not a functional doctor, they often don't have enough education here. TPO antibodies are the ones that slowly destroy the thyroid if they are not brought down. They will over time make the body dependent on thyroid medication. So it is quite important to get the antibodies down. Also conventional doctors simply don't know how to bring them down. It's a simple diet with no dairy, no gluten and no foods that one is allergic or sensitive to and fixing the gut. Hashimoto's is created by the gut lining letting small particles of food into the blood stream and to places where they don't belong. Often the thyroid is one of the places that suffer from this. This causes they Thyroid antibodies to go up.
That was my knowledge on this area in a nutshell. Hope you find help in your situation.
Thank you satu55555 for explaining all that to me. I do know about the TPO antibodies and that they will ultimately destroy my thyroid if not reduced. That is my main reason for trying to be gluten free though I have felt other health benefits and that was a surprise to me.
I have been tested for celiac along with quite a few other autoimmune diseases and all were negative. But I have had oral lichen planus (this is an autoimmune disease) for about 8 years. This is currently fairly well managed with only two flare ups occurring in all that time. As far as I know I am not allergic to any foodstuffs tho I have found gf good for my stomach so I guess I may well have leaky gut. I will certainly be looking into probiotics.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me. I still have so much to learn but this site is brilliant at answering any questions as they arise. I feel so fortunate to have found it!
So maybe if gut is in healed condition you have 🙈then moved out of Hashi whilst its healed...... i think my few out of range antibodies were when gut leaking became apparent! I guess it will always be a fine line
I found once gut healing was hsppening i had good appetite and lost weight with little sugar and gf, odd slip up yes, but like you i dont suffer discomfort fortunately and its a blip thats all, Reading its important to rid of candida if any x
Thank you jeppy. I love that you think my being glutened yesterday was
Just a blip! I was so gutted!! As you rightly say, you and I are both lucky that we only have a mild reaction, if any, to a gluten slip-up. Hope you continue to make good progress.
These replies to you, Caroline888, are all excellent in advice. And, you're right. This forum, and its various threads, are simply great at providing excellent feedback on these subjects.
I didn't realise that eating gluten can cause so many reactions. Like, stomach pain, gas, skin rash and others. So it's always best to be wary if you accidentally eat some. I totally agree with other users on this. And perhaps using some digestive enzymes might help provide some relief, especially against small amounts of gluten...
Thank you so much Lydia for your reply. Fortunately, I didn't have much in the way of a reaction to the small amount of gluten I ate by accident yesterday although a full gluten-containing meal would have given me stomach ache. I'm just hoping that it didn't set me back too much in my endeavour to reduce TPO antibodies. I like your suggestion of obtaining some digestive enzymes for any future unfortunate blips and will certainly be looking into this next.
Thank you for your help and support. It's much appreciated.
Thank you Josiesmum. You have saved me having to research digestive enzymes following advice from Lydia above😊. A recommendation is always good, especially when we are all suffering from similar problems on this site! Thank you so much for taking the trouble to help me.
I am Hypo-thyroid and have another auto-immune condition PBC. On reading that gluten "throws fuel on the fire" of automimmune problems, I decided to go gluten free 2 years ago. 6 months later my blood test results for the PBC were back to normal levels, although my Thyroid varies a bit, I don't have major symptoms from either.
Down the line, I am a lot more relaxed, at a BBQ yesterday I had a little pasta and a small piece of lemon tart (pastry) - I do not feel guilty or that I have spoilt anything if I do this once in a while. Do you take it to the absolute degree of regularly refraining from gravy and sauces etc, I would imagine we have all been 'glutened' ' in restaurants to some degree?
Don't be despondent, as long as you stick to your regime 99% of the time I'm sure you are getting health benefits. Plus I have given up on all GF bread, have you read the ingredients list, doesn't read well to me!! I generally avoid any 'gluten free alternatives ' such as wraps / bread / biscuits / cake. Stick to foods on a restaurant menu that you know naturally contain no gluten, salads, meat and veg, then you're not at the peril of the waiters lack of knowledge! X
Yes, I have been trying to cut out gluten completely - I've become a "label reader". However your attitude is very reassuring😊 Clearly one bite or two of gluten-containing bread is not the disaster I thought it was. I haven't looked closely at gf bread ingredients but will do so. Bread is not something I'm particularly fond of anyway. Your tip to stick to foods naturally gf is a really good one, although I am a vegetarian so it will be salads all the way! I do love salads so no problem.
Thank you so much for giving me the benefit of your experience. I hope you continue to do well.
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You don't have to avoid bread in future, but you do need to learn to read how clued up your server is when you eat out. If they don't sound familiar enough, base you decisions on that, and get whoever is with you to try a bit of the bread first. If they say it's just like normal bread, it probably is normal bread!
Has anyone tried the Self Check gluten sensitivity test (IgA) available over the counter from Lloyds chemist? 
Fed up
