Try buying Phil Vickery's new book, fab ideas for allsorts of meals and ideas for GF, he wrote after consulting with Coeliac UK. I have real fun trying them all out.
I can't eat gf bread because of various additives, so I have said goodbye to toast, except for the occasional times when I make my own bread. I have a protein breakfast instead, such as an omelette or eggs and bacon, or full fat yoghurt and fruit/nuts I add myself. I don't use prescription food.
Ready made gf food is often full of sugar, fat and little fibre, guaranteed to make you put on weight. I've given up most processed carbohydrate food, like pasta, and gone for low carb/high fat food options. I haven't put on weight. It's a complete change to how I used to eat before going gf. It's not quite Paleo, because I use gram and buckwheat flour.
It's an alternative way of eating I would recommend. My GP tells me I am very healthy.
Good luck with finding what works for you.
Hi Roo, it strikes me that you have never embraced a gluten free diet and you yo yo between a gluten free ish diet and full on gluten one.
Now what you need to do is take a step back and look at why you need a gf diet and instead of saying I gave up gluten free because I piled on the pounds, think what advice you would give to your daughter if she is diagnosed as a coeliac. And would you want her making herself ill? So go gluten free with a vengeance for you and your family because they must despair at you making yourself ill.
So check out what you can eat and like and you might get on better with prescription bread made with codex wheat as this tastes the most like 'ordinary' bread and is better when toasted. I would also indulge your self at the supermarket and try out Genius and Warburtons bread.
At the end of the day you will feel much better not being anaemic and you will have less chance of developing other health issues like osteoporosis.
If I'm honest I agree with Penel and feel that a diet of naturally gf foods is the best way forward but it's one step at a time and you want to wean yourself off the dreaded gluten first.
Now I will tell you something else, ALL coeliac wish that they could eat anything and have the same fears about being glutened. Feeling angry and why me is also common. I have felt all these emotions and I deal with my diet really well and have great health my BMI is good and my cholesterol is low with my bad cholesterol being 1.5. I also have lots of energy and appreciate feeling really well after years of being unwell due to not being diagnosed.
I am lucky in that I have lots of energy so keep busy and cycle to keep fit so weight gain is not an issue for me and I make my own bread and cakes but used unrefined sugars and naturally gf flours and I avoid most processed foods.
Lastly being diagnosed as a coeliac gives YOU the opportunity for a very healthy and balanced diet and of making a full recovery, so don't beat your self up over eating gluten but look to the future and take it one day and one step at a time.
Good luck as you can do it.
Jerry
Having spent a lifetime in catering & cooking for others it was tough to admit I needed to go G/F for my health - but rather than think of it as denial I try & adapt "normal" stuff to being G/F. Not keen on Phil Vickery's book - lots of it is common sense. Many recipes adapt to a good G/F flour, especially if they are "wet" bakes i.e have fruit added, such as plum cake, apple cake, banana cake - made a great apple & blackberry crumble last night & we all ate it - even though rest of family dont need to be G/F.
Try baking your own soda bread - works so much better than yeast bread & really quick. Dont like Warburtons, prefer Genius, but is very sweet so doesnt work with marmite! Tesco have some decent ciabatta rolls that work well toasted - I think you just have to accept that you will never have the type of bread that you love, but you will be healthier again.
Try finding "Learn to Cook Wheat, Gluten & Dairy Free" by Antoinette Savill - just got yesterday & looks OK Lots of ideas what to buy to stock store cupboard etc. (Book People have it for about £4.99) Also The Hairy Bikers diet books have lots of recipes that can be adapted as they have swapped standard sauces for thickening with cornflour etc to cut calories, so work good for G/F too, great recipe where they swap lasagne for leeks, & their Mediterranean burgers are to die for (you just can't have the bun!)
it's all down to trial & error & finding what works for you, I find it easier to change what I'm eating rather than settle for a very poor replacement as it will never really be the same!
We have made some changes at home..our evening meals are fresh meat and potato based, still have home made gf yorkies as we actually prefer them.
I'm trying to focus more on what I do like that is gluten free rather than boo hooing over what I can't.
I have stopped buying the main things that I find hard to resist and have brought the kids alternative things that i don't care for.
I've just been and got some Genius triple seeded bread so will try that at lunch..it is lunch time that I struggle..my husband has batch cooked me some cheese and potato pies, bolognaise and shepherds pies to reheat at lunch to help.
My bmi is 20.4..it was 16.9 so much as I have gained weight, and I do feel every lb, I guess I am healthier as I am and sticking to my diet will cure my pregnant looking gut!
I'm going to take it one day at a time and I'm getting loads of support at home and from my mum now that I'm giving it a go..got so sick of hearing how my brother sticks to his diet and hasn't had gluten for over 20 years.
Hi, sorry to read that you're finding the gf diet so difficult. Keep focussing on what you can have. Ready bought gf cakes etc are full of fat and sugar but homemade aren't. I just use normal recipes and swop the flours. They also freeze well. Gf cereal bars are also very easy to make(choc, gf cereal, loads of dried fruit, nuts and seeds) but you will need to hide them from everyone else.
Your BMI is really healthy, your previous BMI suggests that you were really underweight. I think that you had just got very used to seeing a very thin you so that your healthy weight is appearing large to you. I was going through old photos yesterday and was quite shocked at some of me just after I'd been diagnosed.....far too thin but I don't recall ever thinking that...because I had always been that way (5'7 and 7st12)
Limit the amount of bought processed gf foods you eat and you'll find you have a healthy tasty diet. It might help if for a few weeks you give some time to planning meals that you like and can eat so that you don't have that dilemma of 'what can I have'
Hello Roobiedoobie I have some sympathy with you. I am a really fussy eater and permanently struggle with my weight. I had not been eating bread for quite a while before diagnosis last November because it made me so ill and I tend to associate it with discomfort. My family eat the most delicious bread in front of me and sometimes I really crave it and despite the discomfort association long to have some. We went to France in the summer and at times I so wanted a piece of baguette with some French cheese. I cannot eat the gf stuff as I am intolerant to some of the ingredients. I cannot eat oats or cereals so breakfast is usually fruit and I am often starving. Tried quinoa but not for me!
