Firstly, ask yourself these questions. Do you suffer from the symptoms of bloating and tiredness on a daily basis? Have you just thought to yourself this is normal and everyone goes through this? Have you considered that certain foods you are eating could be causing this?
The main culprit behind these feelings is gluten. Gluten is a protein found in foods containing wheat, oats, certain grains, barley and rye. Meaning gluten is found in foods such as breads, pastas, oatmeal, french fries, processed cheeses and cereals just to name a few!
Within the population there are a select group of people who cannot tolerate gluten and this is called celiac disease. But there is a larger amount of the population who can be affected by gluten on a smaller scale. Usually these people have no idea gluten is affecting them!
Gluten has many symptoms besides the common tiredness and bloating. Other symptoms include
- Inflammation of the small inestine
- Inability to wake up
- Brain fog
- Gas
- Stomach cramps
- Hyper-intestinal permeability (leaky gut sydnrome) which can leak food into the bloodstream. This is due to the fact that gluten causes the intestines to open up regularly instead of being a tight junction
You’re probably thinking that ‘gluten free’ is just a fad or that you’re certain that you aren’t affected by it. It’s estimated that a majority of the population is affected by gluten and are in complete ignorance of this fact. The best way to see if your body reacts to gluten is to go off it for 1-3 months. This is how long it can take for the small intestines to repair. During the 1-3 months much change won’t be noticed but once you go back to gluten to test it, you will notice the feelings! You will notice how you feel bloated, tired and overall in poor health. This will open your eyes to how gluten has been affecting your body all along without you realising.
It’s very common to not relate pain and fatigue to eating but a lot of these symptoms are caused by what we put in our mouth on a regular basis! We need to nourish our body by feeding it the correct foods which will improve our quality of life. Going off gluten is not as hard as you think. You’ll find you can still enjoy a large range of foods that will leave you feeling healthy and energised.
