Gluten free diets????

Gluten free diets????

I have just been told that all the symptoms I have are showing that i have a gluten allergy.  I really dont know anything about this so can anyone give me advice??

Re: Gluten free diets????

Hi Kerry, I don't know anything about being gluten free but after reading your post, I used the search engine on this site - I typed in "gluten free" and left "all" in the drop down list and it gave me a lot of options - there's a lot of information on this site about it.

Also, why don't you try seeing if your GP will refer you to a dietician? I'm sure they will have some practical ideas for you too. You never know, there may even be support groups out there too.

Don't sweat the small stuff. It will make you stinky.

Re: Gluten free diets????

 Hi Kerry

Basically, gluten-free diet means you have to avoid anything with wheat/flour in. Unfortunately, this means ditching bread, pasta, most cakes, biscuits and quite a few other things people like.

It doesn't mean your diet can't be fun and interesting, though. It's also called coeliac disease and there's quite a bit of stuff on this site about it. 

It's quite a common condition and there are lots of other people out there who are also gluten-free. You'll notice that loads of packaging in supermarkets now tells you if it's gluten free, so that should make life easier. GOod luck!

You had me at 'hello!'

Re: Gluten free diets????

Yep, I'm gluten-intolerant. For about a year strangers kept asking if I was pregnant, then finally a yoga teacher said my bloated stomach was a likely sign of gluten intolerance and she was right!

I think symptoms might be a bit different for everyone but I bloat heavily and feel very tired about 20 minutes after eating wheat/barley/rye, and then feel a bit windy and down for the next four or five days. Takes about a week for the bloat to subside and for me to look reasonably slim again.

My diet tips:

Wheat, barley, rye, oats, breadcrumbs, rusk - these are your enemies. So is beer and lager and whiskey if you're really sensitive - they're made from barley which contains gluten.

Potatoes, rice, meat, corn and veg are your friends.There's no gluten in them.

There's no gluten in wine or vodka or gin

Make your own burgers out of mince. Frozen burgers usually have rusk or breadcrumbs in.

If you need a bread fix, get wheat-free bread from the big supermarkets or online (but wheat-free bread is really expensive when you know it's just a loaf of bread).

Wheat-free pasta is much cheaper, again it's in the wheat-free section you'll get in most big supermarkets (but only the big ones), and wheat-free pasta is great because if you don't fancy doing a lot of cooking, pasta is the best thing in the world!

Plenty of snacks are wheat-free, but do check the back of crisp packets. Anything with malt or barley listed as ingredients is a bit risky as they contain gluten. It was a sad day when I had to say goodbye to Monster Munch

Anything that says 'maize' is your friend - that's corn, and corn is absolutely fine! Popcorn is still okay!

Rice is your friend, so homemade curries, thai curries, chili con carne... these are all cheap, tasty and easy to make, and if you serve it to friends and family they won't think it's disgusting gluten-free weirdo food, they'll just enjoy it.

Good luck - being gluten-free is actually fairly easy once you get used to it. It isn't the worst thing in the world, I promise!