Calming a Gluten Reaction

Calming a gluten reaction after cheating on your gluten free diet can put you in devastating pain right? As a fellow gluten free dieter, I wonder why we do that to ourselves over and over. The bloating, gas pain, stomach ache, and general ill feeling should be enough to cure us of ever eating that slice of pizza, or whatever it is we think we want again right? Well…no. We love pizza, so we do the awful deed to ourselves.

Over the years of eating gluten free, I have found a number of natural remedies for calming a gluten reaction that seem to work quite well. They aren't expensive or hard to find and can easily be kept with you in your purse, backpack, or whatever other item you use to carry personal belongings in.

Turmeric

This spice has a vibrant gold/yellow hue and is known for it's effectiveness in calming the inflammatory process. It's not too harsh in taste, in fact I find it quite mild even when using larger doses in water. You can find this product in capsule form, but I take it in loose powder form so it can splash the entire area within my stomach. When I have a strong reaction going on, I'll take a teaspoon in some water. A half teaspoon works well for mild reactions.

Peppermint

As someone with digestive issues, I don't know what I'd do without peppermint. I've taken it in a variety of forms, however, I find for strong gluten reactions Starlight Peppermint disc candy works beautifully. I'm not sparing with these when I'm having gluten intolerance, sometimes eating 6-8 of these at a time. If you're diabetic, I wouldn't recommend doing this unless the mints are sugarfree. Peppermint also can be found in capsule form.

Spearmint

I always keep a bag of the Starlight peppermints on hand, as well as the green and white spearmint Starlight mints. These are also another avenue to calming a gluten reaction. These also can be purchased in capsule form if you don't feel up to sucking on these candies one after the other. You can also avoid the sugar buzz by using the capsule versions.

Flax Seed

Flax provides a some of it's own effective benefits with regard to reducing inflammation due to gluten sensitivity, namely in mucous membranes. Especially the membranes that line our gluten sensitive stomachs. I find that a heaping tablespoon of flax meal mixed in water or juice works well. You can also take flax oil capsules, however, I've found that splashing the entire lining of the stomach when you use these powder and meal types of remedies is very soothing and fast acting as well.