Gluten

[LadyDeliah]

My brother was diagnosed as gluten intolerant a year or so ago and as I've always been a gassy person (as are the whole of my family, lol) and we all grew up eating loads of bread and pasta, I thought I'd try cutting our gluten to see if it made any difference to my excessive methane production.

Magically, I've not had a peep since I cut out wheat & rye. I found it hard to cut out bread, but every time I relapsed, my stomache would bloat with gas and my energy level would drop.

I've had to buy gluten free bread and spaghetti (why is it so expensive?????) to stop myself relapsing and I'm exploring other grains such as quinoa and tiff. I've even bought gluten free bread flour and will try making my own bread.

There may apparently be a link between gluten sensitivity and my Irish ancestry and gluten intollerance is pretty widespread in England. Something like 80% of Irish Americans tested in a study in the US showed a gluten intollerance.

What I don't understand is why almost every cake, sandwich, meal etc sold in the UK is made with wheat. Avoiding gluten takes a lot of effort and wheat is one of the worst grains to use as on top of gluten intollerance there are a lot of people who are allergic to wheat for other reasons!

Apparently some grains produce toxins to prevent animals eating them and wheat is one of the worst offenders!

If anyone gets farty after eating with bloating and abdominal pain, you might want to see whether it's down to gluten.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten_sensitivity

[LadyDeliah]

It can also cause immune system problems which result in joint, muscle & bone pain plus loss of energy.

Pretty serious stuff really, but wheat is still found in almost everything.

[wee quinnie]

LadyDeliah - if you think you have an allergy/sensitivity, you should consider having a blood test to confirm - lots of help out there from the coeliac society who produce a really handy booklet on coping with this. My mum has this condition and i think the greatest pitfall seems to be eating out, because contamination of supposedly gluten free foods is an ever-present worry. In fact I remember a few years ago being in the East Dulwich Deli when they were selling a cake labelled as gluten free.....which they had then put onto a plate with a non-gf cake. When I pointed this out they shrugged it off with a "well there's a shortage of space in here". Oh dear.

[ianr]

LadyDeliah Wrote:

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> We all pay for transport infrastructure in our taxes but without

> proportionate provision, cyclists are subsidising highly polluting,

> road damaging, motorised transport users.

Why do you keep on telling us this?

[LadyDeliah]

It's written in my signature because I think it's important.

[LadyDeliah]

I had a takeaway steamed fish, potato and veg meal for lunch yesterday but I think the sauce must have contained flour because I was in agony all afternoon.

It's really hard to avoid.

I am going to see if I can get tested, but from my own observations after eating wheat and rye, I think it's most likely the gluten.

I think with the running down and quiet privatisation of the NHS, we have to take a lot more care of our health because I doubt there will be any free mecical care by the time I hit retirement age.

[positronic]

If it's Gluten intolerance then it's usually genetic and it would have been passed on to you from a previous generation. My best friends son was desperately unable to put on weight when he was about 8. He was two years older than his brother and weighed less, he kept being sick and having all sorts of stomach cramps, until they finally diagnosed him after about 18 months as having a gluten intolerance. However the hospital insisted in testing all of the family on both sides including grandparents because its a genetic disorder. They do get help with a prescription to pay towards gluten free food but even so their food bill increased by over a third

Saying that though wheat and gluten tolerance can be different. You can be wheat intolerant without being gluten intolerant. For instance I am the latter as I get terrible IBS through wheat. Bread and pasta is awful, within about an hour my belly balloons up to make me look like I'm six months pregnant, and the stabbing pains are terrible.

However I don't let it rule my life, it is what it is. I just adjust my eating habits.

[Seabag]

My other half had this, eventually leading to leaky gut syndrome. To be honest, I thought she was loosing the plot and was wrongly dismissive of the whole thing. There were various random symptoms. She was very emotional a lot of the time, tired, aching joints, bloated, hungry then a lack of appetite. Along with a massive sugar craving(which turned out to be candida), the poor girl was on a roller coaster of a journey with it all.

Eventually she found the right nutritionist who knew their stuff.

The start of it all was the stress from winding down a ltd company. She'd essentially run on adrenaline and when the company wound up, she crashed and the start of the symptoms kicked in. It was grim but she somehow managed to seek out a healthy way forward

At first we struggled, as we had a dual diet house hold. However, when we sat down and read what was required it was actually quite doable. So we did it as a household and made it our way of eating. After about a month you get settled in, then with some effort and a lot of joy, you see results

Now after about 2 yrs it seems like a no brainer. I feel like my best friend is back, but so much healthier and brighter. I take my hat off to her perseverance and hold my hands up in respect of my misplaced scepticism about the whole thing

We're both somewhat leaner too, which feels good. But as someone said before, we are not slaves to it, it's an adjustment to our lifestyle. A good one at that

Lastly, there is a whole gluten free industry. GF bread is cak, as are many other things. And there's books galore on it, but it's basically pretty simple. I found that the Moro cookbook (with the bready stuff taken out) is pretty much spot on GF wise

Do it, enjoy it, then get to work on the whole world that is ...SUGAR FREE

[LadyDeliah]

I like the Genius grainy gluten free bread, but it's expensive.

I didn't know you can get prescriptions for it though. Worth checking out.

I'm hoping I'll get the high energy levels I had when I was a bit younger and if I lose a bit of weight too, I'll be happy :-)

[Sue]

LadyDeliah Wrote:

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> I like the Genius grainy gluten free bread, but

> it's expensive.

>

xxxxxx

I have just discovered that Tesco sell an own-brand seeded gluten-free bread which is actually really nice compared to many of the others.

The only other one I found that I liked was one of the Warburton gluten-free ones, but Sainsbury's stopped selling it for some reason.

