Hi all, I'm new here, this is such a great place to find out things! I was diagnosed with IBS 18 months ago, but after two separate referrals to consultants, a couple of hospital visits and a lot of time off work, my Nurse Practitioner suggested to me 7 weeks ago that I cut out gluten and wheat (I have previously been blood tested for coeliac but not the biopsy). Within 4 days I felt like a different person, all IBS symptoms apart from the bloating have cleared up.
Whilst I'm finding breakfast and dinner ok, I'm struggling a bit with lunchtimes. I've basically been eating salad with cheese or a bit of meat, and I find that after I eat I really, really bloat up. I thought I was being good by eating salad, but after seven weeks of this I can pinpoint that it is the one meal that really does affect me. I'm a bit stuck on a) why is salad doing this to me and b) what can I eat instead? I'm not keen at all on the GF bread other than M&S fruit loaf, and even if I was I wouldn't want to be eating that every day. I work in an office and prefer to bring my own lunch, but I can use the toaster and microwave at work. Has anyone got any ideas or suggestions please? Any info much appreciated!
Thanks
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vbporscha
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are you eating your salads with salad dressing??? most of them have gluten in them...also some have soy, which can also have similar reaction...I found ONE salad dressing that was free of both, but it is in the refrigerated section over by the fresh veggie area of the store...LITEHOUSE, RANCH, DRESSING & DIP, made with canola oil...it does have egg and milk, but not the other allergens...good luck
I sometimes make up a salad using quinoa (cook like rice) or make sweet potato/ gram flour pancakes. Have a look back thought the blogs for 'Andrea Life-after- bread'.
There are several ways that bread/wheat/gluten can mess up your gut, and coeliac disease is just one possibility - it's an autoimmune disease triggered by gluten.
Another is gluten sensitivity - I have this - which I believe is a immune reaction against gluten directly.
In both cases, you need to be sure that hidden sources of gluten aren't getting into your diet. Maltodextrin was the one that used to catch me out.
However, there are other possibilities too.
Bread also contains fructans, these are long chain molecules containing sugars, and they can often be an IBS trigger, particularly in IBS that is diarrhea dominant (IBS-D). Other foods contain similar sugars - onions, brocoli, cabbage for example - so there might be other things in your diet that can also trigger symptoms. Have you heard of the FODMAPs diet? It's aimed at treating this kind of problem (usually helpful in IBS-D). There's an IBS group on HealthUnlocked too, and they can tell you more about that.
You could also have other food intolerances... maybe dairy/cheese? A food diary might help you work things out.
Or - and sorry there are so many options - perhaps it's simply that your digestion is slowing down and you're having more trouble digesting raw foods like salad. Bloating can be a sign that your digestion is sluggish. What sort of things do you eat at breakfast/dinner?
What about home made soups? I make some at the weekend and freeze them in lunch size portions them warm up in a microwave. I would stay clear of a communal toaster as well, you're sure to get contamination on your bread etc. if you use it. Have you tried eliminating individual parts of your salad? I'd start with onions if you use them and see how you go, and keep going until you find the culprit. Good luck.
I have IBS and follow a gluten zero life style. You are welcome to check out my website for recipes... it's all free... foodchallenges.ca
I often make a quinoa or brown rice salad for lunch. I add vegetables and fresh herbs as well as a bit of protein... usually chicken, fish or seafood. You can make them with GF pasta as well. Homemade soups are great... the possibilities are endless. I also make a potato hash with a combo of white and sweet potatoes and serve poached eggs on top. I make my own Maki rolls with nori, short grain brown rice and vegetables or dolmas with grape leaves, brown rice, fresh herbs and chicken. Little Bento boxes are great for lunches to take to work... just a few bites of portein, cooked veg and a starch, some fruit. I also enjoy yoghurt and fruit for lunch. I also eat lactose free but can get lactose free yoghurts. If you need more ideas just ask! Best wishes for success! Liana
Be careful with the toaster at work, due to cross contamination. Genius bread and warburtons bread are both very good. Sometimes I bloat up at lunch time,I also take salads, try putting mushrooms, tomatoes, avacado or anything else you like, and reduce the lettuce.
