The Mysteries of Gluten Poisoning

My health has gone from strength to strength since I stopped eating foods containing gluten - wheat, barley, spelt, couscous. What is gluten? See HERE.

Gluten's Effects on Me

Gluten's effects on my body are spectacularly negative. My small intestine becomes inflamed and I get stomach cramps and diarrhoea. It is the intestinal equivalent of someone using steel wool to scrape skin. For weeks and months after, my food absorption is compromised as the damaged intestinal lining needs to heal. Not only that, gluten sets off an auto-immune response. My body's immune cells attack my thyroid gland and my levels of thyroid hormone drops low. I feel an overwhelming sense of fatigue no matter how much I sleep.

Gluten's Effects on The Husband

The Husband ostensibly had no negative reaction to gluten. Nothing seemed to happen to him after eating gluten. However, since I am the cook in our home, everyone else eats what I eat. My kitchen must be completely gluten free because I cannot risk cross-contamination.

So, The Husband became largely gluten free too. We didn't notice much of a difference to his health.

However, one weekend, we went out for lunch where The Husband ingested an entire plate of pasta. For 5 days after that, The Husband felt bloated and uncomfortable. He was not a happy man that week. His belly ballooned outwards too. I was surprised. I had thought that his protruding belly was due to middle age bulge. The last thing I expected was a wheat belly on The Husband.

Mysterious Wheat

There are people out there arguing that celiac disease and gluten intolerance is all hype. I don't care what your research says. I know I feel ill when I eat gluten, sometimes unknowingly. The recipe of Indian thosai does not include gluten ingredients. I thought it was safe and ate 2. I was very ill for 5 days. It is not hype because I really fell ill. It is not me imagining my symptoms because I ate the thosai believing that there was no gluten in there.

The Husband too did not expect that one plate of pasta would make him feel bloated all week.

It really is all very mysterious.

There are also people who say that the culprit is not gluten but glyphosate. Apparently, glyphosate (a herbicide) is sprayed on wheat before harvesting. This kills the wheat stalks uniformly right across the whole field of wheat and ensure that the entire field will dry out evenly and at the same rate during harvest time. See HERE.

Glyphosate is not toxic to humans but it is toxic to bacteria. It wreaks havoc with all the beneficial bacteria in our guts and thus negatively impacts our digestive system. Is that why The Husband and I cannot tolerate wheat?

Oh well... who knows? Whatever it is, my children have also reduced their gluten intake by about 90%. Firstly, meals at home are gluten free. Secondly, they have stopped buying buns and cakes to eat as snacks.