Help with gluten free diet

@MikePfirrman are you guys ok with certified gluten-free oats? My understanding is that it is not the oats itself, but cross-contamination.

OP - the less premade foods you use the easier this will be. Plain* raw meat has no gluten, nor do plain veggies and fruits. Potatoes and rice are easy substitutes for pasta.

More on rice:

https://www.verywellfit.com/is-rice-gluten-free-562773

Here are a bunch of foods categorized by Safe, Double-check, and Avoid:

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/gluten-free-foods

* Plain meaning it comes plain, not that you have to eat it plain. Just know your seasonings

My wife has had Celiacs for around 9-10 years, so our house is 100 % gluten free at all times. Literally not one molecule of gluten comes into our house. We replaced all the kitchen appliances (stove, fridg, etc) years ago because we wanted new appliances that had never been contaminated. So it's pretty serious and diligent here.

The good news. Eating gluten free is not hard. It may have seemed hard to me at first, but in reality it isn't. Not surprisingly, eating gluten free can look a bit like a keto-ish diet, in that you eat more meat and vegetables and less carb, because many carbs are wheat based or cross contaminated. That is not so bad. In all honesty it's probably made my weight loss journey easier. You can consume 3,000 calories worth of pizza in an hour but it's really, REALLY hard to consume more than, say, 600 calories worth of meat, unless you're working hard at it. Almost all junk foods, excluding specifically gluten-free chocolate and gluten free ice cream are off the table too, so that does cut down on a lot of junky eating and tends to nudge things in the direction of a healthier diet. Not so bad!

Certain obvious things have to go: bread, pasta, etc. Everyone understands that already. Then there's a second tier of less obvious things - the many foods that have wheat as an ingredient. Soy sauce is a good example. Not "all" soy sauces contain wheat, but most do. For the huge number of foods in this category, it's about learning to diligently pay attention to food labels and not make any assumptions. The third category is cross-contamination, where small amounts of gluten at a food processing facility make their way into even "certified gluten free" foods. For instance, corn based products. There are facilities that have NO gluten at all and buying foods made there is wise. There is trial and error involved. Unfortunately the error, for a Celiac person, can be pretty severe, but you learn, adapt, and so on.

With a gluten sensitivity of the sort that some people with IBS have, very minor amounts of gluten in certified gluten products are probably not going to be an issue, and for that matter, things like soy sauce may be OK too. A good analogy is probably lactose. I'm lacktose intolerant, but if I have an ounce of cheese as part of some meal, it isn't going to kill me. However, if I have 8 oz of ice cream or sour cream, I will be sick for days. Sometimes it's the amount involved, not the sheer existence of the offending food particle. This is not the case with Celiacs but could be with IBS.

Gluten free pastas (made from rice or corn) are, in my opinion, just as good as wheat pastas, and perhaps better once you get used to their "al dente" vibe. Especially rice pasta, which is excellent. Corn pasta is not my favorite. Gluten free breads are a different story. Most of them are not very good, and going gluten free is probably best seen as "not eating bread" as opposed to "finding a gluten free bread". Just my opinion. Others may differ.

I think if you really focus on being as close to 100 % gluten free as possible, in a few days you'll know if you feel different, and in a few weeks there should be a big chance in your symptoms. But of course, it's a good idea to talk to a doctor about this kind of stuff.

rlang2362 wrote: »

So i got diagnosed ibs many years ago (I’m now 40) and recently my digestive system has been constantly bloated and painful, lots of gas etc so I’m going to try and cut certain food groups to see if anything has an impact.
I’m starting with a biggie - Wheat/gluten
Any advice appreciated, how long before I know wether it’s this, what foods are great, what to try and what to avoid please?
Just fed up of feeling run down

Hi @rlang2362 👋

The friends I’ve known with IBS tend to go for a low FODMAP diet. YMMV.

Link re FODMAP - https://www.health.harvard.edu/diet-and-weight-loss/a-new-diet-to-manage-irritable-bowel-syndrome

An elimination diet sounds like the way to begin to see what foods your aggravate the bowels.
I would research how long you have to do elimination for. Whole 30 started as an elimination diet for 30 days and then slowly adding foods back in to see how they are tolerated.

If you’ve been diagnosed with IBS — maybe a check up with the gastroenterologist? Good luck and I hope you feel better soon!

kshama2001 wrote: »

@MikePfirrman are you guys ok with certified gluten-free oats? My understanding is that it is not the oats itself, but cross-contamination.

OP - the less premade foods you use the easier this will be. Plain* raw meat has no gluten, nor do plain veggies and fruits. Potatoes and rice are easy substitutes for pasta.

More on rice:

https://www.verywellfit.com/is-rice-gluten-free-562773

Here are a bunch of foods categorized by Safe, Double-check, and Avoid:

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/gluten-free-foods

* Plain meaning it comes plain, not that you have to eat it plain. Just know your seasonings

There's a brand of GF Oats I get on Amazon. The family that started the company has a child that is Celiac. It's called GF Harvest. If someone is afraid of cross contamination, they should definitely get this brand.

The pizza chains, honestly no one with Celiac should go there. They should probably make their own at home.

I do a lot of Quinoa (cheap at Costco), black rice (you have to watch some Asian store brands -- I found out the hard way) and brown rice. I also eat a lot more lentils now.

rlang2362 wrote: »

I will be honest I’ve seen the fodmap suggestion before but it baffled me and look quite hard, I’m usually a very very busy mum who’s up early (postie) and out of the house 4/5 evenings in the week with football and weekend mainly football too. I’m off work with an Injury at the minute so making the most of a chance to try something up.

I honestly think over time I may just stop eating bread for the most as I think I could actually cope without it and there is so much food that doesn’t have gluten I think I will be ok, but like you say the difficultly will be in spotting the foods that have small amounts in and working out if that will still affect me.

I have a telephone appointment with my gp tomorrow for a follow up about my acid reflux so will mention what I’m doing to her.

FODMAP is a great elimination diet. You are supposed to also give up gluten and dairy. I cringe when I see people going on a FODMAP diet and retain bread and dairy and eliminate all the healthy stuff like garlic and onions. Drives me absolutely bonkers!

FODMAP is great but it's a temporary Band-Aid, not meant to be a lifestyle.

Here's my secret to GF Pizza. Get Caputto's GF flour. Use it like you would in a standard dough recipe. Get a pizza stone. Let it rise overnight. It rises beautifully in the fridge overnight and tastes more like a NY style crust. Roll it out with your fingers on veggie oil sprayed parchment paper. Use wet fingers and gradually work it. Place the crust (parchment and all) on top of a hot pizza stone and bake at like 450 for around 10 minutes. Then, peel the parchment off and bake (with your toppings) directly on the stone. It was a game changer for us.

My wife, as I mentioned, can't have cow dairy (many with gluten sensitivity will eventually react to cow cheese). We use goat mozz (believe it or not you can't tell the difference and I'm usually not a goat cheese fan) and pecorino (sheep parm). It's amazing. My wife nearly cried the first time I made this for her. She hadn't had good pizza in five or six years.