Also why is their reaction different than an allergy?
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Celiac and lactose intolerances operate for completely different reasons.
Milk contains a kind of sugar called lactose. For most humans the enzymes to digest lactose are present when they’re babies so they can digest their mother’s milk, but then as they grow up they stop producing that enzyme.
A few thousands years ago, a mutation occurred that stopped that enzyme from going away. This let adults drink milk. So right now about 30-35% of the world can drink milk even as adults.
It just so happens that the 30-35% is more concentrated in Europeans and Americans, where that enzyme remains in something like 80+% of those local population, while being less than 20% in places like China.
Now when the body can’t digest something, it’s usually left to the gut bacteria to digest it, and they tend to do a messier job, releasing gasses as a bi-product. This leads to people feeling sick.
Celiac disease is an actually rare condition, with only 1 in 100 people having it. A mutation lead to their immune systems treating gluten the same way it treats a dangerous disease and when the immune system thinks the body is in really big danger it can be rather destructive in attempting to kill it before the disease kills the body.
Except in this case gluten isn’t dangerous, so the immune system is doing nothing but causing massive collateral damage.
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