It took me forever to figure out, and then accept, that I
have a non-Celiac gluten intolerance.
And I’m not alone. About 5% of the population has gluten
intolerance, and only a fraction of those people have Celiac. The rest of us struggled along for
years eating bread here and there, trying to figure out if we always
felt like crap after eating bread, or if maybe our symptoms were related to
something else we ate. One of the
reasons it can be so hard to “swallow” the idea that you might be
gluten-intolerant is that the symptoms don’t necessarily come immediately after
eating wheat. Sometimes symptoms don’t
occur until as much as 2 or 3 days after consuming wheat.
If you eat a piece of bread and feel fine until the next evening,
you’re more likely to blame your symptoms on whatever you ate for lunch on the
day you started feeling bad. But if
you keep a food journal you can track whether your symptoms always come after
you’ve eaten wheat.
What are the symptoms of gluten intolerance?
-Diarrhea, flatulence, constipation
-Tiredness, lethargy
-Headaches, memory problems
-Depression and anxiety
-Frequent illnesses such as colds and bacterial infections
-Joint and inflammation problems
-Eczema, itching, dandruff
Note that when you give up gluten it can take a couple of days
to get relief from symptoms. But
once the gluten starts leaving your system your body will experience dramatic
reductions in the symptoms.
Some good resources to check out:
http://gluten.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/allergies-and-intol-06-2011.pdf
