Gluten Intolerance and Acid Reflux: 3 Signs to Watch For

Can Gluten Intolerance cause GERD (or acid reflux)? The answer is YES! Watch for these 3 Signs That Gluten is Causing Your Reflux. And find out how to feel better FAST. No more burping and bloating!

You're burping and bloated and have a got a bad case of GERD.

So you wanna know: how the heck can GLUTEN cause symptoms like acid reflux🤯

And more importantly, you want the burping, bloating and stomach pain to END.

Preferably, like, yesterday.

Jump to:

• 🌾What's Gluten?
• 🚫What's Acid Reflux?
• 🙋‍♀️Can Gluten Give You Acid Reflux? Here's 3 Signs to Watch For
• ✅Can Acid Reflux Be a Symptom of Gluten Intolerance?
• Got gluten bloating from GERD?
• ❓How does gluten intolerance cause GERD?
• Grab this gluten-free meal plan
• 🙋‍♀️So Can You End Reflux with a Gluten-Free Diet?
• 💬 Comments

Look, I get it.

When I was finally diagnosed with gluten intolerance, I was able to get rid of my acid reflux - for once and for all.

And when I finally cut out gluten, I was free from the bloating, burping and nausea - all from GERD.

After cutting out gluten, not only did I feel like myself again, I was able to say buh-bye to the pills that I was taking to help control my GERD.

But I wanted to learn more about how gluten can cause reflux.

Here's what I found - let's jump into the details and get YOU relief sooner than I did.

🌾What's Gluten?

First things first: what the heck is gluten?

Gluten is the protein that's found in grains like wheat, barley, rye and triticale.

Specifically in wheat, gluten makes up ~80% of the total proteins.

And lemme tell ya, wheat is EVERYWHERE.

Wheat flour is a super important food and food ingredient used in sooooo many different products.

Wheat is used in things that we eat (like bread, baked goods, pasta, etc.) and things that we use - like even some make-up.

And wheat flour does have a ton of beneficial nutritional properties, like protein (the gluten), fibre and trace vitamins and minerals.

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So wheat flour isn't necessarily "bad". BUT it's the gluten protein in the wheat that causes immune responses and hypersensitivity reactions in susceptible people (like me and you.)

🚫What's Acid Reflux?

Let's dive into your stomach, ok?

Picture this: there's a sphincter around the lower esophagus (think kinda like a rubber band).

This keeps the stomach acid where it needs to be: in your stomach.

But for many different reasons, conditions in your gut can change, causing this rubber band to loosen.

And when that happens, stomach acid gets into your esophagus.

This acid is what causes the burning, burping and bloating.

And it's SUPER uncomfortable.

Acid reflux is also know as "GERD": gastroesophageal reflux disease but they basically mean the same thing.

🙋‍♀️Can Gluten Give You Acid Reflux? Here's 3 Signs to Watch For

1. Big, Bad Bloating

Have you ever ate a meal and then a few hours later, you're making comments to your spouse about your "pregnant belly", patting it lovingly?

In my own experience and talking to many others about this, stomach bloating often happens after eating gluten.

This could be related to the type of carbohydrates eaten, causing more fermentation which in turn, causing bloating (more on this later.)

2. Bad Breath

Spouse buying you Tic Tacs on the regular for your Dragon Breath?

Acid reflux after eating gluten can cause some really narly smells to waft up through your food pipe and out into the world.

Often my husband would tell me I had "stress breath". 

I brushed more often.

I flossed religiously.

I breathed into my hand and tried to smell it (does that even work?) but nothing helped.

Until, that is, I cut out gluten for good.

No more reflux from gluten=no more bad breath.

Ask a trusted friend or kid or spouse to let you know if your breath could wilt flowers.

And then follow a gluten-free meal plan to see if it helps.

3. Belching & Burping

Find yourself rocked by burps that happen even when your stomach is empty?

I remember hours after eating, I would burp like I just drank a whole bunch of Bubbly.

I got used to it after a few years but really, I shouldn't have.

