[Rosinante]

When I began in May, I was doing a low-carb diet. Although I felt like chewed string, and the GP didn't like what it did to my blood, the amazing benefit was that my insides, always prone to be vocal, especially in otherwise quiet situations, fell totally silent. It was like a miracle, F.rtophobia should be a recognized condition. Actually (TMI#1) it never came out in public, it just trumpeted around a lot.

So when I had to go back onto mixed feeding, I was worried that I'd lose this silence, so I added things back in gradually. Absolutely fine, so I decided that the one thing I hadn't added, wheat bread, must have been the culprit. Fast forward to this week and I decided to experiment with bread. I found a loaf of spelt & rye, which had wheat in it too, and boy it was good. That was Wednesday. All quiet on the western front, and I was pleased - there's nothing wrong with a healthy sandwich now and then. However, yesterday the bread found its voice: first of all the loaf started calling to me, you know the way, "Just another slice!" "Just another slice!" - so in the bin/in the dogs it went. I'm not ready for the temptation of bread yet. Worse, I went to bed with an internal trumpet voluntary going on. So it's the wheat. Pity but at least now I know.

I suppose, as I live alone, I could risk the odd bread roll in the evening, and that would be a nice treat. What I'm interested to find out though is if there will be a water retention issue today, which was another problem with wheat.

Not the most fascinating post, sorry!

[Rosinante]

Apparently not water retention. I'm down another half pound - 175.6!

[Serendipity]

Sounds like you might have a sensitivity to gluten -- not enough to be considered an allergy, but enough to make your body behave differently when you ingest enough of it.

[kaplods]

I have bad reactions to wheat too, and it's so hard not to get careless (because it's in so many foods) or to deliberately "risk it" if the effects aren't life-threatening.

The celiac disease tests the doctor ran, came back negative, but when I eat wheat, my fibromyalgia and arthritis flares. My joints become obviously swollen, and my autoimmune and immune system issues reappear (my face not only breaks out in pimples, the skin gets red and swollen and even can get scaly and open sores).

I haven't had a full-blown skin reaction (when the skin leaks clear fluid and gets crusty and extremely painful and itchy) because I've never eaten bread two days in a row. Bread seems to cause the worst reactions, and for some reason pasta doesn't usually cause a problem (maybe it's not the wheat, it could be something else in bread, or it coul be because pasta is made from semolina, a different kind of wheat. Usually I choose rice or other non-wheat pasta though, just in case).

It's been my experience that the longer you go without wheat, the worse the symptoms get for smaller amouns (yet I'm still stupid enough to experiment now and again). I had no idea that wheat was causing so many symptoms. I haven't had a really bad bout of IBS since giving up wheat either.
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