I do love middle eastern and mediterranean food which I think is good for a gf diet - lots of natural ingredients as long as you avoid the pasta and cous cous! I have recently discovered polenta and make this and add stuff like onions or red peppers to it. Some people cannot eat it of course. But a word of warning - the first time I used polenta for a recipe for polenta bread, I used ready made stuff which contained traces of gluten. I read that after I had eaten some and was ill. The other day I got some polenta from an Italian shop that you have to make up - takes a bit of time - like risotto - but it was lovely (the guests liked it and they are foodies) and a leftover piece made quite a nice breakfast. You can get some polenta that cooks up quicker (in 5 mins I think) but I used the slow one.
I can't eat eggs Penel - nor bacon. I am intolerant to stuff in bacon and I don't know why I can't eat eggs. Sometimes I have half a meringue and it is okay.
I use to struggle with my weight, I started a low carb high fat diet, as I'm pre diabetic as well, since I started this diet in June I've lost nearly 3 stone and feel great, my blood glucose is normal as well..
You just have to stick with meat, veg, and I only eat berries as they are low in sugars...but I have them with double cream, so it's no hardship...sweet potato instead of potato, and I only eat carbs with my lunch and dinner, it's easy to follow once you know the rules
Janie that is fantastic! Well done! I have been doing this 2:5 diet which has been quite successful but I have only lost 7lbs in 2 months - yours is much better. And to get your blood glucose down too brill!
There is some really good advice above; I thought I would put my 2 cents in too.
I think the key thing is fully embracing the gluten-free diet as a new lifestyle, thinking of it as an opportunity to revamp your diet and feel better. It doesn’t necessarily have to replicate your previous ‘normal’ diet, and in fact a lot of the GF replacements are not worth it, not very healthy and often not that tasty.
Fruit, vegetables, pulses, plain meats and most dairy are all good, and going back to basics and cooking from scratch can yield some really tasty and nutritious meals, and be quite economical too. Check out glutenfreegirl.com/ and theintolerantgourmet.com/ for some inspiration and recipes.
There is a really good range of GF foods on Ocado.com, it’s not the cheapest place to shop in general but the GF stuff is no more expensive than elsewhere and everything is under one roof. The best bread I have tried recently is Juvela fresh bread (you can get a free trial on their website), M&S isn’t bad too… if you live in London there are a couple of gluten-free bakeries where you can get something closer to ‘proper’ bread.
Good luck, I know it is hard…whenever I get tempted to slip up, I try and think of gluten as being like poison – if I ingest any it will do some serious damage! (Even if it isn’t immediately noticeable, glutening can greatly contribute to infertility, bowel cancer and poor mental health in Coeliacs – not worth even the nicest food).
Issi
Hi again Roo, so you like cheese and potato pies, I saw 'come dine with me' and a lady made mini quiches in ramekin dishes and she just fried some cubed potatoes and added them to a quiche mix and baked them and had easy peasy mini quiches. I thought what a good idea for coeliac as I make a large quiche using mashed potato instead of pastry and that's really nice and easy to make, it's also really nice cold the next day and slices well.
I'm glad that you've managed 3 days so well done and keep it up.
Hi Roo, I sympathise, I really do! I've gone through all the ready made breads I can, and have to say they are (to me) uniformly disgusting with the exception of Genius seeded (passable) and M&S brown (quite nice).
Do you have a breadmaker? I bought the Heather Whinney GF book on Amazon and it's a tenner very well spent. I use Dove's white bread flour and her recipe in my Panasonic breadmaker. Vital tips:
1. Put the yeast in first, at the bottom of the pan, then the other dry ingredients before you add the warm liquids.
2. Use the GF programme if it has one.
3. My breadmaker mixes for 10 minutes before it starts proving the dough. After 6 or 7 minutes of mixing, raise the lid and have a good scrape around with a silicon spatula to get the dry bits of flour out of corners and the bottom. Then leave it alone!
4. Ten minutes before your breadmaker is due to finish, heat up an oven to about 200 or higher. I use a counter-top halogen doo-dah for this.
5. Turn out your loaf from the breadmaker and brush the WHOLE THING, top, bottom, sides, the lot, with beaten egg.
6. Bung in hot oven until it crisps up golden and looks fantastic.
This bread has a gorgeous crusty finish and tastes like "real" bread. It doesn't keep well, i.e. it goes stale on day 2, but with a family you won't have any problem shifting a delicious small loaf in a day.
Any leftovers at the end of the day can be sliced and frozen - they toast from frozen beautifully.
I also cut VERY thin slices, brush them with oil and bake hard on an open rack in a hot oven (do not allow to scorch). When cool and hard, they keep a long time in a tin and IMHO are better than any ready-made GF cracker or crispbread I've tried.
Got a weekend away booked at Butlins..I've spoken to them and am feeling positive about the food choices..I've been told I will need to meet with the chef to discuss what I may want to eat.
I tend to make all food from scratch and 'treat' myself to pre-made GF bread on rare occasions (though you can make a decent gf flat bread/pancakes with chickpea flour and psyllium husk which is super fast and tasty).
As others have said once you embrace the diet and recognise gluten for the atrocious poison it is, being GF will become miles easier.
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