Gluten free food

Matt_C

My mother is coeliac and has been for decades - she had the stomach cramps and pains, sickness etc as a child, but it was never diagnosed until after having my older brother and I, so she's been diagnosed for at least 30 years. I remember her getting food deliveries from some company I can't remember the name of, but had gluten free flour (I think) along with bread, rice cakes, etc. It was a big deal for her as she's a natural baker - bakes everything; pastries, pies, cakes, buns - sweet, savoury, the lot. I'm amazed, thinking back to the amount of baking, she was never fat. But anyway, she adapted to it and lives with it controlled so it's not an issue. As said, many supermarkets and restaurants are coming round to gluten-free diets, mainly thanks to it becoming a fashionable diet to have these days, for non-medical reasons, but it means she can eat at places like Pizza Express and ASK Italian, as they both do gluten-free (just using those as an example as one of my sister's loves going to PE and the other wanted us to all go to an ASK at the weekend - and prior to GF becoming fashionable, that would have been a problem). Sainsbury's stock some of the 'Genuis' range of GF foods, and she particularly likes the cinnamon and raisin bagels. Funnily enough I was just in Lidl this afternoon and noticed while at the checkout they had an end of aisle display with various GF foods, so I got her a pack of chocolate digestives as I can't remember the last time she had one.

SteveCritten

I still can’t believe walkers haven’t got their act together on this. One of the best stores I have found is co-op. Rather than having some ‘gluten free’ items in the free from aisles their everyday products are becoming gluten free. Things like sausages, soups, crisps and many others are being replaced with rice flour.

KyleS1

I had one of the intolerance tests done in Jan and was diagnosed as having a mild intolerance to wheat and cows milk. Also brazil nuts but I don't eat them anyway.
I can eat gluten, but nothing with wheat in, which basically means I have to eat gluten free versions, which is a pain. I also can't have any dairy products, which is a major ball-ache. Luckily I am only mildly intolerant so I can from time to time eat them with minimal issues. It's the casein protein that I am intolerance to, so can't even have lactose free milk.
I find it a real chore (wheat and dairy are in almost everything!) as most of the alternatives are either not as nice or piled high with sugar so more unhealthy.
I'm about to start a thread on the joint intolerance to find any hidden products I've yet to discover that are nice.

I digress, I was meant to say, I had an IgG intolerance test which takes about 45 mins and highlighted my intolerances. I'm sure I have mild IBS as well as I get really bloated, sometimes constipated, and at the worse times periods diarrhoea. Since taking the test and mostly avoiding wheat and dairy, I am much better. The first 4 weeks after being diagnosed I had to avoid everything, and I never had so much energy. I felt really lethargic in the afternoons before, but I was eating wheat cereal covered in milk for breakfast, or a bowl of greek yogurt, sandwich for lunch and any number of things with cheese or wheat (pasta etc) for dinner, so basically all the things I shoudn't have been eating.
I would highly recommend the IgG test though. Costs about £80 from any nutritionist. You can even get a home kit.

ReddFour

The myth of IgG food panel testing | AAAAI

KyleS1

Interesting. I'm not convinced it "fixed" me either, but did make a difference.

Greg Hook

Well mine definitely fixed me.

But you do have to get the right person. My Mum went to one of these who I can only describe as a complete quack as they suggested all kinds of foods as a problem, as if they had just picked a load at random. The problems still remained, to a lesser degree, but still there.

Whereas the one I went to suggested yeast as the main culprit. I removed yeast from my diet and my issues went away and have stayed away. I persuaded my Mum to go to the one I did and thankfully she now has a much more refined list of foods to avoid.

I could understand scepticism as if I had gone to the one my Mum did first, I'd probably still have my issues. It does seem some know what they are doing and others have a method as if they were just throwing a dart at a board and where it hits is what they say.

KyleS1

It didn't help that mine were wheat and dairy, which is in practically everything, so inevitably I still eat small amounts frequently, otherwise I'm left with no much in the way of choice of food!