[spark67]

My stepdad was Diagnosed a few years ago as Gluten intolerant, it was affecting his Liver function. He gets a lot of his gluten free foods on prescription. Also as a pastry chef I have noticed a huge rise in the number of gluten free requests I get. It is much easier then you think to home bake gluten free, the doves farm range is excellent.

Last year when I was on holiday in Italy with a gluten intolerant friend, I was surprised by how much more there was on offer there in regards to gluten free foods...It was pretty normal to find that most hotels we stayed at had a special table with foods on at breakfast and lunch with gluten and dairy free foods. A friend we stayed with out there said it was a growing problem, especially with young people. all restaurants we went to had gluten free pasta and bread on offer

[LadyDeliah]

I got some gluten free bread flour from the co-op and I intend to get round to using it sometime soonish!

I found that Waitrose do loads of gluten free stuff, including sausages so I ordered some stuff online and it's not that expensive if you get the Waitrose own brand ones.

[Seabag]

Many sausages are gluten free now, they've taken to using potato starch instead of rusk. Black farmer are particularly good. But i'd personally try not to get into the replace the one with the other, as with bread. It's a great opportunity to re look at your diet as a whole. If you're looking for carbo/starches hit, then try adding pulses or grains. You can even get lentils and quinoa in ready to heat packets. All that GF bread bungs up your guts I found

Guar Gum features in a lot of GF, not sure it's the best for us

[LadyDeliah]

I try to cut carbs and have been partially successful, but bread is always my lo-carb nemesis and I do love a fried breakfast.

I think I'll try weaning myself off and just keep the gluten free bread in the freezer in case of emergency :-)

[Sue]

LadyDeliah Wrote:

>

> I think I'll try weaning myself off and just keep

> the gluten free bread in the freezer in case of

> emergency :-)

xxxxxxx

I do that, it's much easier and means you don't waste any and never run out (probably).

If it's unsliced, I slice it and put those dividing things between the slices.

If it's already sliced, I just leave it as it is and prise the slices apart as I use them ....

[david_carnell]

I might just be being a miser but I'm not sure I like the fact that the NHS funds your food.

It's not medicine - it doesn't cure you or help you get better. It's just food. You can easily eat a gluten free diet without resorting to expensive, gluten-free variants of normally gluten-based products.

Why should taxpayers have to fund this? I wonder what it costs annually?

[LuLu Too]

David

Coeliac Disease is a chronic autoimmune condition. Along the lines of other autoimmune diseases like diabetes (type 1), Thyroid Disorders, Addisons Disease, Lupus etc.

The only treatment is a life long strict gluten free diet. The risks of untreated Coeliac Disease are several, the most significant of which is lymphoma of the bowel. Gluten destroys the lining of one's intestines for those with Coeliac Disease. At the time of my diagnosis in 1995 I had ataxia and peripheral neuropathy, secondary to the degree of flattening of my villi.

Gluten free stable foods (bread, pasta, flour usually) are available on prescription for those with this diagnosis on the basis that a strict GF diet is the only treatment and the costs of treating the associated conditions, if the coeliac disease was not effectively managed, would be greater. Therefore within BNF prescribing guidelines, gluten free foods in these circumstances are considered a medicine.

Prescriptions for GF food are not free (unlike prescriptions for treatment for other autoimmune conditions eg: Insulin, Thyroxine, Salbutamol etc). So I pay via an annual prescription "season ticket".

You are right of course that there are many naturally gluten free foods available. But bread, pasta etc are such staples in our typical British Isles diet, that you would really be excluding people like me from feeling part of the general mainstream in terms of my day to day eating.

I have no truck with this seemingly fashionable gluten free "bandwagon".

For those of us with Coeliac Disease it is a tedious condition.

[Sue]

LuLu Too Wrote:

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> I have no truck with this seemingly fashionable

> gluten free "bandwagon".

> For those of us with Coeliac Disease it is a

> tedious condition.

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I have every sympathy with people with Coeliac Disease, of course.

However I think it is a bit unfair to talk about "fashionable" and "bandwagons".

Many people find they have symptoms which are relieved by omitting certain foods from their diet, which may include gluten-containing foods. Those symptoms may not be as severe or potentially serious as those experienced by people with Coeliac Disease, but surely it is not unreasonable that some people would prefer to eat a limited diet rather than put up with the symptoms?

My six year old granddaughter is presently on a hospital prescribed dairy-free diet for six weeks to see if this improves chronic stomach pain and eczema. Had that been a gluten-free diet, surely you would not describe her as jumping on some fashionable bandwagon? She has been tested for many things, and Coeliac Disease was one of them, but the doctors still do not know what is the root cause of the symptoms (but they suspect they are related).

Surely if somebody finds that diet can improve their symptoms - or even that following a particular diet just makes them feel better - then that is a positive thing?

[Applespider]

For those who aren't coeliacs but do find themselves bloated after eating bread, it may be worth trying proper sourdough bread. Bread made with a natural levain (there is a school of thought that says modern fast-action yeast can be as guilty of gut inflammation as the wheat) generally takes far longer to ferment and then to rise. As a result, the proteins in the dough are broken down more and therefore are apparently easier to digest.

I started making my own a few years ago - and sourdough pizza/hot cross buns etc - and do find that if I go back to normal bread, my body definitely notices the difference.

[Huggers]

Ayres do a fabulous sunflower gluten free bread now.

I am a champion farter- could this be gluten/wheat related?

[LadyDeliah]

Worth checking out. I'd never met a family who farted as much as mine and it looks like it's all down to gluten.

My mum and I both have autoimmune diseases too, which could be related to gluten intolerance.

I read somewhere that the increase in Monsanto roundup wheat may be increasing the number of people having allergic reactions to wheat.