Why Do I React to Gluten?
Even Though I Tested Negative for Celiac
You eat a sandwich or a bowl of pasta and you feel terrible. You get bloated. Your brain gets foggy. You feel exhausted.
So you do the responsible thing. You go to your doctor. They run the blood panel for celiac disease. You wait nervously for the results.
They come back negative. Your doctor tells you, “Good news. You do not have celiac. You can eat whatever you want.”
But your body is telling you something different. You eat the wheat and you feel sick. And when someone tells you it is all in your head, it is incredibly frustrating.
It Is Not All in Your Head
After 40 years of practice, I have learned that medicine is rarely black and white. Just because you do not have celiac disease does not mean wheat is harmless to you.
There is a very real condition called non-celiac gluten sensitivity.
Here is the difference. In celiac disease, your body attacks its own tissues. It is an autoimmune condition that destroys the gut lining. But in non-celiac gluten sensitivity, your immune system is still reacting to the gluten protein. It sees it as an invader.
This creates inflammation throughout your body. That is why you do not just get a stomach ache. You might also get joint pain, headaches, fatigue, or even depression. It is a real physiological reaction, not a psychological one.
But There Is a Second Suspect
It might not be the wheat itself that is hurting you. It might be what is on the wheat.
Here in the United States, wheat crops are often sprayed with a chemical called glyphosate. Farmers spray it right before harvest to dry out the crop.
Glyphosate is tough on the gut. It can disrupt your microbiome and contribute to what we call leaky gut.
This explains something I saw over and over in my clinic. A patient would come back from vacation and say, “Dr. G, I went to Italy. I ate pasta and bread every single day. I felt fine. But the minute I came back to the States, the bloating returned.”
That is not a coincidence. The wheat in Europe is often different. It tends to be more ancestral and less modified. And European regulations on glyphosate are much stricter than ours.
The Detective Question
So here is what you need to ask yourself. Are you reacting to the grain? Or are you reacting to the chemical?
Have you ever noticed that you can eat certain foods while traveling abroad without any problems? If so, the wheat itself may not be your enemy. The way it is grown and treated might be.
That is a clue worth following.
Authored by Gerard Guillory, MD
Gerard Guillory, MD, is a board-certified internist who practiced for nearly four decades with a focus on functional, root-cause medicine. He is the author of three books on irritable bowel syndrome and the founder of It’s My Health, where he and his team put current health news in context and help members understand the underlying causes of chronic symptoms.
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