About Getting More Sensitive over Time

LisaB · Joined: 15 Jun 2005 Posts: 19

I don't get this. If you have problems with gluten and you remove it from your diet, you get better. The intestine heals completely, if you weren't too far gone to start with.

I understand that the sensitivity would remain, but why should it worsen?

You know what this reminds me of? When I was in college (25 years ago), I went semi-vegetarian, in part to lose weight (and partly for philosophical reasons). So I ate a low-calorie vegetarian diet, except that every other week, on payday, I allowed myself one meal of anything I wanted.

My favorite thing in all the world is a cheeseburger. Has been all my life. So the first time my anything-goes meal came around, I went out and had a big, juicy burger! And, OMG, was I sick! It wasn't from the gluten in the bun. I'd been eating bread and grains all along. It was the beef.

When you don't eat red meat for a period of time, your body stops making the enzymes that digest it. In my case, two weeks was enough to make me lose the enzymes. It's not as bad with fish of poultry, so from then on, my treat meals were centered around those with no problems.

Eventually, I chose to return to eating meat. I knew to do it gradually, and within a few days, I was able to tolerate the beef again.

So all this makes me wonder if the feelings of illness GF people get when trying something with gluten in it aren't due to that. So maybe if they add gluten back in gradually (by starting with oats, then rye or barley, then something with wheat), they'd be able to enjoy it again for a while. We'd need another period off gluten to heal, but at least we could cycle it, instead of having to give it up for life.

I realize that many people with CD get real pain from eating it. But some of us don't. I get some deep-down achiness in my gut sometimes, and very anemic, but that develops over years. I'd put up with the achiness to enjoy the MANY foods I love that aren't going to be replaced with GF substitutes.

Kristie · Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 89

Lisa,

[quote]I understand that the sensitivity would remain, but why should it worsen?

LisaB · Joined: 15 Jun 2005 Posts: 19

Thanks for responding, Kristie.

To go off the topic I started with, I've been reading all the posts of people who have problems with dairy along with the gluten.

It's made me wonder if maybe the gluten is passed along in the milk of the grain-fed dairy cows. We know that many things are passed from mother to baby in mother's milk (everything from nutrients to antibodies to HIV), so why couldn't some gluten molecules that maybe didn't get fully digested get passed along to milk drinkers? Wonder if Matthew would have less problems with milk from grass-fed cows?