Wheat/Gluten Sensitivity?

Is there anyone here who is sensitive to gluten or has an intolerance for it? Or wheat.... but if you can't have wheat doesn't that also mean you can't have gluten? I've read so many things online and I STILL don't get it.

I'm trying to figure out whether or not I'm gluten/wheat sensitive. It seems like every time I have a sandwich for lunch, instead of boosting my energy it zaps it outa me. For instance today after work I made myself a tuna sandwich on whole grain bread, and soon after consuming it I was so tired I had to take a nap. I feel bloated, thirsty, and sleepy. I had more energy before I ate.

I feel the same way after eating pasta too, which actually isn't that often. But I am just fine with things like cereal, crackers, candy, cake, etc... I do feel a lil' bloated after eating say.. a homemade muffin (made with whole wheat flour), but I don't get that sleepy feeling. I've assumed that fullness is from the higher fiber content? I could be wrong.

Can anyone explain the differences between being wheat sensitive and gluten sensitive? Short of seeing a doctor, how can I test this for myself and figure out the cause?

Gluten-intolerance, otherwise known as celiac disease or celiac sprue, is when the body reacts to the gluten protein in the following grains: wheat, barley, rye and *oats (*contaminated with wheat).

Gluten is not found in rice, potatoes, corn, teff, soy, amaranth, quinoa. It's confusing because we use the term "glutinous" to describe a lot of starches but not all contain gluten.

You can be born with the condition, or you can develop it at any point in your life if you have the HLA gene sequence. This gene sequence is found throughout the world, but is found at even higher rates for those whose family originally came from Northern Europe (particularly the UK and Ireland).

The symptoms for gluten-intolerance vary greatly from one person to another. Symptoms may include: anemia, fatigue, weight loss (or weight gain), bloating, diarrhea (or periods of diarrhea with constipation, or just constipation), steatorrhea (stools that float due to an inability to digest fat), foul-smelling and large volume stools, abdomen pain, gurgling and flatulence, "brain fog", depression/anxiety, dermatitis herpetiformis (a skin condition)...a patient can have all some or just one of these symptoms.

Many people with celiac disease do not know they have it. Untreated, if the patient continues to eat gluten-filled foods throughout their lives, the damage often leads to colon cancer. If a celiac patient continues to eat gluten-based foods (even a little bit), then it damages the villi that move the food through your colon. This damage combined with the state of inflammation throughout the colon causes undigested food particles to pass through the colon into the blood stream causing other immune responses (hives, rashes, arthritis...). 

Food sensitivity is a term used to suggest that a patient may be developing an intolerance or allergy to a food. In naturopathic practice the naturopath works to identify these before they supposedly cause a full-blown reaction and removes them from the diet (or greatly lowers the amounts consumed).

However, there is no medical concept of food sensitivity. It is likely that any negative response to a food that a patient has is not reversible through temporary removal or dose reduction. There are two negative reactions to foods: intolerance and allergy.

Intolerance does not involve the immune system. Of course, this is confusing, because gluten-intolerance really does involve the immune system (which is why they test anti-bodies to see if you have celiac disease). A good example of a real intolerance is lactose intolerance. The person is incapable of making the enzyme lactase and so the lactose remains undigested and causes problems. Examples of food allergies are peanuts, shellfish, casein, tree nuts...and as you probably know, those reactions involve a strong immune response to the chemicals within the food.

Celiac disease is a progressive disease and the only known cure is to avoid gluten-based foods 100% for life. 

When you list the foods that do not give you problems, it depends on whether gluten in present -- for example if you eat corn flakes or rice krispies as your cereal, well then you won't have any reaction because rice and corn do not contain gluten. Candies can have wheat, but rarely. Usually we don't consume as much cake as pasta, so although cakes have wheat perhaps the dose is not quite enough for a response to be noticeable.

You are either in the early phases of celiac disease, or not. You describe only two symptoms: bloating and extreme fatigue. If you just had the fatigue, then it may have nothing to do with celiac disease but rather could be a neurological issue (the seratonin reuptake system), or a blood sugar issue.

Most doctors insist on a proper diagnosis for celiac disease. Partly this is due to the confusion surrounding the condition and it can cause self-diagnosed patients to believe they are fine when they have lowered their gluten intake but not eradicated it completely (it's not fine -- the damage can only be stopped and eventually repaired with 100% adherence to a gluten-free diet).

