What To Do If You’ve Been Glutened

No matter how closely we read labels or how intensely we question restaurant servers, accidents happen. Gluten happens. We celiacs unintentionally get poisoned by gluten and find ourselves in a panic. Luckily, I can count the number of times I’ve been severely glutened on one hand, but that doesn’t diminish the memories of those experiences.

One of the most frequent questions I’m asked about celiac besides “what can you eat?” is “what happens if you eat gluten?” While the symptoms can be slightly different for everyone, they typically include the original, pre-diagnosis symptoms of indigestion, bloating, headaches, diarrhea and fatigue (<– those are my symptoms). ( I sometimes give the more medical sounding explanation of “it weakens my small intense causing malabsorption of nutrients” just to sound cool ;)). So, what’s one to do when those effects come and knock you out? Here’s my little routine for recovering from being glutened…

REST.

I use this as my excuse to stay in bed all day and sleep/watch Netflix. While that may sound indulgent, think about it…you’re body is being attacked by gluten. This is a stressful experience for your body and it doesn’t need the added effort of moving around and/or exercising. It may take a few hours of rest or even a full night’s rest. But I know I always feel a little bit better when I sleep.

Drink water.

I make sure to stay hydrated with water and tea. It helps flush out the toxins and gets my digestive system moving again.

Eat plain foods.

The first foods I eat after being glutened are usually things that are easy on my stomach such as certain fruits, plain chicken and cooked vegetables. I probably eat like that for a day or so just until my body feels back to normal.

Spend time outside.

This is just my opinion (as is all of this “advice”) but taking a nice walk or just even sitting outside helps me heal faster. If it’s been a few days I’ll run a little, but just getting fresh air can help clear my mind.

Last, but not least, try not to make the same mistake again ;)

For celiacs: what do you do when you’ve been glutened?

For non-celiacs: any home remedies for sickness?