For the past several weeks I have been having some really weird digestive problems (ie stomach cramps, gas, loose stool). I couldn't isolate any one thing that was causing my digestive issues. One night I had 3 pints of stout (my very favoritest beer) and woke at 4:15 the following morning with all the symptoms. I had no idea what celiac disease was, but saw an article on Yahoo about the rise in celiac disease. I saw the symptoms and it freaked me out. I asked my endo for the blood test (she's awesome), and I went to get the test, it came back negative (if I'm reading the results correctly).
Now I gotta find the reason behind these digestive issues......I think I am going to eliminate wheat and gluten from my diet to see if maybe I have developed an allergy to wheat. It really isn't my favorite food anyway, it's just in EVERYTHING. It'll probably kill me, but I may experiment with eliminating dairy as well. I don't think it is a dairy issue, as I have symptoms without dairy and occasionally dairy without symptoms. I just don't know what it could be. Very confused.
There is such a thing as non-celiac gluten intolerance, its just not really recognized by most doctors yet. I would suggest eliminating gluten from your diet and seeing if it helps. I had the same issues, didnt test positive for celiac, but removing gluten from my diet made huge improvements in not only my digestive issues but in my overall health.
I kinda decided that if the food is making me feel terrrible, I'm not going to eat it. I will still have to determine how it is going to affect me, but I know it is already a lot harder to buy food now. Not just due to ingredient scanning, but all of this GF stuff is quite costly. Everybody thinks I'm going on a Atkin's diet or something, because I don't have bread and I'm not eating pasta, etc. Then they see me with a potato and it's "Return of the Carb Police"! Aaaaahhhhhhh...life continues to get funner and funner.
P.S. Thanks for the reply
Yes, food is defiantly more expensive and over time you will learn what "normal" food you can eat that is also gluten free. More and more companies are making a point to label their products if they are or are gluten free. Two really good websites for recipes that use more normal foods is chex.com (look for the gluten free recipes page) and also glutenfreely.com. Going out to eat can also be hard. I had a friend who didnt seem to understand that gluten was something I couldnt eat, not becuase I just didnt want to eat it, but because it made me sick. But yes life does get funnier and funnier!! It just makes us stronger.