Help - gluten and wheat intolerance

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croftie4
croftie4 Posts: 221 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi, finally after many doc appoints over the last two years my new doc has confirmed my joint pain and other symptoms are due to gluten and wheat intolerance.

I'm a very active person go to the gym 6 days a week doing weights and cardio such as spin, kettlebells, body pump, insanity, circuits etc

So I need to learn how to fuel my workouts and I'm not doing very well. Doctor says I have to stay away from gluten free pasta because of the wheat issue

I'm already allergic to sugar since I was 13 (now 44) so hoping the weight drops a bit easier than before.

Any advice
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Replies

  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    I would get a second opinion.

    Then, if gluten and wheat intolerance (and sugar) was confirmed, investigate where gluten and wheat (and sugar) is found, and then avoid it (except that you can't avoid sugar).

    If it's weight loss you're after, you just have to eat less.

    If you don't have much to lose, expect it to go slowly.
  • croftie4
    croftie4 Posts: 221 Member
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    Doc said that gluten free pasta is full of rubbish and its best to stay away from it and also mentioned something about wholewheat in it??? To be honest he said so much I couldn't really take it all in. To be honest I could easily go without pasta I'm just concerned that I'm so active and feel like I need the carbs
  • annacole94
    annacole94 Posts: 997 Member
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    Make an appointment with a registered dietitian.
    There are plenty of gluten-free carbs. Rice. Quinoa. My father in law is celiac and I cook gluten-free meals quite often.
  • croftie4
    croftie4 Posts: 221 Member
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    I'm ok with the sugar allergy since I've lived with it for 30 years already.

    I do have weight to lose but I'm having trouble hitting 1400 calories and I should be eating much more since I exercise so much but this gluten and wheat thing is too new for me to get my head around
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    If you aren't losing weight (and you need to), you aren't eating too little.

    If you are losing too fast, or are hungry, you have to eat more.

    You can eat anything you want.
  • croftie4
    croftie4 Posts: 221 Member
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    annacole94 wrote: »
    Make an appointment with a registered dietitian.
    There are plenty of gluten-free carbs. Rice. Quinoa. My father in law is celiac and I cook gluten-free meals quite often.


    That's good to know. I actually picked up a pack of quinoa today so I'll try that tomorrow once I've looked up some recipes.

    I was given an appointment with a dietitian but it's still 3 weeks away which I guess is to be expected.
  • croftie4
    croftie4 Posts: 221 Member
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    kommodevaran wrote: »
    If you aren't losing weight (and you need to), you aren't eating too little.

    If you are losing too fast, or are hungry, you have to eat more.

    You can eat anything you want.

    I guess I might be overly concerned but I'm very very active and struggle to hit 1400 without the 'normal pasta' I noticed today that muscle recovery is taking longer than normal so just thought I wasn't eating enough.

  • mph323
    mph323 Posts: 3,565 Member
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    Hi, sorry you're dealing with this :-( When I was first diagnosed with celiac disease, the celiac.com website was of tremendous help to me.
  • ccsernica
    ccsernica Posts: 1,040 Member
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    Gluten is a protein that results when you prepare food from wheat, and from certain other cereals. If a food has wheat in it, it pretty much certainly contains gluten. So I have no idea what your doctor has in mind when he says gluten-free pasta has wheat in it. Barilla gluten-free pasta, for instance, is made from a combination of corn and rice flour. So I have to feel you're missing something here, or perhaps your doctor is.
  • croftie4
    croftie4 Posts: 221 Member
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    mph323 wrote: »
    Hi, sorry you're dealing with this :-( When I was first diagnosed with celiac disease, the celiac.com website was of tremendous help to me.

    Thanks so much I'll check out that right now
  • croftie4
    croftie4 Posts: 221 Member
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    ccsernica wrote: »
    Gluten is a protein that results when you prepare food from wheat, and from certain other cereals. If a food has wheat in it, it pretty much certainly contains gluten. So I have no idea what your doctor has in mind when he says gluten-free pasta has wheat in it. Barilla gluten-free pasta, for instance, is made from a combination of corn and rice flour. So I have to feel you're missing something here, or perhaps your doctor is.

    I guess I may have misunderstood him and will be taking more notice of the dietitian.

    He just gave me a long speech saying gluten free foods were not the best due to the rubbish they add and they tend to be higher in calories and it's much better to eat foods that are naturally gluten and wheat free. I asked him about pasta and he said something about wholewheat but like I said maybe I misunderstood.

