[Closed] Going Gluten free in January

unless you've been tested and diagnosed as gluten allergic, why bother?

Bread - supermarket stuff is ok, but baking it yourself using doves farm gf flour gives good results.
Supermarket own brand gf pastas are fine.
Biscuits - lots to choose from or bake your own. Just use a normal recipe, but sub in gf flour and some zanthum gum. As a nice alternative, sorghum flour and powdered almonds makes nice rich n'tasty cakes and biscuits.

Edit - get a bread maker.

unless you've been tested and diagnosed as gluten allergic, why bother?

This. There aren't any health advantages to avoiding something that you aren't intolerant of.

I am not intolerant of sugar but cutting it out has had huge health benefits. For most people going gluten free actually means a significant reduction in highly processed foods which are bad for us.

The wild diet is a good book for both motivation and recipe ideas.

My 9 year old daughter has been gluten free since birth.
Had all the tests, not a coeliac just intolerant.

She likes the Genius brand bread the best.

All gluten free pasta is much the same but you need to drop it into really hot water (rolling boil) when cooking or it tries to dissolve.

Do your research as a fair few 'normal products' are gluten free so you don't always end up paying extra.
Oatibix are a good example.
Eating out is a lot easier than it used to be.

I am not intolerant of sugar but cutting it out has had huge health benefits. For most people going gluten free actually means a significant reduction in highly processed foods which are bad for us.

So, what you are saying is that it isn't going gluten that's good for you, it's eating higher quality food. I think that applies to pretty much every type of food, not just gluten-containing stuff.

I want to try the gluten free diet in January
what options do the SKDB (Singletrackworld knowledge database) recommend for the obvious such as bread, pasta and biscuits?

Many thanks.

Please send me all the money you would have spent on all that gluten loaded food that you know is sooooooooo bad for you you have to ask what it is on an internet forum.

Many thanks. 🙂

So, what you are saying is that it isn't going gluten that's good for you, it's eating higher quality food. I think that applies to pretty much every type of food, not just gluten-containing stuff.

No Gluten is definitely bad for you. It is common in highly processed foods which are also bad not just because of the gluten content. I was just offering a reason for going gluten free even if you are not diagnosed intolerant.

docgeoffyjones - Member 
For most people going gluten free actually means a significant [s]reduction in highly processed foods which are bad for us.[/s] smugness and a lighter wallet

FTFY 😛

More seriously though, just eat wholemeal if you're concerned about the highly processed stuff. Bake it yourself even.

docgeoffyjones - Member 
No Gluten is definitely bad for you

Got a reference to that?

If you've got celiac disease, yes. Everyone else, no.

Spelt sourdough bread is gluten free I think. Quite nice if a little difficult to find.

SammyC - Member
Spelt sourdough bread is gluten free I think. Quite nice if a little difficult to find

Not true I'm afraid. You can get a very good GF sourdough from a bakers stall in Borough Market, but they only do GF on Friday's. Cost you £6 mind.

This is a minor aside but I'm organizing a trip to a back country lodge in BC for a weeks skiing. When putting together the group my initial considerations were all around how much avalanche training people had etc.. I'm now beginning to wish I'd started with "do they have any dietary restrictions" as it's a monumental pain.

For the op. I tend to find you're better off not attempting to do direct substitutions but working around the diet. A friend made me a GF free pizza and I was unconvinced it would be better for me as instead of wheat it just had a ton of different chemicals or so it seemed.

The only reason that the stupid fad gluten free diet thing can be seen as positive, is that it increases demand for gluten free foods and thereby gives those with Coeliac disease more choice (and everyone else a good laugh)

Did someone just compare gluten with refined sugars?

If you want to get healthier, just cut out processed food. Many gluten free products are far worse for your health than their counterparts containing gluten.

Everything in moderation.

Just eat stale bread. Tastes just like gluten free but you save £2.50 per loaf.

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Monday to Friday I avoid all cereal. Breads,pasta,rice,er cereal. It makes it a lot harder to make a quick lunch and in the evenings I just have more veg rather than starch.
I don't think I'm gluten intolerant in any way but I do feel slightly better.

I do have beer though. A lot of beer.

Seriously, gluten's a rubbish thing to give up, without reason. How about going vege or vegan, if you're not already?

skaifan - Member

Just eat stale bread. Tastes just like gluten free but you save £2.50 per loaf.

My gf bread tastes pretty damn good. It just looks and feels like madeira cake. (otoh, it makes godly fried bread, soaks up fat like you wouldn't [i]believe)[/i]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Five-Gluten-Free-Blyton-Grown/dp/1786482223

So you wanna avoid walkers crisps, booze, gravy marmite, chip shop chips, corn flakes and countless other food products that contain gluten or have been cross contaminated during production, on a whim?

