Suspect you might have a gluten sensitivity or celiac? 

DON’T MOVE A MUSCLE! Go get tested for celiac before you cut anything out of your diet. I know this isn’t convenient, my wife was in such bad shape by the time she got to the doctor to get tested, she was told she would have to eat gluten again before being tested. There was no way she could willingly make herself sick for 2 more weeks eating gluten. However, without any gluten in her system, the test will not work(in unscientific terms). SO if you think that at all, go to the doctor to get tested before you cut it out or you will never get the answer. 

Feel like you get sick all the time but can’t tell if it is gluten or dairy? 

Many, many more people are lactose intolerant than care to admit. Some kind of Freudian thing with lust for ice cream. Just kidding, most people just aren’t ever told about the effects of dairy and that your stomach should not hurt every day or a few days out of the week. Another little-known fact about celiac is that if you have it and eat gluten, it will damage your stomach until you start having sensitivities to things like dairy, even to the point of becoming lactose intolerant. 

To be clear here, the pool of people who are just lactose intolerant is way way bigger than those who have celiac or gluten sensitivity. Even in the USA, the dairy capital of the world 15-30% of people are lactose intolerant. 

The short answer here is to cut out dairy first and see what happens. Do you get intense stomach and back pain when you eat bread or drink a beer? What about saucy things that aren’t dairy? 

Commonality and differences between Gluten and Dairy sensitivity experience.

Commonalities–

Stomach ache 

Diarrhea 

Gas

Difference–

Celiac- vomiting, potentially hives, intense stomach, and back pain(potentially feeling like appendicitis), whipped out for days after intense gluten encounter.

Dairy- Intense gas, like an air compressor, is in your belly. 

Tale Tale sign you have a gluten issue–

Big-time hangovers and excessive vomiting from drinking.

 When my wife and I were in college and first started dating, it would always shock me that she was such a lightweight at drinking. Two to three beers for a night and she was puking the next day and hungover for a day or two. This continued until she virtually quit drinking. Every once and while she would drink vodka and have a great time and wake up fine the next day. Sadly we had no idea what was going on for 2-3 years. Once her stomach issues got so bad we learned that nearly every form of alcohol including red wine has gluten in it. More on drinking gluten-free coming soon. 

Fried foods really wreck you-

I’m not talking about getting gassy, I’m talking about being nearly bedridden, can’t finish the day at the office. There is a big difference between eating some greasy cheesy Mexican and the squirts and a full-body gluten pain. A greasy meal typically goes by quickly 1-3 hours, if you have gluten sensitivity and eat a fried chicken sandwich, you will be down for the day. 

Chinese food declares war on your gut-

Does take-out Chinese food have a similar effect on you? That’s likely because of the gluten in soy sauce. Yep if you are eating any kind of store-bought soy sauce, it has gluten in it. Total opinion here- this is likely what is happening and some people think that soy or msg is just totally bad for everyone when likely it is the gluten in those ingredients hurting a few people’s stomachs. 

Anything saucy-

Any sauce is likely made with gluten. Weird right? Makes you wonder, what the heck is gluten? Well, the reason nearly every sauce has gluten is to act as a thickening agent. Think about gravy, just water, sausage grease, and flour. Sauce of nearly every kind from every culture has gluten, especially in the food additive days we live in. 

Basically all gas station snacks-

Today every pre-packaged snack is some combo of wheat and soy plus preservatives. Not being high brow here, I love my junk food as much as anyone, but most snack foods are all gluten. Take a gander at the labels of some of your favorite snacks.