Crohn's and gluten free

A little over a year ago, my husband switched to gluten free on a lot of foods due to irritable bowel symptoms, not celiac disease. Since he was switching, I figured I would give it a try on some things as well so we would only have one grocery bill and we could eat together. I have noticed that gluten free foods upset my stomach and cause cramping. When I eat these foods, my bathroom trips become much more urgent. I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this.

Otherwise, I have been fortunate. I was diagnosed in 2007, controlled with Asacol only until 2011 when I had to use prednisone. 6mp gave me flu-like reaction as did a few other drugs. Finally started Humira last year and have been on that since (except during my third trimester).

Thanks everyone.

... edit... disregard everything I posted before. :ybatty: Made the mistake of posting in the wrong thread. :shifty-t:

My kiddo tried gluten free /fodmaps etc..,,
It actually made him worse since constipation is his main crohns issues .
We made meals that were naturally free of gluten ( aka tacos )
These he had less issues with.
I think it's all very individual

Gluten free foods are often higher in fat/sugar than there normal counterparts to make them palatable. It could be that if you are noticing this more around prepared foods than naturally gluten free foods.

Big difference going gluten free with natural GF foods. It is a struggle and I try my best to stay on it.

What kinds of gluten-free foods were you trying? It's more likely to be something you added into your diet rather than the absence of gluten itself.

I tried excluding gluten and it made no difference either way for me, but when I excluded gluten-containing foods like white bread, biscuits, cakes, etc. and added in lots of fruit and vegetables and nuts and seeds, all the extra fibre made me very ill. Processed gluten-free foods like specially made gluten-free cakes, biscuits, etc. from the supermarket I was fine with.

I.e. contrary to the posts above, naturally gluten-free foods were a problem, processed foods were not.

I still have to be on a low fiber diet so because I stay gluten free doesn't mean I increase my fiber. I think the two are independent.

You might have added something to your diet when you began eating GF foods. Corn, for instance, is a very popular ingredient in most GF substitutes. Try eating things that are naturally gluten free (fruits, veggies, etc), and see how that goes.

LodgeLady said:

I still have to be on a low fiber diet so because I stay gluten free doesn't mean I increase my fiber. I think the two are independent.

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They can be independent. Some of the time that I was avoiding gluten I was eating a lot of high fibre foods, though of course you can avoid gluten and still eat low fibre. The two things - gluten-free and high fibre - were related in my case as a lot of the proponents of a gluten free diet (nutritionists I saw, many sites I looked at online) seem to also recommend a typically healthy, "natural" diet, with lots of fruits and vegetables and nuts and seeds, and free from processed foods (and processing and lower fibre do have a tendency to go together). I think it's quite likely that there are others who found this same kind of dietary advice when they gave up gluten, so I thought it was worth suggesting that an increase in fibre may be the problem when digestion gets worse when going gluten free. But it's certainly not the only possibility. But when I first gave up gluten, before I found all that advice about supposedly healthy eating, my fibre intake didn't change much and I ate a lot of processed gluten free foods - gluten free cakes, biscuits, etc., foods from branded gluten free product ranges sold in supermarkets - and during that period my symptoms didn't change, so those prepared, processed gluten free foods were not a problem for me. But again, other people may respond differently.

I have found that some of the gums like Guar gum and Xanthan gum, which are added to some G/f foods like breads etc to have a bad reaction with me. So its worth checking the ingredients if you are having problems.