Let's say you're not intolerant to gluten (etc), but you avoid it for years page

[Sabre]

....and then one day you stuff your face with gluten and vegetable oils and all that nasty junk. Even though before eating the stuff never caused any reaction (but you avoided it for years because it's crap), is it possible to have built up an intolerance to it? Will your body freak the heck out now that you've reintroduced these long-avoided foods?

I've heard that some vegetarians adapt so much that eating meat really messes them up. I'm wondering if something similar could be going on with gluten, wheat, etc.

(Apologies if this has been covered before, I couldn't find anything.)

Cheers,
S

[Nady]

Don't know if you build up an intolerance so much as you lose your tolerance. I think if you want to add some grains to your diet, start slow/small~ see what happens.

I remember reading years ago, that in the Middle Ages, rich/important men used to take small doses of poison every day to build a tolerance so they would be immune to an enemy's attempt to kill them. Maybe grains have a similar affect?

[sjmc]

What I've always wondered with respect to this question, is why wouldn't it be true of all foods? Why don't people say you really shouldn't avoid nuts, or eggs, or even foods that are not common allergens, lest you develop an intolerance? What's the diff.

[namelesswonder]

Vegetarians & meat are a different issue. You can lose the digestive enzymes needed to break down animal proteins if you don't expose your to them for a long time, so you get sick when you introduce a food that your body no long knows how to process.

With gluten & wheat, you lose a tolerance, but it's not anything like enzymes, since we're not well equipped to handle them anyway.

[HilaryJ]

It didn't take years for me, only a month or so. I stayed off wheat and all other grains with the exception of quinoa (which really isn't a grain ..) for about 4 weeks. Had something with wheat, don't even remember what, but I do remember the bloat and feeling-like-I-was-hit-by-a-truck feeling the next day. Oh, and had to stay close to my bathroom the next day too. o_O

I avoid wheat like the plague now. Even had to give up my beloved brown ales. I don't mind no bread or pasta, but I seriously miss brown ales!

I did relapse yesterday with corn tortilla chips and rice and feel OK ... hardly any intestinal trauma felt.

[Sabre]

Hilary, that's interesting. Did you have a problem with wheat/grains before?

[jakey]

anecdotally, i hear 'yes.' but for what it's worth, that has not been my experience!

prime example - went to a persian friend's house for dinner last night. loved the food & the company. then found out that the ground meat kabobs had a bunch of bread crumbs in them (and for those keeping track - koobideh is not traditionally made with bread crums! wtf?). anyway, i feel totaly fine, and i never eat gluten.

[Miscellangela]

My experience echoes Hilary's. The other night we ordered chinese because i didn't feel like cooking, so i got beef and broccoli, thinking it would be safe. Forgot about the beef being dredged in flour and the cornstarch in the sauce. Ugh. That little bit was all it took. Never again. I do miss pizza, but one slice makes me feel like crap for about 24 hours now. No more grains for me.

Funny thing is, i'm a baker - occasionally i have to taste things, but i absolutely cannot swallow them. I can't even be the judge of my breads anymore, because all bread tastes like paste in my mouth now. Gross. Keep in mind that this is a food i used to love so much that i spent a decade perfecting it.

[HilaryJ]

Hilary, that's interesting. Did you have a problem with wheat/grains before?

No, at least, not that I had noticed. I dropped the wheat from my diet as an experiment ... even before I discovered the whole "primal" concept. But after a couple of weeks, I noticed two major changes (other than it was easier to drop a pound or two a week):

1 - no more gas and intestinal bloat, which was increasing as I aged (and becoming a problem).
2 - no more itchy scalp! That one I didn't put two and two together until I read a post on another forum.

I read somewhere that it takes about 2 weeks for gluten to leave the body ... and I went four weeks before "cheating" one day. I paid for that cheat in a way I'd rather avoid.

[Darz]

I went gluten free as an experiment for 4 months and then decided to have a meal with pasta - that night was horrible, but after that, I've been having grains with no ill effects - I didn't have any problems with them before or after the experiment.