Potential oat intolerance

[ConsternationStation]

For the last year, since I had a tooth extraction, I've eaten porridge/oatmeal for breakfast, with a few exceptions. About a month ago, I noticed that despite waking up feeling fine I was feeling sick after breakfast and the nausea would last most of the day. Stomach would ache a bit too but nothing awful. A couple of weeks ago, I also started to feel body aches and fatigue alongside nausea. I largely put it down to stress and hormones as I had a lot on my plate.

Last week we went on holiday and I didn't touch oats for a whole week. No porridge, no oat milk, nothing. And I felt completely fine, no nausea, no aches. Came home yesterday, had porridge this morning and I'm so achy, nauseous and tired. My stomach has been cramping too. I feel pretty rotten.

Could I have developed an oat intolerance? Dr Google (I know I know) says all the symptoms could be. I think I'm going to eliminate oats from my diet and see if it improves. If I choose to try to reintroduce them (I love oat milk in my tea!) how do I do that?

I can’t have oats. It has gotten worse as I have gotten older. At this point the tiniest trace triggers vomiting and a multi day migraine.

The fact that they are used as a cheap filler and everything is now “multigrain” is a source of endless frustration. Every label has to be checked.

I don’t know about developing one but all my life oats had made me have those exact symptoms (even the fatigue, it’s so weird!) you describe, I didn’t think that much of it except thinking it was weird as everyone always said oats gave you loads of energy.

then I had DS2 who was diagnosed with oat allergy. His symptoms became really obvious after eating oat yogurt/milk. We’re both ok with a bit of cooked oat, like a hobnob, tiny amount of granola or something but avoid porridge, and definitely milk and yogurt. Obviously not life threatening but not very pleasant.

This is so true. There’s a coffee shop near me which serves only oat milk and doesn’t make it clear! Seems really irresponsible when it’s a known allergen wthat has ne be listed in bold on ingredient lists

I made the switch to oat milk about a decade ago after finding cows milk wasn't agreeing with me as much any more so to now have the same issue with oats (albeit worse!) is so frustrating. Weirdly, I can tolerate lactose again now so maybe I just have to make the switch back. Not thrilled.

I'm coeliac and was told not to eat oats, wheat , rye or barley. Even the gluten free oats affect me

That pattern — gone on holiday, straight back the moment you had porridge again — is about as clear a signal as you get that the oats are involved. Worth saying it might not be oats as a blanket thing though.

A daily bowl of porridge is a big, repeated dose, and a few different things could be behind it. Oats are high in a type of fibre called fructans (a FODMAP), and a large daily serving can build up and cause bloating, cramps and nausea. Even if a smaller amount now and then would be fine. Separately, the oat protein (avenin) doesn't agree with some people at all. And standard oats are very often contaminated with wheat during processing, so if you weren't eating certified gluten-free oats, part of this could be a wheat problem wearing an oat costume.

If you want to try reintroducing later, I would leave them out completely for four to six weeks first to let everything properly settle, then bring back a small amount of certified gluten-free oats on their own — not a giant bowl, and not alongside a load of other new foods — so you can actually read the result. If a small portion is fine but your old daily bowl wasn't, that points to dose rather than a true intolerance.

The one thing I would flag: body aches and fatigue is a bit more than a plain food intolerance usually throws up, so if it carries on it is worth asking your GP for a coeliac blood test — but only while you are still eating gluten, because going gluten-free first makes the test unreliable.