Question:
Who here is on this food rregime? I went to see an iridologist at the weekend who said that I have a very suggish colon (which i know as am constantly constipated) and said that my colon is very distended. She told me to cut out all wheat and gluten as this seems to be making it worse by making everything stick to the colon and not get digested.
Now i am a veg and evening meals consist of chappati's made from wheat flour but can you get gluten/wheat free bread? At work I have sandwiches for lunch - what can i eat as an alternative? I know you can get biscuits and pasta - what do these taste like?
All help appreciated
Hello rakhee,
I've just had a blood test for food intolerance, and found I'm intolerant to gluten, yeast and egg white. I also have to watch how much corn (maize) and gluten free wheat I eat. I have IBS which includes some of the symptoms you say you have with your colon.
You can get a lot of foods that normally contain wheat/gluten in health shop and super market 'free from' ranges. I know my local Tesco and Sainsbury's have a small section devoted to it. I'm not sure about chappatti's, but they do sell rice bread and corn bread, I can't have them, unfortunately, because they contain yeast. I've also seen gluten free pitta breads there.
I've had some gorgeous gluten/wheat free shortbread biscuits, (but they did contain egg). I've even had vegan chocolate, which wasn't bad, but didn't taste as sweet as ordinary chocolate, even though it contained the same amount of sugar.
Rice & millet pasta tasted very similar to wheat pasta, and rice pasta/noodles taste good, and are very quick to cook, just don't over cook them or they go like rubber [:'(]. Quinoa is a good gluten free substitute too, you can cook it like rice and it tastes quite similar. You can also get it in flakes and eat it like you would porridge oats, as oats contain gluten, though I haven't tried that yet. You can usually get hold of quinoa at a health shop, I'm not sure about supermarkets.
There's probably other stuff that I've forgotten, but hopefully this has been helpful :). There's also a number of allergy free cookbooks you can buy now, which contain gluten free recipes and snacks, if you have time to make them :).
weever~
Hi,
Sainsbury's wheat free biscuits - shortbread esp - are yummy! The pasta is really fine, but cook it 2/3 minutes longer than the packet says. Avoid any biscuits with coconut - yuK
And if you use wheat free flour -it tastes absolutely fine, but requires more fluid.
What I do is eat wheat every now and again, as I don't want my body to become over sensitive to food. I find it makes little difference but keeps my food tolerance very low.
Regards,
Christina
Having been misdiagnosed in my childhood as a coeliac my best advice to you Rahkee would be to get this confirmed before excluding anything. Omitting wheat from your diet is one thing but having to exclude gluten can lead to a restricted diet. One of the giveaways of a gluten allergy is you tend to go to the toilet more often but the smell (sorry folks) is very different to other peoples - its unmistakable really and also some of the stools will actually float.
Tigs
xx
I'm just in my second week of illiminating wheat from my diet as part of my Advanced Reflexology course.
At first I thought there's no way I can do this I eat bread for breakfast, dinner and tea. But the time has come when I have to do it so I thought better now than any other time.
I've timed it so I had a few days off work which made it a bit easier.
for breakfast I've had cornflakes or Rice Crispies.
For lunch I've mad a hugh pan of soup making sure the stock cube didn't have wheat in it. And although I was tempted to go for the bread bun I made sure I just had another bowl of soup instead, so I was full
On the day's I've been at work, I've either taken a flask for the home made soup. Bought a jacket potato or taken a box of salad or rice and tuna.
For tea, I made instead of Lasagna sheets I used cabbage which was very tasty and used a tub of mozarella cheese.
I've had proper dinners just didn't have anything with wheat in it, pleanty of salads, chillis, when everyone else had spag bol, I had jacket potato and bol....
The thing is I'm so full. I would normally have my sandwiches then after a bit get a bag of crisps (that have wheat in) or a chocolate biscuit, but I haven't wanted them and haven't had crisps, biscuts or chocolate for the two weeks.
I've increased my fruit intake, making sure I've bought some nice juicey grapes that would substitute the sugar.
I feel really good, I don't feel bloated although the stomach is still sticking out, must do some sit ups. And feel like I've got more energy.
Once you get your head round what you have to do and plan it out a bit it's been a lot easier than I thought. I only have to do this for two weeks but I think I might carry on as I feel so good.
Hope you go on ok with it.
I have been following a wheat free (not gluten free) diet now for about 4 years, having been disganosed by a very good kinesiologist and also through my own observations of how my body reacts. To begin with it was a bit difficultl, but only because I had to read all the labels and because I was so used to relying on bread and other wheat based items. To be honest though, after 4 years of this diet, I don't think I would even want to go back to eating this way, even if I could.
