Have you started a gluten free diet for your celiac disease or gluten allergy? Are you still sick? There are several reasons for this. One is gluten residue in your diet.
Some with celiac disease experience a quick recovery from symptoms when they go on a gluten free diet.
But what if you get only a little better, or don’t get better at all? There are several possible reasons. Here’s one:
You may still have gluten in your diet, despite your best efforts.
As I’m sure you know, gluten is in wheat, barley, oats and rye. I’m sure you’ve also noticed that these ingredients, and their derivatives, are staple ingredients in all kinds of food, from reasonably healthy food (for the non-gluten-sensitive) to decidedly unhealthy food for everyone (like the pox of processed food that some people seem to subsist on).
Food is not the only place gluten is found. Besides “non-food” food like fast-food restaurants and industrially produced snacks, gluten can also sneak in with pills. Some medications and vitamins used wheat products as filler.
If you take communion, be aware that communion wafers are made with wheat. Please make alternate arrangements with your church to receive a gluten-free wafer that has not come in contact with wheat in any way (including wheat-based communion wafers).
Gluten Slip-ups At Home
It is easy to get small amounts of gluten into your food at home. If other members of your household are still eating wheat, double-dipping can contaminate items like butter/margarine, honey, jam etc.
Use your own toaster for gluten free bread rather than share the same toaster used for regular bread.
Crumbs left on the counter in the preparation of one meal could contaminate the next. Make sure everything is cleaned properly before preparing a gluten free meal.
Be careful to check the ingredients of all food that you buy, especially if you switch brands. In the never-ending quest to make food cheaper, without making it so nasty as to loose customers, some manufactures adulterate food that should be wheat-free.
I’ve recently seen rick crackers with wheat in them. Some potato chips have wheat in them.
Gluten slip-ups when eating out are a whole other topic, which I’ll cover separately. For now, I suggest you eat home cooked food until you recover, if at all possible.