What is Silent Celiac and what you need to know

If you don’t get symptoms, it’s easy to think: 
👉 “Maybe I don’t need to be that strict…” 
👉 “A little bit probably won’t hurt…” 

But here’s the problem…
With celiac disease, feeling fine doesn’t mean you’re safe. 

Today you’ll learn: 

• What “silent celiac” actually is  
• Whether strict gluten-free really matters if you don’t feel symptoms  
• How to decide your own level of strictness (with confidence, not fear)  

And stick around, because I’m going to share one mindset shift that completely changes how you think about “cheating” gluten-free. 

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Transcript

Personal Disclaimer And Setup

Carrie Saunders 0:00

Quick reminder before we get started on this episode. This podcast is based on my personal experiences and isn't medical advice. What if gluten is damaging your body but you feel completely fine? If you don't get symptoms, it's easy to think, maybe I don't need to be that strict. A little bit won't hurt. But here's the problem. With celiac disease, feeling fine doesn't mean you're actually safe. Today you will learn what silent celiac actually is, whether strict gluten-free really matters if you don't feel symptoms, and how to decide your own level of strictness with confidence and not fear. And stick around to the end because I'm going to share one mindset shift that completely changes how you think about cheating gluten-free. Let's dive in. Welcome to the Gluten Free Engineer Podcast. I'm your host, Kiri Saunders. In 2011, I was diagnosed with celiac disease, a moment that changed everything. But I was determined not to let it hold me back. With my two engineering degrees, I set out to reverse engineer the gluten-free lifestyle, breaking down recipes, safety tips, travel hacks, and everything in between to rebuild a life I love. Whether you have celiac disease, gluten intolerance, or simply choose to live gluten-free, this podcast is for you. Join me each week as we simplify the gluten-free lifestyle, make it fun, and prove that you don't have to miss out on anything. Welcome back to the show. Today we're talking about silent celiac. How strict do you need to be if you don't feel symptoms? If you haven't heard of what silent celiac is, maybe you've never heard of it before, it's simply you have celiac disease, but you don't feel obvious symptoms when you eat gluten. You may be one of those people who've been totally shocked when you've gone to the doctor for other issues to find out you actually have celiac disease. And one thing that's very important to know that if you don't have symptoms, that does not mean you don't have damage. It just means that the immune response is still happening internally. It's just not an easy-to-detect symptom for you. Some examples of hidden damage that can occur with celiac in general, but especially with silent celiac because you don't have external symptoms, is intestinal damage. It damages the bilii in your small intestine. You may have nutrient deficiencies because of this damage to your small intestine. You're going to probably have an increased risk of osteoporosis, infertility, other autoimmune disease, and potentially colon cancer. You might not feel the ramifications of eating gluten when you're celiac today, but long term, it's your body's still paying that price. So we still have to be extremely careful. Why does this get confusing? Many times people think, Oh, I ate gluten and nothing happened, so maybe I'm fine. Or they might think, Do I really need to worry about cross-contamination? Or they might think, Am I being too strict? When you're celiac disease, you you have to avoid cross-contamination. You have to be super strict, no matter whether you have symptoms or not. That's the theme of this episode is we need to be informed that even if you feel fine after eating gluten when you've been diagnosed with celiac, your internal body is very likely not fine. So the trap we can get caught in is using symptoms as feedback. But silent celiac removes that feedback loop. You don't get the digestive issues, you don't get the migraines, you don't get really anything that's noticeable when you eat it. So instead of I feel bad, I avoid gluten, it becomes I feel fine, so I take more risk, which is where we don't want to be. We don't want to be taking risks when we're celiac at all. So how strict do you need to be? We kind of just alluded to this some. But for celiac disease, strict means strict. We have to have no gluten, no intentional gluten at all. We need to avoid all cross-contamination as much as realistically possible because even tiny amounts can trigger an immune response and can damage you internally, whether you notice or not. Just remember that this is we're talking about long-term health. We're talking about, I mean, I have osteopenia because I wasn't diagnosed with celiac disease until my 30s. So at 37, I was diagnosed with osteopenia. When I still should have been gaining bone density, mine was already deteriorating. And I'm still fighting this over 10 