As others have said, both Tescos and Sainsburys do an excellent range of wheat free products. The Sainsburys that I work in (one of the biggest in the country) has a whole aisle full of these things, such as pastas, breads, corn and rice cakes, different types of cakes, biscuits etc, as well as the dairy free and vegan stuff. We also though dom frozen wheat free goods, including pizzas, fish fingers, chicken kievs, as well as lasagne (both meat and vegetable), and a delicious range of dairy and wheat free ice creams.
Once you have got used to knowing exactly whay products do contain wheat, it really is not as much of a problem as most people would tend to think. As we are also both vegetarian I tend to cook most of our meals from scratch anyway, rather than relying on frozen ready meals. If you are the type that works strange hours though and tends to rely on these, then you may have problems, as apart from the wheat free ones already mentioned above, about the only ready meals that are really suitable are curries, which you would certainly not want to eat every single night. Eating out can also be a problem (especially as we are both also vegetarian), but luckily there is an excellent vegetarian restaurant near us, where all the food is labelled as vegan, wheat or gluten free as well. The salad bar at Pizza Hut also comes in quite handy at times, particularly if I am out shopping and fancy something to eat. Long car journeys however backwards and forwards to the West Country have to planned either around Little Chefs, or otherwise by taking a detour through Glastonbury, which again has many cafes which do excellent and reasonbly priced veggie wheat free food.
A typical days menu for me then would consist of something like this:
Breakfast: Wheat Free cereal of some kind, such as Mesa Sunrise Flakes with organic raisins, then during my morning tea break at work I normally have a large glass of red grapefruit juice, with if I am hungry some nuts or seeds of some kind, or sometimes a banana
Lunch: Usually a salad of some kind, consisisting of various leaves (lettuce, spinach, rocket, watecress, chard etc), tomatoes, spring onions, cucumber, sweetcorn, beetroot, shredded carrot, fennel etc, with cheese, egg mayonnaise, beans of some description, or sometimes artechokes. During my afternoon tea break I will have some fruit of some kind, depending on what's in season.
Dinner might consist of a stew with lots of root vegetables and tomatoes, with beans or chestnuts, or a rice based dish such as pepper or mushroom risotto, or perhaps some wheat free pasta or spaghetti. If I am going out for the evening, and need to eat my main meal at work, then it will usually have to be a jacket potato, as unfortunately, despite my many requests for more varied food, this is about all they seem to offer.
Have a look at the recipes forum as well, in the lifestyle section here, as there are loads of tasty and wholesome recipes there to whet your apetite.
June
Now i am a veg and evening meals consist of chappati's made from wheat flour but can you get gluten/wheat free bread? At work I have sandwiches for lunch - what can i eat as an alternative? I know you can get biscuits and pasta - what do these taste like?
All help appreciated
Answers:
Hello rakhee,
I've just had a blood test for food intolerance, and found I'm intolerant to gluten, yeast and egg white. I also have to watch how much corn (maize) and gluten free wheat I eat. I have IBS which includes some of the symptoms you say you have with your colon.
You can get a lot of foods that normally contain wheat/gluten in health shop and super market 'free from' ranges. I know my local Tesco and Sainsbury's have a small section devoted to it. I'm not sure about chappatti's, but they do sell rice bread and corn bread, I can't have them, unfortunately, because they contain yeast. I've also seen gluten free pitta breads there.
I've had some gorgeous gluten/wheat free shortbread biscuits, (but they did contain egg). I've even had vegan chocolate, which wasn't bad, but didn't taste as sweet as ordinary chocolate, even though it contained the same amount of sugar.
Rice & millet pasta tasted very similar to wheat pasta, and rice pasta/noodles taste good, and are very quick to cook, just don't over cook them or they go like rubber [:'(]. Quinoa is a good gluten free substitute too, you can cook it like rice and it tastes quite similar. You can also get it in flakes and eat it like you would porridge oats, as oats contain gluten, though I haven't tried that yet. You can usually get hold of quinoa at a health shop, I'm not sure about supermarkets.
There's probably other stuff that I've forgotten, but hopefully this has been helpful :). There's also a number of allergy free cookbooks you can buy now, which contain gluten free recipes and snacks, if you have time to make them :).
weever~
Answers:
Hi,
Sainsbury's wheat free biscuits - shortbread esp - are yummy! The pasta is really fine, but cook it 2/3 minutes longer than the packet says. Avoid any biscuits with coconut - yuK
And if you use wheat free flour -it tastes absolutely fine, but requires more fluid.
What I do is eat wheat every now and again, as I don't want my body to become over sensitive to food. I find it makes little difference but keeps my food tolerance very low.