As someone who has to eat a wheat free and therefore gluten free diet due to an allergy, I have to ask the question 'Why the hell do you want to go gluten free unless you HAVE to?'
It's not just giving up bread and pasta as a lot of people think, it's hidden in everything!
For example, the only decent bread is M&S, any other and you may as well eat the packaging. It works out at roughly 50p a small slice. Fancy a takeaway? Chinese? No chance, everything has soy sauce! Fancy a burger? No bun (obviously), but check the burger for wheat rusk. Same goes for sausages. Crisps? Check the flavouring. Indian takeaway? No naan bread, but I'll have a bhaji. Oh no, it's cross contaminated as it's fried in the same fat as the samosas, same goes for chips from the chippy, fried in the same fat as the batter. Sunday roast? No stuffing, no Yorkshire pudding, Is the gravy thickened with a gluten free flour? Chocolate bar? May contain traces of gluten. Sushi? Not if it's got soy sauce in it.
I could carry on with things I can't have. Not things I would eat very often anyway, but just occasionally it would be nice to have as a treat.
I wish you well if you decide to go ahead, but please bear in mind that if you cut something out of your diet you can have problems when you reintroduce it . It sure as hell wouldn't be my diet by choice.

Northwind, try Marks and Spencer gluten free breads and take away sandwich range, I defy anyone to tell the difference from regular bread.
Also, as much as I despise Tesco and boycotted the place for years, the own brand wholemeal is very acceptable, followed closely by own brand seeded. Cheap as chips too, and a welcome change from Genius

Gluten and sport is a regular research topic for our local uni diet and health department, lots of studies and vo2 max testing. Still no proven benefits.
Cut the crap food, it's not very hard, buy a recipe book and cook stuff. (something like the feedzonecookbook.com series)

It sure as hell wouldn't be my diet by choice.

Nor mine flower girl, but it's like heroin to a smack head with me, I succumbed the other day when buying my mum a sandwich for dinner, Chinese chicken on a granary roll.
The blinding headache hit me within 15 minutes, I'm still assuming the bad guts are in the post!

Horrible isn't it? I risked half a poppadum from the Indian the other week. Up all night with a blinding migraine

But poppadoms are rice flour...

Until cross contaminated

Exactly! You can never trust a deep fat fryer! Had the same problem with chippy chips about twelve months ago when I was first diagnosed with a wheat allergy 🙁 I get instant reactions, so fairly easy to trace the cause.

You pretty much will never be able to eat outside your own house ever again, cross contamination is rife even in places with gluten free options.

But I'm guessing the OP doesn't [i]really[/i] want to cut gluten out of their diet, they just thought it might be easy to blame gluten for all their dietary problems. 😉

Gluten, the Economic Migrant of the diet industry.

There's a vegetarian /vegan cafe in Bolton skids, that's shit hot on intolerance, and more and more places are becoming aware, Marks & Sparks is a case in point, the restaurant WILL provide free from alternative, prepared accordingly

Ok thanks for the reply.
I am not gluteen intolerant far from it.
I just want to try going gluten free to se if I can get some health benefit.
As far cutting the crap and processed food out, I am lucky enough to :
Live in France where junk food isn't as popular as in the UK
Mainly cook my own food from scratch (unless it's pizza I know some few places that do that for me 😉 )

I just want to try it. I mean I bet lot of people here have tried the back door thing without being alergic to standard copulation 😉

Anyway thanks for the many sensible answers.

South Park can help you

OK I've shared this before but what the heck
"Coeliac disease affects at least 1 in 100 people in the UK and in Europe; however, only about 24% of people with the condition are clinically diagnosed"
from Coeliac UK. [url= https://www.coeliac.org.uk/document-library/25-key-facts-and-stats/1coeliac-disease-fact-sheet-2016.pdf ]linky[/url]
So if you feel better going gluten free you can a) reintroduce gluten and get tested or b) carry on gluten free and don't worry about it.
Route a) has the advantage that your GP will give you regular checks and you can get GF food on prescription (although many areas are stopping this).
Route b) has the advantage that you don't need to feel unwell again and you may be gluten/wheat intolerant rather than coeliac and get a negative test anyway.
If you are coeliac and go on a gluten free diet it will take up to a month for you to feel properly well, and than you need to stick to the diet for life.

flowergirl - Member

As someone who has to eat a wheat free and therefore gluten free diet due to an allergy, I have to ask the question 'Why the hell do you want to go gluten free unless you HAVE to?'

My wife can't eat gluten and would say exactly the same.

If you're doing it for general health benefits then you need to be aware that just replacing a normal product with a gluten free one probably means you're getting *more* bad stuff like saturated fat and sugars. The main function of gluten in a loaf of bread or whatever is as a binding agent, so in the gluten-free version something else has to do this job, and it's usually worse for you.

It's totally possible to have a varied, interesting and healthy diet without gluten*, but the best way to do is a bit more complicated than just swapping one product for another.

