Can menopause cause gluten intolerance?

Today's topic:

Today on A.Vogel Talks Menopause, I take a look at why some women can become intolerant and sensitive to gluten during menopause.

This is one of the surprising symptoms we found over the years in menopause that many women find they become more intolerant to gluten or even other groups of food.

For some women, they may have had symptoms beforehand, so they've got worse, but for other women, this is something that suddenly appears in the middle of menopause and they're just not quite sure how to help themselves.

So, what I'm going to do today is explain why this happens, the signs that you may experience, and the foods that you can start to avoid.

Why can menopause make you intolerant to gluten?

The reason this happens is all to do with menopause affecting our digestive system in lots of different ways. Our digestion becomes less efficient breaking down and absorbing food. And we know there is something called leaky gut.

So, if you're not breaking your food down properly, larger particles of undigested food can escape from the digestive tract and your immune system can trigger a kind of allergic reaction.

We know too that the time it takes for you to eat your food until your bowels work can be longer, so these foods are sitting for much longer in the digestive tract.

If the digestive tract itself becomes inflamed or more sensitive, then food being in there for longer can start to irritate the gut wall more and you can end up with a condition such as inflammatory bowel syndrome.

What are the signs of gluten intolerance?

One of the main signs is that you may find that especially after eating certain foods, you get very bloated in the belly area. So, you may find you get up in the morning and you can put your trousers or your skirt on and zip it up, and then by the time your evening meal comes, you just feel that you've expanded so much that your clothes can be very uncomfortable.

Other signs and symptoms include getting getting a lot of cramping. You might find that you end up with constipation. You may find you get diarrhoea or you can get a combination of both, so you may be constipated for three days, then all of a sudden, you get a few bouts of diarrhoea.

Gluten intolerance can also make you feel very fatigued. You can get very tired. You can get very windy. You can find that you're expelling gas much more, much louder, much more forcibly too.

And food intolerances can also cause that foggy brain, so you can end up in a situation where you feel very uncomfortable. You're just very tired. You're just not thinking clearly. And you just can't figure out why this is happening.

How to tell if you are sensitive to gluten?

So, the first thing I recommend you do is to keep a food diary for a couple of weeks, writing down everything that you eat and drink daily and at what times. Be really truthful. This is important because it could be just about anything, you're eating that could cause food intolerance and it doesn't necessarily have to be unhealthy foods that can do this for some women.

And what you would then do is to look at the times that you get the most symptoms, when you feel most uncomfortable, maybe most fatigued, when you get the cramps, and you may find that there is a link to certain food on certain days that are causing this.

Which foods contain gluten?

The foods that you need to look out for are foods that contain wheat, barley, rye, or oats. So, the common ones would be things like bread, pasta, pizza bases, biscuits, cakes, tortilla chips, breakfast cereals, even some of these sort of fruit bars, energy bars, can contain wheat as well.

The problem too is that there is a whole range of foods that can contain wheat, which is very often used as a thickener, that you really wouldn't think has gluten in them. So that's things like your sauces, tomato sauce, salad creams, soups, especially tinned soups, and even some freshly made soups that you get in cartons, very often, have wheat in them.

Soy sauce will have wheat in it. Alcohol such as  beer or anything that's made from barley can also be an issue.

How do you go gluten-free?

There are so many things you need to do, so you need to give yourself a little bit of time and patience to do this.

So read everything that you buy and make sure there are none of these grains in them. Then just start to omit these foods, so your bread, and your pasta, and pizza, and biscuits, and everything, just try and start to avoid them. You can top up with plenty of fruit and vegetables. Nuts and seeds make a great snack.

And the other thing is to look at gluten-free food. I'm not a great fan because you're then replacing one carbohydrate with another and what we find in menopause that too many carbohydrate foods tend to make you put on weight and they're not necessarily good for you anyway.

But if you do rely on certain foods as part of your daily diet, you can look at gluten-free bread. A lot of oatcakes are gluten-free so these are great for a mid-morning or mid-afternoon or mid-evening snack, with something like nut butter on them.
If you are going for gluten-free foods, do look because most of them will have a gluten-free certificate somewhere on the packaging and that will just help you to identify the foods that you can eat and the ones that you need to avoid.

I sometimes find if somebody is struggling with weight, then going on a gluten-free diet for a couple of months can sometimes make a great deal of difference, so it's not just necessarily going on a gluten-free diet because you're having issues, but also, it can be a good way to help you lose that little bit of weight.

If you want to know a bit more about this, our fantastic nutritionist Emma has written an article on, 'Our guide to going gluten-free', so please have a read of this to get lots more helpful information and tips on how to go gluten-free.

I hope you found this one helpful. Again, if any of you out there have any tips, any advice, please share them. We would love to hear all about them.

Key points to take away from this blog:

• Women can often become intolerant to gluten due to digestive problems which occur as a result of hormonal changes slowing down the digestive systems during menopause
• Signs of gluten intolerance to look out for after eating include bloating, cramping, constipation, diarrhoea, and fatigue
• I recommend keeping a food diary for a few weeks, noting down the times you eat and what you eat, and when or if you experience any of the signs of a gluten intolerance after you eat.