  • Hamsibian
    Hamsibian Posts: 1,388 Member
    edited February 2017
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    He probably meant that gf substitutes are just as highly processed and they don't taste good, which I agree. Or he might be worried about cross contamination. Read labels carefully to see if gluten free products are still made in facilities that contain wheat/gluten. there is rice pasta and quinoa pasta that just have simple ingredients ...corn pasta is nasty. stick with whole foods for the time being. Meat, fruits, vegetables, rice, nuts, beans. You get the picture.
  • ccsernica
    ccsernica Posts: 1,040 Member
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    croftie4 wrote: »
    ccsernica wrote: »
    Gluten is a protein that results when you prepare food from wheat, and from certain other cereals. If a food has wheat in it, it pretty much certainly contains gluten. So I have no idea what your doctor has in mind when he says gluten-free pasta has wheat in it. Barilla gluten-free pasta, for instance, is made from a combination of corn and rice flour. So I have to feel you're missing something here, or perhaps your doctor is.

    I guess I may have misunderstood him and will be taking more notice of the dietitian.

    He just gave me a long speech saying gluten free foods were not the best due to the rubbish they add and they tend to be higher in calories and it's much better to eat foods that are naturally gluten and wheat free. I asked him about pasta and he said something about wholewheat but like I said maybe I misunderstood.

    Oh, well that's certainly true. Gluten-free version of foods are also more expensive, and very often taste like kitten.
  • croftie4
    croftie4 Posts: 221 Member
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    Hamsibian wrote: »
    He probably meant that gf substitutes are just as highly processed and they don't taste good, which I agree. Or he might be worried about cross contamination. Read labels carefully to see if gluten free products are still made in facilities that contain wheat/gluten. there is rice pasta and quinoa pasta that just have simple ingredients ...corn pasta is nasty. stick with whole foods for the time being. Meat, fruits, vegetables, rice, nuts, beans. You get the picture.

    Thanks because of my sugar allergy I have to cook 90% of our meals anyway so I don't think I'd be able to buy most GF alternatives anyway. Quinoa it is then
  • croftie4
    croftie4 Posts: 221 Member
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    More expensive - great I'll avoid for that reason alone then
  • Bonny132
    Bonny132 Posts: 3,617 Member
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    Cook from scratch, a lot of the GF food tastes awful and is really expensive. You can bake your own bread, oopsie bread is quick and simple, there is still rice and potatoes, GF pancakes (love banana pancakes). Just be a bit inventive, most dishes can be converted pretty easily to GF.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    I don't understand what you are saying.

    Gluten and joint pain, ok, but sugar allergy isn't possible - to avoid dietary sugar you'd have to avoid fruit, vegetables and dairy, and your body converts starch, fat and protein into sugar so there's constantly sugar in your blood.

    If you thrive on a high-carb diet, eat a high-carb diet. Have you been lead to believe that pasta is the only carb source?

    Have you been told that you should avoid fat? If you have to reduce carbs, you have to eat more fat instead.

    If you weren't eating enough, food higher in calories would actually be good for you, so your doctor hopefully told you to avoid "gluten free foods" because you are eating too much, not because you are eating too little.

    If you aren't losing weight, you are eating too much, and you can't fix that by eating more, you have to eat less.

    But if you are trying to eat too little, you won't lose weight, because you can't eat too little for very long, and then you start to sneak, forget, cheat, and eventually binge, and in the end you're eating even more than you did before you started.

    You don't have to eat any particular foods. Quinoa is expensive. There are lots of other starch sources that are naturally gluten free - oats, corn, rice, potato, sweet potato, buckwheat, beans. There are lots of foods to eat in addition to starchy foods too - meat, fish and other seafood, eggs and dairy, fats, fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds. A good mix is ideal for all of us, and quite easy to stick to, so that you get in the proper amount of calories more consistently, and that's the only way you can lose weight.
  • croftie4
    croftie4 Posts: 221 Member
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    Bonny132 wrote: »
    Cook from scratch, a lot of the GF food tastes awful and is really expensive. You can bake your own bread, oopsie bread is quick and simple, there is still rice and potatoes, GF pancakes (love banana pancakes). Just be a bit inventive, most dishes can be converted pretty easily to GF.

    Will defo look up pancakes :)
  • croftie4
    croftie4 Posts: 221 Member
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    kommodevaran wrote: »
    I don't understand what you are saying.

    Gluten and joint pain, ok, but sugar allergy isn't possible - to avoid dietary sugar you'd have to avoid fruit, vegetables and dairy, and your body converts starch, fat and protein into sugar so there's constantly sugar in your blood.

    t.

    Yep. I can't eat mango for example and pineapple isn't great either. I tried again with mango last November I literally had to spit the first chunk out within seconds my body was sweating. So I tend to stay away from fruit but I've found I can eat blueberries and raspberries, sometimes apples red better than green and unripe bananas. I eat tonnes of veggies sweet potatoes at least once a day spinach, kale and chickpeas. I have an allotment, large vegetable patch including a 25ft polytunnel so most veggies and soft fruit is from there.

    I find I'm ok with dairy but to be honest I don't actually eat that much. A bit of milk with my oats. High protein Greek yogurt plain yogurt maybe a bit of goats cheese.

    One thing that is bonkers though I can eat raw mountain honey from Spain. I have it imported twice a year in big 25kg buckets. I can have a table spoon of that before bed and have no reaction. Very strange.

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