*Well, mostly - I'm not sure I could survive without the occasional gluteny pie when my wife's not home for dinner

As above. I'm fine, but Mrs Yak can't eat gluten, so generally all the food is prepared from scratch as gluten free. Easier that way. Xanthan gum is the stuff I use to get a bind in a cake/loaf/biscuit. Is it dodgy stuff then?

No yak, but the extra sugars fats and chemicals used in commercial products for binding and taste may well be

Good news. Cakes ahoy then!

what options do the SKDB (Singletrackworld knowledge database) recommend for the obvious such as bread, pasta and biscuits?

so, you want to give up Gluten to avoid processed food, and are asking for options for processed foods without gluten in?

I'm confused. If you're going gluten free, don't eat bread, pasta or biscuits. simple really.

Not quite that simple in reality...

ulysse - Member

But poppadoms are rice flour...

Until cross contaminated

Not even so simple, you can find poppadoms made with wheat flour.

Be better just making a conscious effort to avoid processed foods/additives/preservatives.

Fathers developed coeliac's now he is 50 and apparently I will be also one day just as his father before him was.

I shall enjoy gluten while I can !

How ever for a long time I've made an effort to avoid heavily processed shit my body always feels better when I do. Sometimes in the course of my work I am forced to eat processed food and I always feel lethargic on it.

[quote=juan ]
I just want to try it. I mean I bet lot of people here have tried the back door thing without being alergic to standard copulation

😯

Trail rat, he probably always had it and just didn't present symptoms. If you're concerned, get tested for anti bodies now, as if you Are coeliac, you'll be doing irreparable damage

When we were trying to find out what my wife had developed an intolerance to, she went gluten free for a while. The absolute best thing about it was the gluten-free sausages a local butcher made for us - they were delicious.

Well yes crohns /colitis are a risk.

Some absolute bollocks being spouted in her - can't eat away from home - wtaf????
My wife is DIAGNOSED coeliac and has been for 8 years, we eat out loads, we cook loads of great food, food "life" is far from dull - 99.9% of our food is cooked from scratch, bread we buy is pretty good - sourdough etc from tesco is amazing as is their tiger bread.
Booze some stated you cannot have - why? Gin/wine/cider - easy pickings!!

Fyi brewdog vagabond gluten free is actually really nice. Hardest part is finding it in pubs. They normally carry shit options so it's cider

Also on that note pay serious attention to sugar content of gluten free options.

Dad nearly ate him self to diabetes with with the amount of sugar in most of them.

Bone porosity / density or whatever the medical term is also a risk, you cant process the calcium in foods as well as non coeliacs

trail_rat - Member

Fyi brewdog vagabond gluten free is actually really nice. Hardest part is finding it in pubs. They normally carry shit options so it's cider

Mostly you just get daura bbq lager in pubs these days. But there's a lot of great gf beer now.

Though Juan is in Portugal or somewhere I think?

Iamanobody,
Sorry but I have a DIAGNOSED wheat allergy, so eating away from home is difficult for me. I was only only diagnosed 12 months ago, so perhaps I haven't had your wife's experience in dealing with it, which is why I struggle at times. Don't get me wrong, I eat a healthy diet, I cook from scratch, lots of veg, trained as a chef in my youth, and up until diagnosis worked as a baker in a farm shop, making all their cakes. For me, being in contact with wheat brings on breathing problems, muscle fatigue, migraines, sneezing, runny eyes, and the possibility of anaphylactic shock.
So, having had such a lifestyle change enforced upon me, I struggle to understand why anyone would make the change voluntarily!!!
But as you say, gin is gluten free, so thank goodness I work for a wine and spirit merchant now 😆

Funny thing with this topic coming up is I'm getting immensely painful trapped wind at times (just had it again last night. Worst pain I've ever had!) and keep getting it, but it's only been over the last year or so. Reading around, one of the reasons could indeed be coeliac.

However all the advice is you don't just dive onto a gluten free diet. Preferably stay on existing diet until diagnosed and advised to go gluten free. Partly so it can be diagnosed as need the stuff that's causing problems to be in the system, and partly as gluten free without dietary advice can lead to a lack of nutrition.

Personally if I end up coeliac I can only see it as being a nightmare. I wouldn't want to be properly gluten free. I suspect a lot of the fad gluten free types are just swapping bread and pasta for gluten free varieties but that's it.

The amount who are actually allergic though is relatively small. Most people have a disagreement with certain foods or issues with the quantity of food, way it's cooked, or way they eat it. My problems are way more likely (hopefully) to be one or more of these. Shoveling down massive meals in the evening could be part of it 😉

flowergirl - Member

Sorry but I have a DIAGNOSED wheat allergy, so eating away from home is difficult for me

It's a hassle but Skids said "You pretty much will never be able to eat outside your own house ever again" which is what iamanobody was responding to, and that's 100% gluten [i]and [/i]avenin free bullshit

(source: ate outside my own house yesterday, did not go on fire)