Gluten Intolerant

You will adjust over time. I do not eat many gluten free products as they do not taste the same. I have found gluten free pasta that is okay (barilla not sure if you have it in the UK). I eat rice and potatoes for carbs. I also have grown to like quinoa. I am a huge fan of glutino yogurt covered pretzels but they are very high calorie. Not sure if you have Vans but I used to eat their frozen g/f waffles. There are lots of websites that are helpful. Soy sauce is processed in wheat so that caught me in the beginning. I cook from scratch a lot. Where I live lots of restaurants have gluten free menus or a manager can tell you what you can eat. It is an adjustment but you will figure it out.

thecharon wrote: »

What is a consultant in the UK? Is that what doctors are called? Get a second opinion by a doctor just to make sure it's not a serious gastro-intestinal issue.

I kind of picked up on the oddly vague response to my questions. She didn't say doctor and she said her conditions has been confirmed which may or may not mean she had the test done. I let it go because she clearly doesn't want to discuss it, which is perfectly ok.

I agree with @trishfit2014 that most gluten free substitute products are not worth the money. The few that she mentioned are the ones I use too, but mostly I just cook using ingredients that are naturally gluten free 9rice, potatoes, quinoa, cornmeal, etc). I am in the US, so it's difficult to offer advice sine I do not fully know your options. I avoid eating out very much or I go to restaurants that offer gluten free options. As mentioned above, soy sauce contains gluten, so that can trip you up in restaurants, but you can by tamari soy sauce which is gluten free for cooking at home. My diary is open if you are looking for ideas. Most of my meals are logged as recipes, but I get many of them from various websites, particularly Skinnytatse.com and budgetbytes.com, but feel free to PM me if there are any that you would like a link to.

I'm the same way. I'm not celiac but still get sick and cramps if I eat wheat. I've been gluten free going on 2 years. And now I really can't have it or I'll be more sick than before. Feel free to look at my diet. The staples that saved me were oats, tortilla chips, rice and potatoes. Everything made gluten free, is horrible tasting to me! I literallu gagged when i tried Udis bread. The gluten free bisquick is the only thing that tastes the same. (but smells awful while cooking) And I only tried the waffles and drowned them in butter and syrup. But it has a chicken tender recipe i want to try when i get the courage.

So first - I would contact your doctor's office and confirm what they MEAN when they say you are gluten intolerant. Did they mean you have celiac disease, or just gluten intolerance? Because some doctors still use the term gluten intolerant when it is actually celiac disease, and that is the one that has most of the testing available to confirm it. And I don't know of any actually approved tests that can confirm gluten intolerance, to date. There are some that MAY show gluten intolerance, but...they haven't been actually verified by reputable scientific tests, to my understanding.

This matters because celiacs need a MUCH more restrictive diet to be safe than gluten intolerants do. They need to be more careful about gluten cross contamination during cooking and processing in the home, for example. And they may have higher levels of nutritional deficiencies and other issues that should be addressed (but sadly aren't always) by the doctor, or at least tested for.

So you'll want to know for sure which one you have, and which specific tests were done, honestly.


That said - I would look first at familiar meals that you could make from scratch (even if you usually make NOT from scratch) WITHOUT substitutions, or that are naturally gluten free anyway and the GF versions just leave out some of the filler crap to get rid of the gluten. They usually still taste the same, or as good, and can make you feel less like you are losing something. So, like, ice cream, roasted chicken, steak, plain potato crisps, chips, and so forth. Just something nice.

Second, as long as you have GF soy sauce - which is actually BETTER soy sauce as it's made the old fashioned way, before wheat was used as the main filler - asian dishes are often almost all gluten free, and very tasty too. Many Indian dishes are GF, if made from scratch, too.

Look at Bento boxes for lunches - they have some amazing awesome ones that you can imitate, or just make your own that are nice, but not as time consuming. They tend to be so cool people will be envious of your food, honestly. :-)

Some examples:
good place for recipes, that are GF or you can make gf -
[url="http://"]http://justbento.com/recipes[/url]

A some amazing ideas for super involved bentos
https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/creative-and-interesting-bento-boxes/

shaumom wrote: »

Second, as long as you have GF soy sauce - which is actually BETTER soy sauce as it's made the old fashioned way, before wheat was used as the main filler - asian dishes are often almost all gluten free, and very tasty too. Many Indian dishes are GF, if made from scratch, too.

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Great post @shaumom. As far as I know, most, if not all Thai Kitchen products are gluten free. Check the labels to be sure because they always say that they are gluten free, but I have not encountered any that are not. I use their rice noodles, coconut milk, fish sauce and red curry paste a lot. A favorite dish of mine is vegetable and shrimp, tofu or chicken red curry. I saute my protein along with a heap of assorted veggies, then add some red curry paste to taste, a can of coconut milk, fish sauce and maple syrup. Serve over rice. Super easy and delicious.