Gluten free diet for crohns

Has anyone tried the gluten free diet to see if it would help with simptoms of crohns? My gi gave me some info on it and he thinks I should give it a try. Cause a bunch of doctors from Harvard university did this big study on it and seems they might be a link between crohns and gluten.

I've got coeliac disease, I was diagnosed with it when I was 14, so I've been on a gluten free diet ever since. My first noticeable crohns symptoms started when I was 15.. So going gluten free didn't make a difference in my case. Of course I can't say whether my crohns would be worse if I still ate gluten, but being gluten free hasn't stopped me needing surgery and biological therapy.

Yeah I was wondering but kinda figured celiac and crohns are two different autoimmune diseases. I been eating gluten free just because I won't to you know but it has not made any improvement on my simptoms. Thank you for your input.

I have noticed if I violate my gluten free diet I have trouble with my Crohns Disease.

I heard that buddy, I have heard from others when I was taking remicade that it seems to help them so after all I have been through I thought I would give it a try so far I have gained weight. I always had a hard time gaining before.

Glad for you.

I am happy you back when I was just eating this and that I would maintain untill I crashed in November lost all of it, after TPN at hospital I told them I wanted to try gluten free on my trays so that is when I noticed something happing.

I haven't had liquor much for a long time but a couple of months I had a sample of beer. It has gluten and I paid for it.

Yeah buddy I miss that from time to time but I haven't tried gluten free beer but I guess I won't try it if you paid the price for it.

This was just regular beer. It wasn't gluten free beer.

Ok yeah we have a couple local brewers here in town that makes gluten free beer I would like to try it just to see how it is.

Hey there. I was told I was not, then was Coeliac, and now back to maybe - I certainly hope I don't! I have been gluten-free since May last year and I haven't noticed any benefit. I was looking forward to shedding kgs like most people seem to do, but no. The kgs are still piling on. I have found gluten-free beer and I feel human again. Being summer, and in Australia, I was craving it. Probably making things worse, but so is oxygen right now. Gotta have some joy!

i tried a gluten free diet for a while. I still kept flaring while on it, maybe i didn't stick to it for long enough but i found it very limiting since it can be found in just about everything. i am eating normal now and have no crohn's symptoms due to starting new medication (besides anemia). Maybe it is something that will keep a person in remission and help a person feel healthier but I don't think it is the answer on its own.

Thank you both for your insight on the issue. I am trying it out been on it for two week and have found that I am gaining some good amount of weight which I happy about.

I was told that it can take 6-12 months for a GF diet to take maximum effect. I find it brutal, and expensive, and gluten seems to hide in everything - including one of my vitamin supplements. But I haven't strayed off it in 10 months. I'm glad you are gaining some weight!

Yeah I mostly think it's from feeling ok and starting to eat good, but your right my diet dude told me that I had to be on it for a year or more for maximum effect. And it's very expensive I try to order stuff I can't get at my supermarket, I just paid like over $6 for a small bag of bread...

To be honest in the UK the general advice is that a gluten free diet can do more harm than good unless you medically need it. Most gluten containing foods have a higher sugar content to make up for the lack of taste, and many are high in fibre. By cutting out large amounts of foods, you cut out lots of vitamins etc and yes it is really expensive and a real nightmare when trying to eat out, especially if you're really sensitive to it which coeliacs are.

I would suggest that anyone trying this diet makes sure that their doctors know, and gets frequent blood tests. I have had coeliac for 10 years now and still have yearly reviews with a dietitian which I have to have for the rest of my life, and also have a yearly review about it with my consultant with full panels of bloods for all nutrients as well as blood sugar checks.

I'm not saying that this can't be effective as symptom management for some people, but it has to be done in the correct way. You probably will find you gain weight, because the food is generally higher in calories, for most people your body adapts after a little while.

Also, for someone with coeliac disease it is totally vital to avoid all gluten. If someone with coeliac ate it, then the coeliac would flare and the immune system would become over active, which of course would kick the crohns off, so yes, if someone with coeliac ate gluten it would likely cause an increase in crohns symptoms, but this is probably because of the immune systems response rather than the gluten on its own. In the case of someone with coeliac, it takes about 6-12 months for it to work completely because that's how long it takes to repair the damaged villi, but most people will notice they start to feel better much sooner than that. I don't know if the time span actually applies in the case of people going gluten free for other reasons.

Valleysangel92 hey you have shared some awsome information in that post, my doctor is going to do more blood test, and he'll be checking my blood sugar also. When I was in the hospital when I started the gluten free diet they constantly checked it, hell I thought I had a bad case of surger that they hadn't told me about. But I will say that after I started it I stopped going to the bathroom all the time like I was before, but still in a flair with crohns. But thank you for opening my eyes more on the subject. A lot to think about now.

