Bloated even from gluten free

[girlladywoman]

Stupid question BUT...

I get so bloated and constipated from bread/pasta/rice etc. so I thought oooh I'll try gluten free. Still the same. Am I being thick? What alternatives can I have?

How long did you give up gluten? It takes a few weeks to leave your system

Oh! Only 9 days (minus one rice dish, ha). But I really did feel the tiredness and bloatiness when I had the gluten!

Rice doesn't contain gluten. And yes, it's going to take more than 9 days!

@Fairislefandango ah okay! I'll chill out and continue then! 😂😂 THANKS

Rice is naturally gluten free btw so no need to cut that one out of the diet

It may well not be the gluten that's the problem, but the carbs. Gluten intolerance is very specific but there are other issues with bread, pasta etc which may be more likely.

Ah okay. That makes sense. So perhaps I should try to cut that out and see if that's make a difference. And work from there!

If you suspect gluten is causing you problems it would be sensible to keep eating it for long enough to be tested for coeliac disease.

I have this problem but I can eat rice. Tried gluten free and it made no difference. Turned out it was yeast and pasta.

Anything with yeast makes me so uncomfortable, bloated and constipated..sorry TMI. Pasta does the same but no yeast no idea why. My main carbs now are rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes and I make my own flatbread using just flour and water. (see roti recipes on YouTube).

Funnily if I have a satchet of fybrogel straight after eating any of my trigger foods then the symptoms are about 90% less. So if I go to a restaurant and want pasta, pizza or anything with yeast then I can order and it won't cause issues.

@Yarnasaurus Noted - thank you!

@zeddybrek Ooh I like that advice bc sometimes I do want to scoff a load of pasta 😂

Try gluten, grain and dairy free except yoghurt. Hard but helped my daughter with intolerences.

You need to keep a diary of everything you eat and your symptoms.

The bloating and constipation may not be gluten but from a sugar (fructans) that's found in wheat. It's also in loads of other foods.

www.monashfodmap.com/blog/avoiding-wheat-how-strict-on-low-fodmap_10/

www.monashfodmap.com/blog/fructans-fodmap-reintroduction/

It could also be something completely different causing the bloatedness.

How soon do you get bloated after eating?

It can take around 12-24 hrs for food to reach the gut so food you are currently eating when the bloating occurs may not be the food you are actually responding to. Eating fires up the digestive system so your gut starts processing what is in there and you get a reaction if it's something you are intolerant to.

As others have said if you think you might be coeliac, you need to be eating a good amount of gluten for 6 weeks before you can be tested. So it's worth asking for the test before you give up gluten as it can be difficult to do once you know it's making you unwell. If you are coeliac you will need to follow a very strict item free diet avoiding cross contamination for the rest of your life. Not something to undertake unless you are certain.

I'm just going to caveat that by saying that a coeliac blood test is not 100% accurate.

celiac.org/about-celiac-disease/screening-and-diagnosis/screening/

A bowel biopsy is more definitive but you are unlikely to get that on the NHS straight out of the gate. They may want you to try other things first.

Have you spoken to your doctor? There are a lot of conditions that can cause constipation and bloating.

If you have and they've ruled everything else out and they think IBS (IBS is a diagnosis of exclusion and should not be diagnosed without everything else being ruled out first), take a look at low FODMAP.

I cured my IBS with it (ie it enabled me to identify exactly what I was intolerant to and have no symptoms now - thankfully for me there are enzymes I can take to help me process the foods I was intolerant to so I basically eat almost anything now).

It's full on. So do a lot of research before you start and get prepared.

A good starting place is here:

www.monashfodmap.com

These apps are also helpful:

www.monashfodmap.com/ibs-central/i-have-ibs/get-the-app/

www.kcl.ac.uk/research/work-with-kings/ip-licensing/fodmap-app

It's complicated so it's recommended you do it under a dietician. But you do need a dietician who knows what they are talking about! I did it myself but I am happy to do extensive research and am a bit if a stickler for detail so if you are not that way inclined you might want to see if you can get a dietician referral.

You follow the diet for 6-8 weeks until symptoms subside and then follow a specific reintroduction programme where you slowly reintroduce the sugar groups and monitor symptoms.

The diet is very restrictive so you should not stay on it for too long or it will start to negatively affect your gut microbiome. If symptoms don't subside after 6-8 weeks then it's probably not fodmaps if you are sure you've followed it correctly.

Good luck.

If pasta is giving you a problem, it could be eggs. This sounds scary with so many potential allergens. The fact is that people with food allergies are often sensitive to more than one thing. You could try an elimination diet. www.healthline.com/nutrition/elimination-diet. I know it sounds a real pfaff, but it will be worth it in the end. It sounds like you have leaky gut (that's where your body has reacted to food and you end up with holes in your gut, which let microbes, waste and toxins out into the rest of your body, causing inflammation and other illnesses). These things should all remain inside your gut, unable to get to the other organs or your bloodstream, and on their way to be expelled when you go to the loo. Apart from eliminating things to find the culprit(s) you should look into eating more probiotics and fibre, to help your gut heal and your good bacteria to thrive. I hope this helps.

Just seen this post after completing mine below. All good information.

.

Following on from @TooManyPJs excellent post above, coeliac / gluten sensitivity is a very different thing from IBS. This is what I was flagging up in my earlier comment. To simplify it as much as possible, Gluten is a protein and some people are allergic to it. An allergy means your immune system has decided a protein is a threat and attacks it, causing symptoms for you along the way. But IBS is often caused by foods fermenting in your gut and producing gas, which is nothing to do with allergies. So gluten can cause symptoms for coeliacs, who are allergic to gluten, but it's the sugars/FODMAPs in bread which ferment and cause a problem for those with IBS. Some gluten-free breads are also low FODMAP, but not all. There's a really good article about troubleshooting for bread, and finding bread to suit you, here:
www.fodmapeveryday.com/how-to-choose-low-fodmap-bread/

A low FODMAP diet should only be followed for a short period ; 2-6 weeks is usually suggested, and many people do try this without doctor supervision because it depends how accessible / helpful your doctor is. But I personally wouldn't stay on it for longer than 6 weeks because cutting out onions and garlic in particular can leave you deficient in vitamin K. So if I wasn't seeing improvement after a few weeks on the low FODMAP diet, I'd definitely see my doctor and push for more help.

@DivorcedAndDelighted Coeliac disease is not an allergy to gluten, it is an autoimmune disorder.

It is very different to an allergy to wheat/gluten.

You're right, @Yarnasaurus@Yarnasaurus;thank you. I was trying to give a simple view but but that was an over - simplification and I used the wrong term. I've read up on the difference. For anyone else interested, allergies and autoimmune disorders are both disorders where the immune system "overreacts" and attacks something harmless , but the response in an autoimmune disorder is different and actually destroys tissue.
Thanks for the correction Yarnasaurus; it was needed!

Thanks @DivorcedAndDelighted I'm very conscious that people with coeliac disease often get quite exasperated when it's described as an allergy!