years later. It's been about 12 years to make sure that my bone density is good. Every time I slow down my exercise, my bone density goes down. Every time I don't take my vitamin D supplements, my bone density goes down. Every time I don't eat my vegetables, I hate to admit that, my bone density goes down because I don't have that cushion that most people have because I was so nutrient deficient for so long. So if you have silent celiac disease, you need to be as strict as those with symptomatic celiac disease. When you're eating out, you have to be very diligent, just like the rest of us. When you're traveling, you need to make sure you're really diligent about not getting gluten and not getting cross-contamination. Social situations, very similar. We need to have some non-negotiables, no intentional gluten ever. I want you to be always reading the labels. And then I want you to be highly aware in areas like cross-contamination at home, shared kitchens, going over to somebody else's house, um, you know, real life decisions like going to a restaurant or social events. We need to be very diligent, even if we don't have true, well, not really true, but traditional, I should say, celiac symptoms. And again, this isn't about perfection. It's about protecting your health consistently over time. That gives your body a chance to heal. It gives your intestine a chance to heal. It gives you a chance to actually start absorbing the nutrients from your food. If we're constantly bombarding our body with gluten whenever we have celiac disease, it's like just it's like whack-a-mole. We're just kind of like whacking that mole back down in the hole and it's gonna pop right back up and wear its ugly head later. And we need to make sure that we are taking care of our bodies and not, you know, damaging it slowly over time. So let's talk about some mindset shifts here because sometimes I see this with people when I'm talking to them. They think, you know, how much can I get away with when they're talking about gluten? But I'd love to um uh encourage you to shift this to how can I best support my body long term? And would I treat another health condition this casually? If you had high blood pressure, would you treat that other condition that casually? If you had heart disease, kidney disease, you know, cancer, would you treat things differently? Would you would you be more, you know, strict and following the doctor's directions if it were something like that? Celiac is similar. Celiac can cause super bad long-term issues. So we want to think about how can I best support my body long term? Because the wonderful thing about celiac versus some of those other diseases I mentioned is if we're strict and we're really good at being gluten-free, we can start healing and we can start repairing. So just feel like, feel blessed a little bit there. You know, I know if I don't eat gluten intentionally and try to avoid it accidentally, I feel better and my body heals and things start to go back to normal. You're not being a strain, you're managing a medical condition. So, as we talked about today on this podcast episode, one of the hardest things about being gluten-free, especially with celiac disease, is knowing what actually matters and what's just noise. So I'd love for you to join our Facebook group. Go ahead and head on over to theglutenfreeengineer.com and you'll see a link at the top to join our Facebook group. You can ask questions in there at any time. If you want product advice, uh cooking advice, any of those things, go ahead and head on over there. And then to recap, just because you don't feel symptoms, that doesn't mean nothing happened. It just means your body didn't give you a warning, which can very well be the case. So don't rely on symptoms as your guide. Use your knowledge and your consistency instead. Feeling fine today doesn't always mean you will feel fine tomorrow. So we need to make sure we are taking care of our body, especially when we're celiac. And if you're gluten intolerant and need to avoid gluten for other reasons, really this can ring true for you as well, just in a little bit of a different flavor that we need to take care of our bodies today so we can feel good tomorrow. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Gluten Free Engineer. If you found value in this story, please share it with someone who might need encouragement on their own gluten-free journey. For more tips, recipes, resources, and even links to my YouTube channel, head on over to theglutenfreengineer.com. It's your one-stop hub to make gluten-free living simple, fun, and full of flavor. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss out on an episode. And we will see you next week. The Gluten Free Engineer Podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. I share my personal experiences and stories about living with celiac disease and navigating a gluten free lifestyle. This podcast does not provide medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional for medical questions, concerns, or advice specific to your health.