Gluten discussion

UCwhat? said...
I too have toyed around with the idea of going gluten free, but just can't sell myself on it yet. Also, if I do try, I'd like to wait till I've been on Remicade longer and am closer to out of this flare so I know for sure if the Remicade is helping me. I don't want to try a bunch of things at once and not know what is making me better.

That said, if I DO decide to try GF for a while, for those of you who have done it gone so extreme as to getting all new kitchen gear and stuff like that? I've read in many places that unless you eliminate all the things in your kitchen that could be harboring crumbs of gluten, you could be sabotaging yourself and getting gluten in small amounts anyway. I could not justify doing all of that just for an experiment.

And, if it IS that our gut microbes and what not are just too out of whack to properly handle gluten, dairy, whatever.....could the right probiotics essentially fix this??

Good thinking UCwhat. I'm kind of the same way in a flare atm and would like to take one step at a time.

As for buying all new kitchen gear, this is for those that have celiac disease, that really cannot ingest even trace amounts without getting sick.

If you go GF without being an actual celiac diagnosis, you should be fine to use the same equipment and such.. I do anyway.

Its a good question about the supplementation of probiotics for fixing the gut,... but then again I ask this question myself about UC in general. :( Perhaps once the damage is done, its incredibly difficult to get back.

Don't see what that link has to do with the study I posted, tbh - it's not a study and it doesn't disprove anything, just spouts on about 'leaky gut' and makes a few trite recommendations. It's a frikken journalism piece, that's all, and tabloid level journalism at that. In any case there've been other studies showing that a GF diet reduces the amount of beneficial microbes, but too late/tired to search them out and post them now, but they do exist.

If you'd bothered to read my last post, I actually supported your GF diet, but never mind.

Gluten will continue to be inaccurately demonised as a fear food, so I don't even know why I'm wasting the ink on my keyboard.

Literally could not be a bigger waste of my time.

Post Edited (NiceCupOfTea) : 1/30/2013 8:22:48 PM (GMT-7)

Yeah, it was a letter from the president of a company which markets a prebiotic, summarising the study in the absence of an abstract. I could not post the abstract itself, it wasn't available, but the letter was posted in The British Journal of Nutrition.

Absolutely nothing there to debunk the study itself.

I tested sensitive to gluten, via blood test. I had no idea it was an issue before that.

If I eat gluten, I bloat. I can tell the difference after just a day or two of getting back to a gluten-free diet. It doesn't take weeks.

I don't think it affects my UC, but the bloat is just one more uncomfortable thing with my gut that I would rather avoid!

stereofidelic89 said...

Sibby said...
I still can't go near wheat all that often. I've been gluten-free for at least a month-and-a-half, or longer, and I've found I'm a lot less bloated and have less bump in the roads (loose stools hear and there.

But oddly I can have chicken fingers. I found healthy ones with little additive crap in them, and they actually bulked my stools.

Even before UC, I was a vegetarian and ate a lot of wheat, and man I looked like a 5 months pregnant sometimes. Major gas also.

The only time I'm bloated now is when I don't release my gas, haven't eaten or ate too much, or ate something gassy. The only downfall is that my stools are not always as perfectly formed. Dpends on how much i eat now.

I'm bloated all of the time. My stomach looks ridiculous. If the bloating wasn't there you would be able to tell I have abs. It's embarrassing, at least for a slim guy to take a shirt off. I can tell either there is some unfavorable bacteria, or low amounts of the good guys, and just a lot of pent up gas or undigested food thats fermenting inside of me.

I've found that chicken fingers can be a red flag. What if they are breaded or fried ? I believe there is a difference. Same with wings. :(

No, this kind was not fried, just breaded and not heavily.

I understand where you're coming from. Nowadays, I'm usually bloated because I'm having issues. If I'm bloated, I'm in my chair, reading and not going outside.

Sometimes though I feel like I want to binge on everything bad.

I guess I don't buy into the theory that everyone has a gluten problem...
I just don't want to go gluten free unless I know, guaranteed, that it will "CURE" my UC...

Nobody has ever said that everyone has a gluten problem. But it does occur often enough in UCers that if I were a doctor I would check all my IBD patients for sensitivity to gluten. Same with dairy. I personally have no problem with lactose-free dairy but apparently there are others who do have a problem with it.

It is not necessary to make "your life more miserable by going gluten free for months." If you have a severe problem with gluten then you will most likely know it within a few days of avoiding it. Those who are desperate for any kind of relief from IBD may want to avoid gluten for 3-4 weeks just to be sure that they are not even moderately sensitive to it. But you are not willing to be without wheat for even a few days?