Not in a bad way, but a good way.

Glad I could help. I'm not trying to put you off, but have seen the extremes of a diet change like this for myself and know how taxing it can be on you mentally and physically. There's a lot they didn't tell me when I went gluten free that I wish they had, like the issues with the sugar in the food etc..

As I say I've been doing this for 10 years now, so if you have any questions please feel free to ask

Awesome I will trust me on that. I'm sure I will some questions down the road on the subject. But no you haven't thrown me off on it just the facts about gluten free, if my doctor don't give me an answer I will hit you up, is that cool?

Yep that's totally fine

For me, going gluten free is absolutely essential for all Crohn's patients. But as people point out, its not easy or simple. There's gluten in toothpaste and supplements and things like gravy granules. But being vigilant and learning about it is the way forward. The other issue is that gluten free substitutes can be worse than gluten itself. So IMO it's equally important to go processed-free; that is eat only food that looks like what it looked like when it was grown. Eating that way, largely vegetables, with minimal red meat, will rebalance many problems in the intestinal tract over time. What i find puzzling is that there is so much resistance to trying to make a natural plant based diet work, given there is no downside, no additional risk. The peer reviewed evidence base showing how processed food aggravates the intestinal epithelium is very substantial.

Yeah that is what my GI told me about gluten. A lot of people don't won't to give it a try I don't know why. I don't eat and processed food, if it's not natural I don't by it. But I do buy gluten free bread and stuff but something's I order from a web site called gluten free deliveries, only sale from companies that are certified gluten free. Very good company.

crohns4ever said:

Yeah that is what my GI told me about gluten. A lot of people don't won't to give it a try I don't know why. I don't eat and processed food, if it's not natural I don't by it. But I do buy gluten free bread and stuff but something's I order from a web site called gluten free deliveries, only sale from companies that are certified gluten free. Very good company.

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The thing about gluten substitutes is that by definition and their very nature they are binders that glue proteins and molecules together. By and large they will have a similar effect as gluten on the gut, but worse, they have not been 'road tested' by adaptation, so we are subjecting ourselves to a big experiment without understanding the risks.

Each time i go off all grains I feel way better. Then things start creeping back in, and i start eating buckwheat, quinoia and other crackers and after a while that lightness and energy goes. But its not easy to stay off processed foods.

Yeah I feel you, like last night I was craving some capton crunch cearl I look at the ingredients and seen oat wheat as the first ingredient so I ate a cup gull and within half hour my stomach was torn up bro. I have learned my lesson on that one. But since I have been on the gluten free wagon I feel like I have more energy then before, my blood work numbers is increasing, and so on. So something has to be working.

That's supposed to the full instead of gull computer spelling sucks.

I feel for you. The craving for comfort foods might well be the heart of it. I've been on no grains at all for last 3 weeks, and it's an eye opener. It's known that gluten and gliadin (proteins in wheat products) have opiod peptides that activate that feelgood factor. As does casein from dairy. I wouldn't be surprised if all the other non gluten grains have something similar too.

So now been scheming how to get some of my dishes to feel more like comfort food. Been making vegetable stews, and adding lentils, hummus and coconut fibre bulks them up and makes them more filling naturally.

Now scheming about a breakfast cereal that might work and help the microbiome as well; banana, plantain flakes, coconut flakes and a few other things in almond or cocounut milk.

That sounds good, I do cocunut milk which I love a lot been drinking it before I went gluten free. But yeah it's hard when you won't comfort food. I been fixing chicken n rice, spaghetti and meat balls with homemade meat sauce, and eat a lot ice cream shacks.

I have a type of colitis, so different from crohns.

I tested negative for celiac but it was suggested by my doctor to eat gluten free. The diet helped my condition but wasn't a cure.

Lately I've been eating some wheat from time to time without issue.

My gi wanted me to give it a try he said it was no cure but it might make simptoms easyer to deal with, so fare so good but it's still to early to really know for sure. But I believe I am going to stick with it, have you read mark hyman studies on the effects of gluten in the human body something to think about, and he works with some top notch harvest grad doctors so It really made it interesting for me.

Man that's not harvest it's should have been harverd. Computer always suck with spell correction, my bad.

I've tried gluten free with suport of a dietician but it made no difference. Well it did for 2 days and then I was back to square one. I'm actually very happy about that as I really didn't need more dietary restrictions and I bake my own sourdough bread which I love and would hate to give up.

Low fibre is still the best for me.

Beach yeah my gi told me it wasn't a cure but probably some simptom relief. But so fare so good I no yesterday when I was coming back from my gi appointment I stopped at a gas station cause I wanted something sweet so I pick up one honey bun, after I ate that darn thing I was so sick on my stomach for about 45 mins, I really think that I might need to be tested for celiac.