Wheat intolerance symptoms are common and often categorised with similar intolerances like coeliac disease and non-coeliac gluten sensitivity. These conditions all have the same symptoms, but they’re different since varying parts of the grains cause these symptoms and affect the body differently.
Causes of wheat intolerance
Even though there isn’t a sure cause for wheat intolerance, there are two major ways scientists believe wheat can affect the body. A high level of fructans, a carbohydrate in rye, wheat, and barley, can cause wheat intolerance.
Wheat intolerance can also be caused by the body producing an inflammatory response to wheat proteins in your diet. Since wheat intolerance, gluten intolerance, non-celiac gluten sensitivity, and coeliac disease are so similar, taking an Intolerance Test is the only way to tell apart these three and know for sure what’s going on in your body.
When you have a wheat intolerance, consuming wheat products causes intolerance symptoms. Often, these symptoms are gastrointestinal and take a few hours to a few days to appear, which makes it hard to know which exact food has caused these symptoms.
Usually, when you eat food, it’s broken down in the small intestines into very small microscopic pieces and absorbed into the blood. However, when you have a wheat intolerance, this doesn’t happen. Wheat isn’t broken down in the small intestines and is further pushed down your GI tract into the colon.
In the colon, it gets fermented and derives a lot of water from the colon to get out of the body easily. Both processes then cause gas production and water retention, which then causes wheat intolerance symptoms in the body.
Since your body can’t break down wheat proteins properly when you have a wheat intolerance, it causes IBS symptoms in your body. These symptoms can, however, pass right after you’ve passed all that wheat from the body.
How to test for wheat intolerance
If you suspect you may have a wheat intolerance, you need to take an Intolerance Test which ideally helps you know whether you have any other food intolerances. The way wheat intolerance tests work is simple. All you need to do is take an intolerance test.
You can do so by ordering the test online, after which you’ll have it delivered via email within three days. You can then mail a blood sample to the labs for testing. After your sample has arrived in the lab, you’ll receive your results within seven days.
The intolerance test results will be sent to your email for easy access. It’s also easy to understand your results, and you get a free 30-minute call with a dietitian who can help you figure out your diet and manage it.
Once you have your wheat intolerance results, the best way forward depends on your results. If you’re intolerant to heat, you’ll need to adopt a wheat-free diet that is quite easy to manage.
Wheat intolerance symptoms
Wheat intolerance symptoms vary from one individual to the other. These wheat intolerance symptoms vary in severity depending on how much wheat you’ve consumed or your level of sensitivity to wheat. You’ll also find that wheat intolerance symptoms can persist until you’ve passed it.
Common wheat intolerance symptoms include:
- Joint pain
- Diarrhoea
- Gas
- Abdominal pain
- Fatigue
- Anxiety
- Headache
- Eczema
- Acne, rashes, itchiness
- Bloating
- Constipation
- Vomiting/nausea
Risk factors of wheat intolerance
Even though there are no sure causes of wheat intolerance, some risk factors can increase your susceptibility to developing wheat intolerance. These include:
- Family history of celiac disease
- Female gender
- Type 1 diabetes
- Autoimmune liver disease
- Down syndrome
- Autoimmune thyroid disease
- Colon inflammation
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Turner syndrome
- Type 1 diabetes
You should note that not everyone with these factors will suffer from wheat intolerance. However, these factors make one more susceptible to the condition.
What’s the difference between wheat intolerance and gluten intolerance?
Gluten intolerance is the body’s reaction to wheat, rye, and barley gluten. However, even though wheat intolerance can result from carbohydrates in all three grains, it’s mostly due to proteins present only in wheat.
Both conditions, however, have similar symptoms. You must avoid wheat in your diet when you get diagnosed with wheat intolerance. However, you’ll have to avoid gluten when you have gluten intolerance. Gluten is naturally in wheat, barley and rye, while wheat proteins are only present in wheat products.
People with wheat intolerance have difficulty digesting wheat proteins the same way people with gluten intolerance have a hard time digesting gluten. Both conditions aren’t life-threatening; you can easily manage them by managing your diet.
Foods to avoid with wheat intolerance
It’s obvious that avoiding anything with wheat will keep you from suffering from wheat intolerance symptoms. However, it’s more complex than that because wheat can sometimes be labelled differently on the processed foods’ ingredients list. Locating and identifying wheat as an ingredient can be difficult when the name changes.
Here are some names to identify wheat and avoid it in processed foods:
- Durum
- Emmer
- Bulgur
- Einkorn
- Farro
- Spelt
- Kamut
- White and whole wheat flour
- Sprouted wheat
- Wheatgrass
- Semolina
- Wheat (bran, gluten, grass, germ, malt, spelt)
- Farina
Wheat alternatives
Many grains work as well as wheat; you can use them in your recipes to replace wheat. Replacing a food item you’ve eliminated in your diet will; help you create a balanced diet providing most if not all, the nutritional benefits the other grain offers. Wheat alternatives include:
- Corn
- Oats
- Amaranth
- Buckwheat
- Quinoa
Treating wheat intolerance
The best wheat intolerance treatment is avoidance of wheat in your diet. Here is no other definite method to deal with this food intolerance. As soon as your wheat Intolerance Test has confirmed you have a wheat intolerance, you need to remove this grain from your diet and replace it with something healthier and as nutritional as wheat.
Even though you can treat wheat intolerance, you can always treat the symptoms. Depending on your symptoms, you can get over-the-counter medications like antidiarrheals and antacids. OTC medications can help you deal with your symptoms easily.
Final thoughts
Wheat intolerance affects many people and is often confused with coeliac disease and gluten intolerance. However, these three are different, and Intolerance Test can help you determine your suffering. You can easily live with wheat intolerance without suffering from intolerance symptoms by managing your diet.
