Jellies with Celiac or Gluten Intolerance, does this happen to you?

Friends with Celiac have reacted just as you- almost immediate bloatiing, cramping, and nausea.

An old girlfriend who is gluten intolerant gets a headache within about ten minutes.

People I know that have reactions seem to get them pretty quickly.

You’ve described the symptoms pretty much perfectly. I have a friend who you can see bloat up in front of you if something with gluten is snuck onto her plate.

Celiac disease is more than simple gluten-intolerance. Do your research, adjust your diet/lifestyle, and take good care of yourself.

@zenvelo – I was going to mention the headache and thought: “nah, that could be from anything”...and when you mentioned that.. I thought: Wow. So it might be the Celiac! I don’t get headaches (unless I’ve gone without sleep for far too long)...so I find it uncanny that it’s one of the symptoms you mentioned.

Thank you @BellaB. Because this diagnosis came in my 40s I discounted it as being entirely true.. but now I’m seeing that it’s genuinely affecting my health. I will research more as you suggested.

Celiac/Gluten Intolerance can arise when older. One of the friends I referred to had Celiac caused by Lyme Disease when he was 48,

Another’s gluten intolerance arose after he had acquired a parasitic infection in Uruguay. It took him months to get past the parasite, and he was on a restricted diet during the recovery. For a couple years after, he would go back on a normal diet, get sick again, go back on the restricted diet again. Finally a Doctor pointed out that his restricted diet had no grains, and tested him for gluten intolerance. This happened when he was in his late forties.

If you’ve watched Survivor at all you might be familiar with what happened to Elisabeth Hasselbeck during her time on the island.

While everybody else was feeling lousy due to the minimal amounts of food available, she felt better than she ever had in her life.

This led eventually to her diagnosis of celiac. I believe she also has a website with helpful advice, tips, and recipes.

Here’s an article where she discusses how prevalent gluten is in many hidden ways. Very helpful.

She has also written a book. You can find it on Amazon.
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http://www.everydayhealth.com/celiac-disease/elisabeth-hasselbeck.aspx

I sympathize, but still I have to wonder: humans have been eating wheat for all of recorded history. How come just in the last couple of decades people can’t tolerate gluten?

@SmartAZ There are a few of theories as to that:

1. Changes in the wheat commonly used in white flour to yield greater crop yield.
2. Pesticide/herbicide use to protect crops.
3. Changes in the common human biome as a result of antibiotics.

While I share a “bandwagon” effect concern about being anti-gluten, (being gluten free does not help lose weight) I have known enough people with medically diagnosed reactions to know it is a ral problem.

@SmartAZ. I have the same questions, and I figure they probably died from “unknown causes,” eventually. “Croup,” or something.

@SmartAZ – I totally share(d) your skepticism. It took blood testing and an endoscopic biopsy for me to even consider eliminating gluten because I found it so “fad-ish” and since I’m otherwise in good health (and don’t remember any food sensitivities of any kind, aside from one bad experience with raw horse meat in Japan) – let’s just say I didn’t give gluten-free a real chance.
But now I feel like crap. My sports orthopedist has told me I need to supplement my calcium (have taken vitamin D for quite a while b/c I live where the sun doesn’t shine—much) and I need to worry about early osteoporosis.

For me it takes a LOT for me to consider seeing a doctor for any intervention (and this includes diet change):
1. If it impacts my sleep (if I’m sick enough I can’t sleep) ...cause I am a champion sleeper and LOVE to sleep.

2. If I’m visibly injured badly (i.e. once I was in a bad crash that totaled my car, but aside from cuts on my arms and face from the airbags I felt okay so I had to sign all these waivers because I refused to be transported by ambulance to a hospital) – but I’m not so foolish as to avoid signals that it’s something serious. I’ll limp on in to a doctor. I know my body well, and if it’s bad, I know. (My dad’s an ER doc, so I’ve grown up with the quote: “If it’s 2 feet from your heart you’re fine.”

3. You take away my ability to do what I love: running, yoga, swimming, sleeping, eating, playing with my kids.
Once I couldn’t run (and I’m going CRAZY without the ability to run with my running club friends) I was willing to consider any Physical Therapy and medical advice I was given. I finally listened to the orthopedist when I wouldn’t give the GI doc my full trust. It took two professional opinions. (Well, and the fact that my mom is gluten-intolerant, too…)

Oh! And my GI doc showed me a picture of what wheat looked like in the 1960s vs. now. It looks totally different now. Short, stocky..no amber waves of grain like we sing about.. it’s more like like brown, low, thick plants you’d mistake for dried-out soy fields.

That’s very odd, since America the Beautiful was first written in 1895. (by a woman.) Why would she include that line if there were no amber waves of grain?

Can’t help…gotta go look! Found this pic from 1917. I don’t see any difference in the look of wheat from today.

I am so so so sorry this is happening to you @geeky_mama. Maybe I missed something, but won’t cutting gluten out of your diet free you from all the symptoms?

@Dutchess_III – Oh, we used to have Amber Waves of grain..so the song was absolutely accurate. But now the plant looks different because over time it’s been grown with different processes and chemicals that has made it into a shorter version (not long waves of grain). Looks like this

Here’s an article from CBS and pictures here.

It’s not because of GMOs, because GMO wheat, which has been worked on since the 1990s has (at least according to Monsanto) not been released in products available on the market. Yet.

The changes are just from hybrids and changes the chemicals/components used to grow wheat. Info here.

The purpose was to provide exports of grain to 3rd world countries to give them more protein, etc. The side effect is a very different plant..

@Dutchess_III – Oh yeah, that’s exactly what I plan. I just didn’t want to have to go entirely gluten-free as it tends to require some extra effort and can make it challenging to eat out. That’s all. It means eating meals separately from my family to an extent… They can eat fried chicken rolled in flour, I can’t. They can eat biscuits from Popeye’s, I can’t.
That’s all.
Ends my consumption of certain candies, snacks & yummy pastries I like at lot.

That’s a bitch! I am so sorry.

I’m pretty sure you’ll find new foods to love. There’s a pretty good selection of excellent gluten-free products out there. The only thing that seems to be a significant gap is soft breads for people who like that sort of thing.

You definitely need to keep an eye on candies. A friend of mine kept on having flare-ups til we realized that he continued to snack on North American faux – licorice (aka Twizzlers). Those suckers are full of wheat.

M. I love plastic soaked in sugar!

@BellaB…I just figured out my favorite soft Australian licorice has wheat in it. :(

I’ll be looking for new treats. For now I’m just sticking with the basics I love.. big salads, rice, home cooked chicken or meats.. It’s pretty simple until you start trying to eat out.

@geeky_mama , most restaurants here have gluten-free menu options.

I often order from that part of the menu because the food is just better. I’d rather have grilled chicken than battered fried chicken any day (unless it’s Korean double-fried, but that’s hard enough to find that I can resist).

Glad you checked that licorice. It changed a lot for my friend when he switched out the wheated soft licorice to gluten-free European hard licorice. Much stronger flavour and no wheat.

@BellaB it’s really been tough to figure this stuff out. I know most (plain) chocolate is gluten free – but the one that surprised me recently was the barley malt powder used in one of my favorite Lindt chocolate treats. I’d been looking for “wheat” when shopping… but barley is also a no-go.

Oh yeah, malted barley. That came up for someone recently. <thinks> oh… Grape Nuts. They thought it was a safe cereal – but it’s got barley flour AND malted barley flour.