Can you develop a wheat intolerance later in life?

[DatingDinosaur]

Just that really.

White bread has always bloated me but I've never been "poorly" with it and I was alright eating wholemeal bread, biscuits, pasta, pizza and other wheat based products so I put it down to white bread being more processed and having a lot of preservatives in. Now I get horrendous stomach cramps, wind, constipation and feel generally rubbish if I eat anything wheat based.

I've done an elimination diet and wheat is definitely a trigger. My B12 levels are normal (recent blood test for a well woman of a certain age health MOT thing).

@DatingDinosaur lactose is the easy one tbh. I find that's fine as there are so many alternatives that taste pretty much the same. It's the wheat I'm finding difficult

Yeah, lactose, you can just remove the lactose. So many products have it done for you, these days. So much easier now than when I was in my 20s.

One thing that has developed since menopause, as well as the gluten intolerance, is that I simply cannot eat fruit (except bananas) and even circubits. Cucumber is a instant clear out. Always been iffy with citrus but that's an absolute no now. Also developed food triggered migraines and I now understand why old people want "plain food".

@PickAChew lactose free products have lactase added to enable someone without the enzyme to digest lactose to digest it.

@crikey – argh, no! I’ve just checked my gravy granules and you are right, it contains wheat (along with a load of chemicals and msg). On the plus side, no issues from it so maybe it’s such a small amount in a serving that my intestines can cope with that.

Those of you mentioning lactose intolerance, I’m not too concerned about that as it only seems to be latte coffees, which are easily avoidable... but that's how my bread thing started..

@DatingDinosaur I'm exactly the same- I can tolerate bits of gluten without being really ill (I just get tingling in my toes and a back of head headache) but struggle with huge slabs of cake or pizzas or massive plates of pasta etc .

I try to avoid it but don't sweat it if I get a Sunday lunch out and it has normal gravy etc- I realised the issue when I wondered why I was getting my neuro symptoms and a bit of an iffy tummy every time I had a roast type dinner