Why the heck would I be BURPING if I didn't eat anything for hours?

Try and see if you notice your burps are expected (after some carbonated water, say for example) or are you generally in a state of a near-constant-blelch-fest?

If it's the latter, try cutting out gluten and see if it gets any better.

✅Can Acid Reflux Be a Symptom of Gluten Intolerance?

So here's the thing: gluten intolerance can cause a LOT of different symptoms.

And yes, gluten intolerance CAN cause GERD.

Here's a list of some of the symptoms that people report:

• Abdominal Pain
• Anemia
• Bloating
• "Brain Fog"
• Depression
• Diarrhea
• Fatigue
• Headache
• Muscle & Joint Pain
• Nausea
• Skin Problems

Check out this article for more on symptoms of gluten intolerance.

Because so many of the symptoms overlap with other conditions, like Irritable Bowel Syndrome (known as IBS), it can sometimes be hard to know what you're dealing with.

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Plus, the diagnosis for gluten intolerance or non-celiac gluten sensitivity isn't clear - there isn't a biomarker or a reliable way to diagnosis the condition.

Some studies point to changes in the intestines "permeability" or the amount of stuff that gets through the lining of the intestines.

This can cause activation of the innate immune system, which triggers all the symptoms we talked about.

But the connection between eating gluten and acid reflux is not well defined.

More studies are being done to try and figure it out².

For me, because I had such bad acid reflux from gluten, once I finally cut out gluten for good, my symptoms went away and I got to say buh-bye to my prescription medication.

I had:

• Painful bloating
• Non-stop reflux (you know – the burps, the burning in your throat)
• Stomach or abdominal cramping
• Nausea that won’t let up

It's kind of amazing the number of people I talk to that are bloated and burping, taking medication, cutting out coffee, red wine (?!), carbonated beverages and STILL get no relief from acid reflux.

❓How does gluten intolerance cause GERD?

Alright, so we've established that yes, gluten intolerance can cause acid reflux.

But HOW, exactly?

Well, changes in the type of carbs eaten are linked with increased GERD-symptoms¹.

Studies suggest that gluten may cause acid reflux by lowering the pressure of the esophageal sphincter.

Specifically, different kinds of starch seem to lower the esophageal sphincter pressure because of an increase in colonic fermentation (aka more toots).

When the change in pressure happens, the acid leaks up from the stomach into the esophagus. And that's what causes all the burping, bloating and stomach pain.

In the western diet, we get most of the starch in our diet from refined grains, which are gluten-based and tend to be lower in fibre.

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🙋‍♀️So Can You End Reflux with a Gluten-Free Diet?

There are small studies showing that gluten-free diets can help with reducing GERD-symptoms.

And gluten-free diets have been also shown to help prevent more reflux from happening³.

For me, when I went gluten-free (for actual good), I got rid of my gluten bloating, burping and painful nausea.

I also said buh-bye to my medications.

For me, that's all the evidence I need🙋‍♀️

If you think gluten might be causing your acid reflux, try cutting out gluten (for good) and see what happens.

Get started now and beat acid reflux and with my gluten free recipes!

Join today so you don't miss anything!

~April

References

1. Newberry C. The Gluten-Free Diet: Use in Digestive Disease Management. Curr Treat Options Gastroenterol. 2019 Dec;17(4):554-563. doi: 10.1007/s11938-019-00255-0. PMID: 31705373.

2. Barbaro MR, Cremon C, Stanghellini V and Barbara G. Recent advances in understanding non-celiac gluten sensitivity [version 1; referees: 2 approved] F1000Research 2018, 7(F1000 Faculty Rev):1631 (doi: 10.12688/f1000research.15849.1)

3. Usai P, Manca R, Cuomo R, Lai MA, Russo L, Boi MF. Effect of gluten-free diet on preventing recurrence of gastroesophageal reflux disease-related symptoms in adult celiac patients with nonerosive reflux disease. J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2008 Sep;23(9):1368-72. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1746.2008.05507.x. PMID: 18853995