What happens when you stop eating gluten? It depends on your body and why you are stopping gluten intake in the first place.
Stop Eating Gluten and Celiac
The most important reason to stop eating gluten is if you have celiac disease. Presumably, you will experience one or more typical, or even non-typical celiac disease symptoms, in which case expect them to reduce and eventually stop, although this may not be true of some of the diseases caused by eating gluten by celiacs, such as cancer or diabetes. However, eliminating gluten from your diet will reduce the chances of developing these diseases. If you have celiac disease, the only current treatment is to eliminate all gluten from your diet. While reducing gluten intake may reduce symptoms to a tolerable level, you would still risk developing related serious diseases, some of which can be lethal. If you have celiac, eliminate all gluten from your diet, regardless of how well you feel.
Stop Eating Gluten and Gluten Allergy
Gluten allergy is another reason to stop eating gluten. In this case, it is all about the symptoms. If you you have gluten allergy symptoms, these will go away if you stop eating gluten. In this case avoid gluten, or not, according to your comfort level and tolerance of symptoms, just be sure that you don’t actually have celiac disease instead.
Stop Eating Gluten – Other Reasons
There are other reasons people stop eating gluten. For example, some people find that when they stop eating gluten, their asthma symptoms reduce or disappear completely. See the Gluten and Asthma article for more information.
Other reasons people eliminate gluten is to reduce weight and feel better. These reasons are not very sound. It could be that eliminating gluten will cause you to loose weight, especially if you go on a protein diet. This is not so much because you’ve eliminated gluten but because you’ve eliminated carbs, so you you simple continue eating gluten-free baked goods etc, your gluten free diet will probably do nothing and you won’t feel any different at all.
The same goes for feeling better, but that more energy or what-ever. If you eliminate gluten from your diet and you do feel better, chances are you have celiac, gluten allergy or some sort of gluten intolerance. In fact, eliminating gluten from your diet to see if you feel any better is the best way to test for these conditions.
So if you don’t have celiac or a gluten allergy, it is unlikely that anything at all will happen if you eliminate gluten from your diet.
Stop Eating Gluten – Problems
There are advantages to eating gluten-based products, especially wheat, besides convenience. Wheat products such as bread and breakfast cereals are often fortified with essential nutrients which you will loose if you go on a gluten free diet, unless you are careful to eat healthily and ensure that you get all essential nutrients either from your diet or supplements. This isn’t a problem if you are intentional about what you eat, but switching from bread to potatoes and pastries to gluten-free cookies may do more harm than good if you don’t have celiac or gluten allergy.
What is your experience when you stopped eating gluten? Please leave a comment. Remember to mention if you have or think you have celiac disease or gluten allergy.
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What happened to me when I stopped eating gluten was quite dramatic. Actually, I started with a wheat-free diet, which, after three weeks of no change, suddenly lifted my brain fog and eliminated my intestinal issues. I since switched to an entirely gluten-free diet, and found I felt even better.
From this I came to the conclusion that I have a gluten allergy, since two celiac tests came back negative. I have since learned that these tests are not very accurate, and have not bothered to try more accurate tests, since I am very strictly gluten-free, the same as if I had celiac disease.