Gluten allergy – how do I know if I have one? There are a few clues, but some of them are misleading. Pay close attention to this!
First, we have to look at possible gluten allergy symptoms, and what they can be confused with. We also have to differentiate with a more serious condition triggered by eating gluten.
Gluten Allergy Symptoms
Most people suffer the symptoms of a gluten allergy for quite some time before realizing that the cause is a gluten allergy.
Watch out for the following symptoms:
- Upset stomach over the long term, with no good explanation
- Diarrhea
- Constipation
- Bloating
- Lack of energy
- Brain fog
- Poor memory
For more complete information, see the list of articles at the bottom of this one.
The problem with diagnosing the cause of these symptoms is that they could be caused by almost anything, including other food allergies, environmental allergies, other types of disease, depression, inability to digest milk … just to name a few.
While it is possible to get tests for a gluten allergy, they are not all that accurate. They may provide false positives or false negatives, meaning they may say you have a gluten allergy when you don’t, or say you don’t when you do.
If you suspect a gluten allergy, the best test is to go on a gluten free diet, and see if the symptoms go away.
Celiac Disease – Worse Than a Gluten Allergy
If your symptoms go away when you go on a gluten free diet for a month or two, does that mean you have a gluten allergy?
Not necessarily. You could have celiac disease instead.
Celiac disease is treated the same way as a gluten allergy – by eliminating all gluten from your diet.
The difference is that with a gluten allergy, you can decide if avoiding gluten is worth the trouble, based on how much the symptoms annoy you.
With celiac disease, there are long-term and initially hidden effects that can completely ruin your health, even cause terminal disease, if you do not maintain a strict gluten free diet.
For this reason, it is much more important that you get tested for celiac disease than for a gluten allergy.
Gluten Fee Diet Challenge
If you suspect that gluten is affecting your health in any way, the first thing you can do is go on a gluten free diet for at least 8 weeks.
If many or most of your symptoms either go away or become consistently less, get tested for celiac disease.
If that test is negative, you can decide to what extent a gluten free diet is worth following to avoid your gluten allergy symptoms.