Regards,
Christina
Answers:
Having been misdiagnosed in my childhood as a coeliac my best advice to you Rahkee would be to get this confirmed before excluding anything. Omitting wheat from your diet is one thing but having to exclude gluten can lead to a restricted diet. One of the giveaways of a gluten allergy is you tend to go to the toilet more often but the smell (sorry folks) is very different to other peoples - its unmistakable really and also some of the stools will actually float.
Tigs
xx
Answers:
I'm just in my second week of illiminating wheat from my diet as part of my Advanced Reflexology course.
At first I thought there's no way I can do this I eat bread for breakfast, dinner and tea. But the time has come when I have to do it so I thought better now than any other time.
I've timed it so I had a few days off work which made it a bit easier.
for breakfast I've had cornflakes or Rice Crispies.
For lunch I've mad a hugh pan of soup making sure the stock cube didn't have wheat in it. And although I was tempted to go for the bread bun I made sure I just had another bowl of soup instead, so I was full
On the day's I've been at work, I've either taken a flask for the home made soup. Bought a jacket potato or taken a box of salad or rice and tuna.
For tea, I made instead of Lasagna sheets I used cabbage which was very tasty and used a tub of mozarella cheese.
I've had proper dinners just didn't have anything with wheat in it, pleanty of salads, chillis, when everyone else had spag bol, I had jacket potato and bol....
The thing is I'm so full. I would normally have my sandwiches then after a bit get a bag of crisps (that have wheat in) or a chocolate biscuit, but I haven't wanted them and haven't had crisps, biscuts or chocolate for the two weeks.
I've increased my fruit intake, making sure I've bought some nice juicey grapes that would substitute the sugar.
I feel really good, I don't feel bloated although the stomach is still sticking out, must do some sit ups. And feel like I've got more energy.
Once you get your head round what you have to do and plan it out a bit it's been a lot easier than I thought. I only have to do this for two weeks but I think I might carry on as I feel so good.
Hope you go on ok with it.
Answers:
I have been following a wheat free (not gluten free) diet now for about 4 years, having been disganosed by a very good kinesiologist and also through my own observations of how my body reacts. To begin with it was a bit difficultl, but only because I had to read all the labels and because I was so used to relying on bread and other wheat based items. To be honest though, after 4 years of this diet, I don't think I would even want to go back to eating this way, even if I could.
As others have said, both Tescos and Sainsburys do an excellent range of wheat free products. The Sainsburys that I work in (one of the biggest in the country) has a whole aisle full of these things, such as pastas, breads, corn and rice cakes, different types of cakes, biscuits etc, as well as the dairy free and vegan stuff. We also though dom frozen wheat free goods, including pizzas, fish fingers, chicken kievs, as well as lasagne (both meat and vegetable), and a delicious range of dairy and wheat free ice creams.
Once you have got used to knowing exactly whay products do contain wheat, it really is not as much of a problem as most people would tend to think. As we are also both vegetarian I tend to cook most of our meals from scratch anyway, rather than relying on frozen ready meals. If you are the type that works strange hours though and tends to rely on these, then you may have problems, as apart from the wheat free ones already mentioned above, about the only ready meals that are really suitable are curries, which you would certainly not want to eat every single night. Eating out can also be a problem (especially as we are both also vegetarian), but luckily there is an excellent vegetarian restaurant near us, where all the food is labelled as vegan, wheat or gluten free as well. The salad bar at Pizza Hut also comes in quite handy at times, particularly if I am out shopping and fancy something to eat. Long car journeys however backwards and forwards to the West Country have to planned either around Little Chefs, or otherwise by taking a detour through Glastonbury, which again has many cafes which do excellent and reasonbly priced veggie wheat free food.
A typical days menu for me then would consist of something like this:
Breakfast: Wheat Free cereal of some kind, such as Mesa Sunrise Flakes with organic raisins, then during my morning tea break at work I normally have a large glass of red grapefruit juice, with if I am hungry some nuts or seeds of some kind, or sometimes a banana
Lunch: Usually a salad of some kind, consisisting of various leaves (lettuce, spinach, rocket, watecress, chard etc), tomatoes, spring onions, cucumber, sweetcorn, beetroot, shredded carrot, fennel etc, with cheese, egg mayonnaise, beans of some description, or sometimes artechokes. During my afternoon tea break I will have some fruit of some kind, depending on what's in season.
Dinner might consist of a stew with lots of root vegetables and tomatoes, with beans or chestnuts, or a rice based dish such as pepper or mushroom risotto, or perhaps some wheat free pasta or spaghetti. If I am going out for the evening, and need to eat my main meal at work, then it will usually have to be a jacket potato, as unfortunately, despite my many requests for more varied food, this is about all they seem to offer.
Have a look at the recipes forum as well, in the lifestyle section here, as there are loads of tasty and wholesome recipes there to whet your apetite.
June
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