Where Is Your Gluten Sensitivity Line?

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Just diagnosed with Celiac’s disease and wondering how sensitive you are to Gluten. You already know that you and gluten are not BFFs but where is your gluten sensitivity line?

What is a gluten sensitivity line?

Do you even know what a gluten sensitivity line is? Don’t worry if you don’t, it is something I made up after reading countless posts from confused Celiacs. Someone would post a question about having reactions to a “gluten free” (GF) item and people would respond “I eat it all the time with no issues” while others would post “stay away, it made me so sick”. I started wondering why that was.

Then one day after one of my daughter’s Gastroenterology (GI) appointments, her doctor mentioned how some super sensitive Celiacs cannot eat GF grains that are grown next fields where gluten grains are being grown due to cross contamination.

MIND BLOWN!!!

Seriously, what the hell, I totally feel for those super sensitive people. I mean, how in the world can you know where the GF grains that your favorite pasta is made from is grown? I guess there is a way, but I don’t know what it is.

Levels of Sensitivity

The way I see it, there are three main levels of sensitivity. However, as with all things Celiac, there are a verying levels within each level listed below. Those diagnosed with Celiacs very in sensitivity and symtoms. This is just meant as a guide to help you do what is best for you and to help you educate those around you.

Very Sensitive

As I stated above, some people are extremely sensitive. People who are extremely sensitive and react to THE smallest spec of gluten. This could be due to the grains growing next to wheat or food processed on shared equipment. People who are extremely sensitive normally have immediate symptoms from being glutened.

Moderately Sensitive

Then there are those people who are moderately sensitive. These people can normally eat items that are processed on shared equipment without a physical reaction. They normally only get symptoms of being glutened if there is cross contamination or something mislabeled. I am by no means saying you should eat items from shared lines, I am just saying that you probably won’t get a physical reaction (nausea, bloating, etc.) from eating items processed on shared lines.  W

Rarely Sensitive

Finally, there are those who only never have any physical symptoms, even if they eat gluten. However, I am not advising this as even those who do not get symptoms are still damaging their GI tract. Where Is Your Gluten Sensitivity Line?

What Can You Do?

Ok, so now you know that each Celiac‘s sensitivity varies considerably. So you may be wondering what you can do. Unfortunately, there is no test that you can take, you just have to experiment (no, I am not suggesting you intentionally eat gluten). There is a lot of trial and error. Every time you get glutened, log everything you can remember that you ate that day. Yes, everything you ate the whole day as you never know how long your body takes to react to being glutened (it is different for everyone).

We learned that we couldn’t cook our daughter’s gluten free pizza in the same oven at the same time as our regular pizzas. Our ovens are newer so even though I didn’t have the convection cooking selected, there is still a fan that blows the air around. We put her pizza on top so that nothing could drip on it, but she still got sick every time. I tried making hers in our other oven and voila, she was fine. I just never thought that it would be an issue. Where Is Your Gluten Sensitivity Line?

Just like us, you will need to see what works for YOU. Don’t trust that what is OK for Suzy who has Celiac’s will be OK for you. It may, or it may not.

Do you know where you fall on the line? We are still learning, but as of right now, our daughter falls into the moderate level.