Morning! Thank you all so much for the replies! First up - the toaster, that did not even occur to me! I felt awful from the afternoon onwards yesterday after having toast, not so much the bloating but a really bad headache and feeling sicky. I'm going to see about bringing in my own toaster today.
Soup is definitely something I've been considering.
Poing - the raw food thing is interesting. I've not really been much of a salad eater, well ever, I'd eat it at home but after leaving home I sort of dodged it, it's only in the eighteen months living with my partner that I've started to enjoy it, and with cutting out gluten it seemed like a healthy and sensible thing to do. However, I've never been a fan of cold food, so that has made me think that aside from anything else, maybe my body is not used to digesting it. I'm fairly certain I'm ok with dairy. For breakfast I have dove farm GF cereal with semi skimmed milk, for dinner I have things like baked potato, polenta, meat with cooked veg. I only seem to have problems after lunch. I drink peppermint tea after lunch to try and calm the bloating. I only started wondering about the salad a couple of weeks ago, on a Friday the office tends to have bacon sandwiches, I requested omelette, had that and had little bloating at all that day, same the following Friday.
Issipy - I was thinking that might be the best way forward to eliminate the culprit! Cucumber has always made me a bit hiccupy......
Liana, they all sound like great ideas and I'll check out your website, thank you.
Sorry if I've missed anything out there and many thanks again for your advice,
When I was working in an office I used to love having crackers for lunch. I found Barkat Matzo crackers to be very handy and I think it was DS that do the herb crackers which I also found very good. Morrison's also do their own equivalents.
Spread these with butter and things like cream cheese (or the dairy free equivalents) they make for an easy lunch when put with some fruit, and/or salad, a yoghurt (soya or normal) and the occasional naughtyness of Pom Bear crisps/ 9 bar, naked bar etc.
If in the winter months you want a warming cuppa soup then I have found organs tomato sachets to be good for this. They are not cheap though! So would be an occasional item only. As others have said it would be probably better to make your own.
Being a veggie myself, I used to rely heavily on dairy products at lunchtime. However I eventually found out that doing this was causing me to continue to have unwanted symptoms. - I am intolerant to this also. It does sound like you are reacting to something still in your diet.
As the others have said, stay away from the communal toaster!! When I went gluten free my dietician gave me a choice. The options were clean my existing toaster to within an inch of its life (almost impossible!) or buy a new one (I bought a new one!). This was for cross contamination reasons. One stray breadcrumb is enough to cause a gluten reaction. I had to give away my pasta maker for the same reason.
Remember to also monitor your vitamins and minerals levels more carefully. Gluten free foods tend not to be fortified as often as their gluten equivalents. This can tip an unwary person over into the realms of deficiencies.
Hi I've been gluten wheat free or a few years now. I too have ibs and diverticular disease. I cannot tolerate salad but its the stalks which cause the problem. My dietician advised me to remove the stalks, bit fiddly but I can now eat a small salad. I make homemade soup and freeze it, take it out the night before and there you have lunch.
Hiya A late reply..... as someone else said Maltodextrin! For me this is a real NO NO.
it's hidden in a lot of cold-meats, worth checking out. As for the toaster, probably a source of cross-contamination, but at home I decided to use toaster bags instead of having my own sep toaster and it's been completely ok. I store them in their original cello bag and slip them in between the tea-bag boxes in the drawer.
Hello, sorry for the delay in updating. I'm fairly convinced that it isn't dairy, as I'm sure that it would be affecting me at other parts of the day, this happens around an hour after lunch. Last week I had GF crackers and cheese or M&S GF fruit bread toasted (mmmm!) and I felt a lot better in terms of bloating etc but I do want to know if it is all salad or certain things. I've brought lettuce and tomato today, I'll choose one to have with my crackers and see how I feel, then try the other tomorrow. I have my follow up GP appointment tonight for me to tell her how going GF has been and see what happens next. Thanks again for all the advice
Hi, I actually have the same problem with salads everyone once in awhile. I think it can be hard at times to digest the raw vegetables.
Eating the same lunch everyday can be tedious, and it's hard to come up with new gluten free lunch ideas that you actually want to eat. You can try making a simple stir fry or vegetable soup at home, and then heat it up at work. Here's a page that describes some sample lunch menus:
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