Diagnosis of Gluten Intolerance

Gluten Intolerance is first suspected from the onset of symptoms. You should make an appointment with your doctor if you suspect gluten intolerance. It is sometimes helpful for you to have kept a food diary, and then take this to your doctor. It can be very helpful for diagnosing the culprit food. Your doctor may suggest following an elimination diet in order to confirm a gluten intolerance diagnosis. An elimination diet involves removing all products contain the culprit food from your diet. In this case the elimination diet would mean you following a gluten-free diet. While following this diet you should keep another food diary, this should include all details about; foods eaten, their amount and any associated symptoms.

If symptoms improve while on the elimination diet, gluten intolerance can usually be confirmed. To test your theory, you should sample a small amount of gluten and see if symptoms occur. If symptoms are triggered then gluten intolerance can be diagnosed. If symptoms don’t occur, this means that either; gluten intolerance is not the cause of your problems or you have grown slightly tolerate to gluten. Also, another food type which so happens to be in the majority of gluten containing foods may be the trigger to your symptoms, and not gluten e.g. wheat.

Living with gluten intolerance

If you are gluten intolerant you will the advice from your doctor will probably have been to start following a ‘gluten-free’ diet. A gluten-free diet has proven to be the best way for gluten intolerant individuals to combat the symptoms developed when they eat gluten. By removing gluten from your diet you can avoid the immune reaction that occurs when it is eaten.

It may appear daunting, but a gluten-free diet is now much easier to follow with many supermarkets developing their own ‘gluten-free’ range.

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