Yes, I do think it’s possible, but as you suspected, you may also be experiencing a bit of the placebo effect. Either way, hopefully you’ll stick with the diet for at least a few weeks to be more sure of its effectiveness.

It’s great to hear that you’ve embraced a healthy approach to your gluten free diet and also that you maintain a positive outlook on it. This is how having to avoid gluten can become a blessing in disguise. Good luck with your diet and your blog!

Debbie

Yes, that’s a good idea. Good luck, I hope this works out well for you.

Yeah, but I definitely need to go to the doctor to see if its a digestive problem. I think it may be because it doesn’t make sense for me to be food sensitive to so many different types of foods : onions, apples, all breads, chickpeas

hopefully, once the digestive problem is taken care of, i can go back to eating all the foods that I want to eat. .

Ben

Similar to gluten, other foods sensitivities can cause bloating as well. Whether or not it’s a food sensitivity or impaired digestion, it sounds like you’re doing a good job of isolating which foods you react negatively to, and that’s a good way to start. Simply avoid foods like apples that you don’t tolerate well.

Legumes are notorious for causing bloating! This is due to what I previously mentioned about carbohydrates. It’s not all carbohydrates, but typically starches and other larger forms of carbohydrates that are harder to break down.

Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Natasha Campbell-McBride and Restoring Your Digestive Health by Jordan Rubin are two good resources that discuss this issue with carbohydrates and the intestinal and health problems that it can cause.

now if i go, and there is no brown rice or potato, i don’t have any options since i can’t eat the bread = worried.

Ben

Thanks for your super fast response!

I have bread and apples out of my diet and I already feel better. I don’t think its the amount of carbohydrates though, because I have been replacing the bread with lots of hummus and brown rice.

It is interesting because I reintroduced an apple today, and the bloating immediately came back (after 3 or 4 bites). But, I can eat oranges and bananas. So, i don’t think its the carbohydrates that are causing the problem.

I will definitely check out the book that you mentioned.

Best,
Ben

Wheat products can certainly cause bloating, but not only due to the gluten. I suspect that the inflammation resulting from frequent immune reactions to gluten can cause the feeling of being bloated, but so can the large amount of carbohydrates that are typically found in grain based foods. And this goes for carbohydrates in general, not just those in wheat based and other processed foods. For example, potatoes are another common cause of bloating. Carbohydrates that are not completely digested and absorbed by the digestive tract are broken down by bacteria which produce gas in the process. If enough gas is produced, it results in bloating.

Either way, it would probably be worth while to continue avoiding gluten to see if you benefit from it in any other way. After avoiding it for a while, it would also be interesting to reintroduce to see if it’s only foods with gluten that cause the bloating.

In regard to relying on your body to tell you when to eat and when to stop, there’s a book I think you’ll enjoy by Mark David called The Slow Down Diet. Here’s an article I wrote based on some of the principles discussed in the book.