Last year there was an article in the Atlantic Monthly about President Kennedy's health problems. In those days Celiac was not a popular diagnosis. He was prescribed steroids for his stomach problems. Then drugs to counter the osteoporosis and severe back pain from the steroids. Steroids destroyed his adrenals so he had Addison's disease. On and on until he was taking pills and meds all day long.

But when doctors recently looked at his original lab and blood work, they ascertained that most of his health problems originated from his Celiac or wheat intolerance. They then tested his relatives and found that they had the same problem. Think of all of the aggravation that could have been avoided if a doctor advised him just to avoid wheat in the first place.

There are those who are in the gluten free "cult" who believe that gluten is bad for everyone.

I know exactly who you are talking about. Those zealots are actually causing more harm than good by trying to impose their personal health protocols on everyone thereby causing an overreaction. But most of us realize that everyone is different and make suggestions to be helpful. Of course we realize going gluten-free is not for everyone but it might help some. That's all.

I had every test for celiac and gluten sensitivity come back negative. Yet I feel better when I avoid or at least greatly reduce gluten consumption. Actually, I feel best when I avoid all grains.

There's a lot of research pointing towards a large number of folks being undiagnosed celiac or gluten sensitive. I understand the feeling of resentment at being told you should go GF. It can be touch to give up the majority of favorite foods you may have grown up with – although there are WAY more GF alternatives than there used to be. However, IMHO most folks with IBD could certainly benefit from doing so.

I'll also say as I've said on these forums before: if you're in a moderate to bad flare, making dietary changes may seem to do nothing for you one way or another because your system is in such bad shape. Dietary changes (and other alternative approaches) are generally not magic bullets that stop a flare on a dime. They take time for healing and positive changes to become more obvious.

I don't get how some will try a new medication, but not the elimination of gluten for a few weeks. The benefits if there are should be immediately noticeable, particularly a cessation of joint pain. Then you can make an informed choice of whether to go back. Here's the thing that surprised me. Part of the gluten response is a craving and without gluten in your system you don't have cravings. Cravings don't have to be a part of your daily life.

I refuse to be concerned about minute amounts of gluten because life becomes too inconvenient.

However, since I started my elimination diet (soy included) I had an attack of hives and severe itching after eating a seabass and eggplant dish that included soy, msg and wheat. The attack was sudden and swift. My guess is that this type of food didn't hurt me before I eliminated gluten and soy and I had built up antibodies to this food. I really had to think about reintroducing and building up antibodies again, but I decided it wasn't worth it. The idea that your body has to build up defenses to certain foods means they can't be good for you.

I don't get how some will try a new medication, but not the elimination of gluten for a few weeks.

I know....weird huh? I've given this a lot of thought because I've been through this whole issue myself.
I wanted to be given a pill to make me better but pills did not make any improvement for me in 10 years. I resisted-resisted-resisted using enemas because they were so....yuckky...and embarrassing...and had a learning curve. Gdarn it give me a pill and fix it! (edit: I do not use the "darn" word but I guess HWell does lol)

Pills are so easy. Diet modification is hard. Not eating wheat was hard in the beginning because so much of our American Diet revolves around bread, wraps, etc. It was so much fun to stuff anything I wanted into my mouth without having to think about it every time. I went through all the negative mindset for both diet mod and enemas.

Thankfully it is a personal choice to do this because if I had been forced to do it I would have sued someone for excessive cruelty lol.

I choose not to eat gluten and other grains, not to eat fresh dairy (hard cheese is OK for me) and I choose to use enemas when needed (not much anymore). And my UC is extremely quiet with less and less inflammation with every scope. My choice. Others are free to make their own choices.

Fruitgirl, I eliminated a lot of foods and felt better, but the gluten elimination had very specific results -- immediately. I was stunned, really. An allergy is a sudden swift response to a food. An insensitivity or intolerance isn't as drastic.

yes, I think strawberries are good for most people but they do cause hives. I'm not convinced soy is the health food that its made out to be. So much of this food has been genetically modified for higher plant yields and I know longer trust that it lives up to health claims.

garylouisville: there were so many posters on this board who seemed to get relief by going gf, that I figured it was worth a shot to try.

I went gluten free for 3 months and had no change in my uc symptoms.  i went back to gluten and got no worse with my uc.  i concluded that i did not have a problem with gluten. 

but, there was no way i felt i could sit around and do nothing, here was a very easy thing i could try on my own.  i am one of those people that likes to leave no stone unturned.... i tried soooo many things that others here have had success with, with no luck and finally gave in and went on imuran (after a 4 year flare up, believe me i tried lots of stuff!)

it may be worth it to go gf even for 3-4 weeks, see if you get some relief, best case scenario,  improvement in uc, worst case scenario, you have ruled out gluten as an issue. thats win win to me.