Ever feel bloated, puffy, or gassy after eating a bowl of pasta or slice of bread? Eating foods with gluten can cause uncomfortable symptoms for some people. Gluten is a type of protein often found in pasta, cereal, beer, and bread made with wheat, rye, barley, and other grains.
One possible culprit is a gluten sensitivity, sometimes labeled as a gluten intolerance. With this condition, your body has difficulty breaking down gluten. A gluten sensitivity can cause digestive upset, fatigue, and bloating, among other symptoms.
Gluten is also linked with celiac disease (a chronic autoimmune disease), dermatitis herpetiformis (a skin condition), and gluten ataxia (a rare neurological condition affecting the brain). Gluten sensitivity and celiac disease can cause gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms that include feeling bloated or overfull, while dermatitis herpetiformis and gluten ataxia don’t typically cause GI problems. However, none of these conditions cause swelling (edema) in your hands, feet, or other areas of the body.
It’s a myth that gluten sensitivities can lead to swelling (or edema), which is different from bloating. Learn more about gluten sensitivities, including the common symptoms, and discover what may be causing your swelling (hint: it isn’t gluten).
What Is Gluten Sensitivity?
If you have a gluten intolerance, also known as nonceliac gluten sensitivity, you may feel bloated or tired after eating gluten, or you may have stomach pain.
While gluten intolerance isn’t well understood, healthcare professionals know that it’s not a food allergy, which is when your immune system reacts to eating a certain food.
Gluten sensitivity isn’t the same thing as celiac disease. Although people with celiac disease have many of the same symptoms as people with a gluten intolerance, in celiac disease, your body treats gluten as if it were a virus, which may cause inflammation and damage to your digestive tract.
To treat gluten intolerance and celiac disease, healthcare experts typically advise limiting or avoiding foods with gluten. While some people with a gluten intolerance may be able to consume small amounts of gluten or reintroduce it slowly, people with celiac disease may need to avoid these foods long term to prevent damage to the intestines.
Symptoms of Nonceliac Gluten Sensitivity
A sensitivity to gluten can include the following signs:
Gluten sensitivity can make you feel like your clothes are tight, but this bloating isn’t the same thing as edema. This is swelling that occurs when an excessive amount of fluid collects in your body’s tissues. Edema can make your skin look puffy, stretched, or shiny.
Edema isn't a common side effect of gluten intolerance. However, if you have a true food allergy to wheat, you can experience swelling throughout various parts of your body because of an allergic reaction. Food allergies can be serious, so you should talk with your doctor if you suspect that you have an allergy. If you experience any difficulty breathing or other signs of anaphylaxis after eating gluten, seek emergency medical attention.
Michelle Seguin, MD, is a board-certified family medicine, lifestyle medicine, and certified functional medicine physician (IFMCP). She is a practicing physician at Root Functional Medicine, a leading telemedicine practice specializing in personalized, root-cause care.
Bojana Galic is a NASM-certified personal trainer and a staff writer for everydayhealth.com covering fitness, sports nutrition and health. She is a 2018 graduate of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University.
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