Gluten-free diet - support and tips

Thanks for that,I still dream of decent tasting GF bread. I'll be out searching tomorrow!

Interesting Kitty, thanks. The only decent almost like bread I have found are a particular brand of frozen rolls but they are only 'almost like bread' while they are still warm from the oven

And me I haven't found one that I like yet - probably a good think as I used to adore buttered toast, one of the joys of life.

Thanks, kitty We don't eat much bread but I do like a slice of GF toast with breakfast on a Sunday morning. At the moment I keep sliced Genius in the freezer but I'm not wild about the taste or texture.

GGmk2 is that the Schar rolls - I quite like those but I think this is better!

It is Kitty - that is sounding really good.

Can you all believe how much you can miss bread?

It's a killer when you smell the 'normal' bread that your OH is about to demolish!!

I love M & S gf seeded bread and Sainsbury's is good, too.

I don't like seeded much mini but there was seeded in this range too. I like the m&s boule!

kitty I forgot about that one! Yes, the boule is lovely.

I always drift through the bread section in Marks smelling and looking longingly at the bread.

What ever happened that so many have become gluten intolerant it's ridiculous.? But I've only got to have the tiniest amount by mistake and my system immediately reacts.

My system reacts if I so much as walk down the bread aisle.

How long have you been like that merlot I was like it and struggling for at least 20 years looking back . The penny finally fell when watching Caroline Quentin describe her symptoms on tv and it was like a miracle instant wellness! No more mouth ulcers or exhaustion and other unmentionable symptoms. It been wonderful

I was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease as a baby,then told at the age of 8 I had grown out of it and no longer needed a GF diet!.....couldn't get anyone to understand how unwell I felt for the next 25 years. Finally went back to the diet and and after 2 tiny babies,my next one was twice their weight! Decades later,I still long for delicious bread.

I've never bothered to get diagnosed so I don't suppose it's coeliac but an intolerance. Extremely unpleasant though

Anyone in the London area may like to know of this place. Apart from the main location they also have several stockists throughout London. I passed the shop recently on my way elsewhere and it looked good enough to eat

Sorry, I meant the contents, not the shop!

whitewave, My mother suffered with IBS for many years but I'm now wondering if she was gluten intolerant. When I started having the same symptoms in my fifties I just put it down to IBS and tried hard to avoid foods that would aggravate it. I also saw the Caroline Quentin programme which was a bit of a wake up call because her symptoms were identical to mine.

I didn't really cotton on, however, until I spent some time with DD2's friend who has been diagnosed since a child and explained about the need for the gut to recover if you accidentally eat a product containing gluten. It's no good thinking, Oh, I'll be OK tomorrow once the stomach cramps subside - the damage is done and you can become fatigued and anaemic for at least a month.

I filled in a box ticking questionnaire on the Coeliac website which recommend I be tested but after talking to our district nurse I decided not to go down that route because I'd already removed gluten from my diet and was feeling like a different person. For the test to be conclusive you have to re-introduce gluten to your diet every day for six weeks then have the blood test. It then takes another month at least for your gut to recover.

No thank you!! As far as I'm concerned I'm gluten intolerant and will eat accordingly. It hasn't been difficult at all but unlike most diets where you can have a break for a day or two you really have to stick to it or you will undo months of good work.

A month after eliminating gluten my IBS symptoms disappeared like the flick of a switch. How brilliant is that?

Thanks Kitty will look out for this bread, is it very expensive?

Probably, isn't it all? Maybe about £3 a small loaf? I feel awful that I don't know but I am so used to wasting money on gf bread I tend to just buy it regardless.

I have not been tested either but someone I knew had similar symptoms and underwent lots of tests which were inconclusive so it was suggested she tried going gd. I did the same and it worked!

It is much easier now than when I first gave up gluten about 9 years ago. I think we have trendy celebrities to thank for that. I don't find it difficult at all now apart from eating out in a Chinese restaurant.

I did try to start of gf support thread but it fell of the bottom of the Active list. I guess we are all coping quite well.

I should point out that this bread is in the Real Bread section not the Free From bit!

In some way I feel lucky that the tests done to exclude other things than IBS included ones showing I was not Coeliac. The low fodmap 'prescribed' eating plan excludes wheat and often the only way of doing that is to eat gluten free products. These are now often marked as wheat free but I hope they start to mark standard products as wheat free, lactose free, etc. (Probably not going to happen) Rather like the shock you can have when you see just how much sugar goes into products which if they were cooked at home would not have any the amount of wheat in things which wouldn't be in a standard receipt is amazing. After the first few weeks of trying to find processed foods without wheat I gave up and now cook almost everything from scratch - I used to cook most things anyway - but I do have the gluten free fish fingers in the freezer as they are wheat and lactose free

For those with IBS I wonder if you have gone lactose free too. I do not know for sure but the exclusion of this sugar and the reduction of fructose seem to help me a great deal. If eaten they don't set of the same symptoms as the wheat but seem to lead to the extreme exhaustion I use to have all the time.

The other bit of low fodmap I am very careful about is no onions and no garlic (immediate issues). There are various vegetables and fruit, etc., that I need to avoid but these are the worst as far as I can tell. The problem is that you our not going to eat them to find out so it only happens by accident.

I was advised to be lactose free during the month of recovery after removing gluten from my diet. It helped a lot so I now use Arla lactose free milk and Vitalite spread all the time. Cheese doesn't seem to have been a problem at all.

This is a great thread, kitty. It's nice to read other people's experiences.

Some cheese is low fodmap in reasonable quantities and that made me think the lactose must be 'killed' in some of the cheese making process merlot although I don't actually know this. I use the same milk and spread.

I do have a soy latte if I am out with friends, etc. but I am not that keen on soy milk. Some coffee shops do seem to be starting to carry lactose free milk. I was not impressed with Saisbury's though. I asked for a soy latte which they duly made - using an unwashed from the previous ordinary milk jug to heat the milk in. I was fine but someone else might not be.

Really agree about the good thread kitty.

Sainsbury do a good range now of GF sausages.