It is diagnosed in the following way. First, you can have a mouth swab test to determine if you have the HLA genetic sequence. It doesn't tell you if the genes are turned on or not (i.e. whether you have celiac disease or just carry the genes for it), but it does tell you that it could develop (if it hasn't already). From there there is an IgG and IgA blood test that is 90% accurate (so be aware there are a reasonable number of false negatives). You must be eating a large amount of gluten-based foods for at least three weeks prior and right up to the blood test.

Again, a negative test result doesn't rule it out because if you have been an active but undiagnosed celiac patient for many years, the body can't even mount the IgG and IgA response -- it's similar to how AIDS patients near the end of the progression of the disease are no longer HIV positive in a blood test -- the system is shot at that point.

The third and final test is an endoscopy where they biopsy a piece of the small intestine to check for damage to the villi. This too is a hit and miss test. Not all celiac patients will develop villi damage in the area being viewed and villi damage happens later in the progression of the disease.

And lastly, you can go completely gluten-free for six weeks and see if the symptoms disappear. As I said, this is often not recommended because some people so love their wheat that they are willing to damage their gut badly to eat it.

One last thing -- there is such a thing as a wheat allergy that has nothing to do with gluten-intolerance. But as I mentioned above, an allergy to wheat involves the immune system -- you would have trouble breathing, have hives, swell up around the face and neck -- you'd know.

Hope this helps and sorry it is such a long post.

My son has been on a gluten free diet for almost 6 months now.  His has been tested for Celiac disease once when he was 2 (he is 6 now) but it came back neg.  He still had a lot of issues with eating and is underweight so the doctor decided to try a gluten free diet to see it it would help.  It has help and he is eating more and slowly gaining some weight.  After the 6 months he will be put back on a regular diet to see if his issues come back.  You could always try going gluten free to see if it helps.  It is a lot of work and you really need to check everything. It can also get really expensive which is why you need to make sure your not eating anything with gluten in it.  I don't think you need to do it for 6 months but since my son was slowly gaining weight the doctor decided to keep him on it longer.  And you can't be tested for Celiacs if your on a gluten free diet unless its the genetic testing 

My boyfriend has Celiacs Disease and he is in intense pain if he eats any wheat products so I don't think you have that. He cany eat any cereal or crackers, he also cant have soy sauce or vanilla extract because it has tract amounts of wheat.  

Thank you for the replies! I'm currently testing out certain foods to see what kind of reaction I'd have/not have. I am eating them on an empty stomach, so like basically for breakfast, by themselves and not mixed with anything.

This morning I had cream of rice. I feel fine after eating it, I just don't like it. It started out sticky and then as it sat in the bowl it turned watery. Yesterday I tried some gluten free bread and I could barely swallow it, it was so mushy and sticky in the mouth.

If it's not wheat or gluten, and it's a blood sugar issue like Hedgren mentioned, wouldn't I have the same reaction after eating anything with carbs?

Gluten-free store-bought bread absolutely sucks!

If you can get your hands on something called Quejoes, it's a brazilian bunmade of tapioca flour, then that will make for a sandwich that doesn't make you want to give the whole thing up!

I'm now beginning to make my own bread (there are really good recipes out there) because it's the only thing I really miss -- real bread. I'm having some real success with that. And because it's gluten-free bread it's not the whole kneading/rising drawn out process you have with wheat-breads -- it's more like making and pouring cake batter.

Yeah, cream of rice not so much too. I currently eat Go-Go Quinoa products for breakfast -- it's a Canadian-based company but they sell into the U.S.

And it sounds that the initial testing you're doing is giving you feedback that gluten might be the source of your problems, but persevere and see where it gets you.

You don't need to eat on an empty stomach, what's best is to go completely gluten-free for 6 weeks -- you should notice an improvement in 3 days if you are gluten-intolerant.

You've managed to try the worst of the gluten-free alternatives so far, but it only gets better from there -- really. The rice pastas (especially the wild rice ones) are totally edible. Gluten-free crackers just fine too. Glutino brand products are all decent -- the pizza's are fine if you put some of your own extra toppings on them. Most of the gluten-free products are found at Whole Foods (if you're in the US/Canada) or health food stores generally.

And yes, if you are sensitive to all carbohydrates, you should notice the fatigue with gluten-free starches as well.

And MalloryRose is correct that many celiac patients have immediate and severe reactions to wheat -- but that is not the rule. Most patients with that severity of response have either been celiac from birth, or have gone gluten-free for some time and then have an accidental gluten poisoning event.

Well, hope it works and I promise you not all GF food is as awful as store-bought GF bread!