Foods That Cross React with Gluten

What do I mean by cross reactivity? I am talking about how some foods other than gluten get confused in the body for gluten!

Why does this happen? These food molecules “look” similar to the gluten molecule, and easily get confused in the body. So, if you are trying to avoid gluten to help reduce inflammation and reduce your immune response, you may need to also avoid gluten cross-reactors!

So far, I have not gone down the path of avoiding ALL of these possible cross reactive foods. I know that when I do eat wheat, I have long-lasting digestive changes. It may take me a month (or usually more) to get my digestion back to perfect.

I have still been avoiding millet, quinoa, potato, banana, buckwheat, hemp, oats, cassava/yucca, and trying to limit tapioca. I also limit the amount of corn and other grains that I intake. The tapioca one is hard because they put it in EVERYTHING! It is in a lot of gluten free alternative products. I still eat eggs, and some dairy. Here is why:

My MRT (Mediator Release Testing) results gave me a short-cut to figuring out what was causing the most inflammation in my body.

You can see how my grain section seems to be the most problematic. A few yellows, and a lot of “high green” which means to be careful! Overall, I have experienced the best symptom reduction when I was “grain-free”. However, yes, it is difficult to maintain. So, I do consume some rice and corn here and there. No excessive or regular at all. But, this is an example of how I have customized my possible cross reactive foods. You can also see how testing gives me the facts, and I don’t have to be as restrictive as others on a general autoimmune diet where you restrict eggs, dairy, all grains, and more.

Here is a list of the more common gluten cross-reactive foods for reference:

• Amaranth
• Buckwheat
• Chocolate
• Coffee (mostly just instant coffee)
• Corn
• Dairy and Casein (a milk protein)
• Egg
• Hemp
• Millet
• Oats
• Potato
• Rice
• Sesame
• Soy
• Tapioca
• Yeast