How Long After Eating Gluten Do You Feel Sick?

How long after eating gluten do you feel sick is one of those million dollar questions💵

Because when you don’t feel well, you want relief.

If you’re bloated, nauseated or just doubled over in pain like I was, you just want to know: was it something I ate?

How long after eating you feel sick from gluten depends on a few things.

In this short article, I’ll break down:

• What might be the cause of your symptoms
• How long after eating gluten will you feel sick (depending on the above)
• How to get relief from feeling sick, bloated and nauseated

Let’s do this!

1. What is causing your symptoms after eating gluten?

It could be one of 3 things happening, and all of these relate to some level or type of gluten intolerance:

• Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS) – this is a term describe a condition where people have symptoms, like bloating, nausea, stomach pain but they don’t have celiac disease. You may also see terms like: Non-Celiac Wheat Sensitivity (NCWS), Gluten Sensitivity (GS), or Gluten Intolerance (GI) too and they mean the same thing
• Celiac Disease – is a condition that involves an immune-mediated response to gluten (the protein found in wheat, barely and rye.) If you need to go gluten-free for celiac disease, go here
• Wheat Allergy – is an immune reaction to to foods containing wheat

Typical symptoms of NCGSS or gluten intolerance are:

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

Here’s the thing about gluten intolerance: there is overlap of the symptoms with other conditions like irritable bowel syndrome for example.

There’s no 100% for sure way to tell if you have gluten intolerance (yet.) The best you can do is cut out gluten and see if your symptoms go away. This is the method where the treatment confirms the diagnosis.

Check out these 7 Sneaky Signs You May Be Gluten Intolerant!

2. How long after eating gluten will you feel sick?

How soon symptoms appear after eating gluten can depend on what level of reaction to gluten you have and if it involves your immune system. These are like levels of gluten intolerance, 1 to 3.

• Gluten Intolerance (or non-celiac gluten sensitivity)

In the case of non-celiac gluten sensitivity, symptoms will arise after a few hours or maybe even days after eating gluten. It’s harder to pinpoint because of the delay.

For me, it’s usually a few hours to a 1/2 a day or so.

If I get my nausea, painful bloating and abdominal pain, I can usually look back at my diet and figure out where some sneaky gluten got in!

• Celiac disease

In the case of  celiac disease, it could be several hours, days or even weeks. With the damage to the intestine that occurs with celiac disease, it’s so important that you remain completely gluten-free.

• Wheat Allergy

Typically with a wheat allergy, you’ll notice the start of symptoms pretty soon after eating gluten. With a wheat allergy, symptoms appear within a few minutes, which is a typical allergic response, sometimes resulting in an anaphylactic reaction.

If you live with a wheat allergy, talk with a trusted health care professional specializing in food allergies.

3. How to get relief from feeling sick, bloated and nauseated from gluten

So I’ve got good news and bad news here.

Good news: it can be prevented, so you don’t have to feel any of those icky symptoms ever again.

Bad news? It doesn’t really help you IN THE MOMENT.

But there are a few things you can try.

When you’re in the middle of a gluten attack, try these tips:

• Move around if you can – when I would have a gluten attack, moving would be so hard. I could only lie in bed, curled up, clutching my stomach (sounds a bit dramatic but seriously, it was just so painful!) If I could manage to move around, it helped. A little bit. If you can walk – even if it’s around your bed or up and down some stairs.
• If you’re nauseated, you can try over-the-counter anti-nausea medication. My doctor suggested Gravol but it never touch the nauseated that I had from gluten bloating. Talk to your trusted healthcare professional for options for you.
• Go for a cleansing green smoothie that can have a natural anti-nausea effect. This one has ginger which for some people, helps digestion and can ease that sick feeling.

But I gotta tell you: not that much helped me feel better after getting sick from eating gluten. I just had to go to sleep🤷‍♀️

And that’s what made it so awful! Missing out on so much with my kids and hubby because I was feeling bloated from eating gluten.

So for me, NOT getting sick became priority #1. And I figured out how to do it! Go Gluten-Free.

If you want to get started going gluten friendly to prevent getting sick from gluten, check out my cheat sheet: Foods to Avoid for Busy Moms with Gluten Intolerance and get relief now.

I also have a gluten-free and healthy meal plan for download. Check that out here.

~April

You may also be interested in these articles:

7 Sneaky Signs You May Be Gluten Intolerant

How to Get Enough Carbs on a Gluten Free Diet; 3 Easy Steps

How Long After Eating Gluten Do You Feel Sick?

Relieve Gluten Bloating with These 7 Steps!