hi all, can I get your take on people 6 who choose a gluten free diet...
Personally I can't see the attraction.. i wish I didn't have to have a gluten free diet.
I'm guessing that they just cut out bread and pasta etc... but it's so much more.. there's so much food that I can't have... things you wouldn't expect would have it in... i have to constantly read the ingredients to check...
Gf bread isn't good, I tend to have either sandwich thins or wraps..
Can't bare "bread" so dry and crumbly
Liquerice... i used to love that, can't have it..
Your thoughts my lovely people..
Lizzie xx
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Little_lizzie
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I can't see the attraction either - unless it is people who want to feel "special" by not being able to eat what most people eat! They have often been sold the idea by celebrities claiming that gluten is a "toxin" to be got rid of - which we know is rubbish.
The ones who really upset me are the ones who make a fuss about having something gluten free when they are out, and then order a "normal" dessert "for a treat" - it makes restaurant staff think we are all making a fuss about nothing!
yeah, celebs have a lot to answer for.. not only for things like this but to be "a certain body" i feel so sorry for people who are easily led.. that they're made to think that being a plus size is deemed ugly and wrong.. terrible.
Adverts, hair products, makeup, etc... nearly always a slim Jim...i think they need to get the bigger lashes and gents to advertise these products too!!
After my partner was diagnosed coeliac, I chose to give up gluten too - mostly to avoid getting him sick and to get into good label checking habits. It's not too bad, I didn't feel particularly deprived doing it.
In January I discovered I was gluten intolerant all along (I reintroduced for a coeliac test but Covid came along part-way through), so I'm now GF for my own health.
There is such a range when it comes to non-coeliacs who remove gluten, it's hard to comment without making assumptions about why they do it.
I feel for you, I really miss liquorice and a decent pork pie! Why anyone would choose a GF diet when they don't have to is beyond me. But the world is full of ejits. And another thing, I don't understand why people follow the advice of so called celebrities either. Just because someone has acted in a film doesn't make them Einstein and don't get me started on 'Influencers'.
By the way, I have tried many GF breads and the best one I've found is Schar's Wholesome Seeded Loaf, and BFree make a passable bake-yourself mini baguette. My mother, who was also a coeliac, used to have an awful one, Juvela, on prescription. It had the consistency of extra dry madeira cake and when you chewed it became a doughy lump in your mouth which felt better suited as a rawlplug.
It's an even worse situation in Europe, I found I could get Schar bread in Spain but in France I could only get French brands that were advertised as being rustic or farmhouse and were like carboard, and the price was extortionate, six slices for €3 was the average. In Portugal it was quite affordable but the quality was not what you would want, if you've ever had a brand called Bimbo over there you'll know what I mean. The thing I have found with GF bread is that it generally makes passable toast but also excellent fried bread, but don't let the Calorie Police know.
The only upside to a GF diet is that it tends to be rather better than your average, no fast food and no frozen ready meals, only my wife says that I eat too much of a good thing.
I rarely bother with free from foods such as biscuits and cakes as they are generally a sad disappointment. My wife makes me a delicious almond and polenta lemon cake, occasionally, and I think there's one coming soon as we've just had ground almonds in the last delivery.
I make an amazing GF orange cake.. even if I say so myself...
The Caribbean are very good with gf food.. we went on a cruise and they were brilliant!
I agree with the toast.. or even a toastie, done in Toastie machine.. but being smaller slices (who knows why they can do full size slices) it can spill a bit..
Regarding fast food... yep can't just grab a sausage roll, or pork pie or scotch egg etc... so in a way that's good.. and yes, the biscuits are shocking... except for Morrisons free from triple chocolate cookies... omg they're devine!
Sainsbury's do a nice gf pork pie. Costs £2 for a little pie but for an occasional treat it's worth it. I'm also looking forward to trying some from the GF pie shop shown on Coeliac UK when I get room in freezer. If they taste as good as they say it will be worth a splash out 😉
I know about Sainsbury's pork pies, and yes, they are quite good. But we're shielding and have all our grub delivered at government decree - by ASDA. Who also make a passable GF pork pie but they have never had one in the seven months that we've been on home delivery. I used to go to the 'Free From' show in Liverpool every year and we would come home with a freezer full of pies, pasties and other goodies.
We found cassava flour there, which my wife uses for flouring fish etc before frying. It 's really good. She also makes an orange drizzle cake with polenta and almonds, but without the oranges, she uses lemons instead. There's not much I don't actually like but oranges and mince pies are at the top of the list.
There is a firm near York that makes GF pies, pasties and all sorts but I can't remember their name. I believe they do mail order too. Their products are very tasty.
I haven't been able to source a supply of GF brown sauce but have found Henderson's Relish which tastes about the same but looks more like Worcester sauce. It is also cheap! My big problem is mustard, I'm a big mustard fan and the only one I have found that doesn't contain flour is Waitrose's English Mustard. We would normally take a trip to the nearest Waitrose once or twice a year, it's about 10 miles away. I would usually stock up with a dozen jars and that would keep me going for a good while, but we haven't been able to go since March and I'm running low. ASDA used to stock Duerrs English Mustard, which was wheat free but the price used to vary between 60p and £1 and I've not seen it on their shelves in a long time.
Wow. That slims down the choice a bit. I can't manage shopping, still suffering chronic fatigue since discovery of Coeliac. I get deliveries when I can and my partner goes to our local Lidl and Asda but there are limited selections as it is a small store. I can't drive far now so it's delivery or nothing. I live not far from York but have not heard of a local gf pie Company. My partner would probably go for me or even take me as long as I don't have to talk much, walk far or think lol! Or avoid getting near people as I'm a little zombie like. Takes me all on to concentrate on putting one foot in front of another.😜😂. Colmans English mustard powder is gf and lasts ages as you just mix what you need. Asda brown sauce own make blue label is gf. The cassava flour sounds useful!! Thank you!! It's nice your wife bakes for you. I can't wait to get better and be rid of whatever this is so I can bake again. I know it will be a little different now but I find it so frustrating not being able to. I've managed dumplings about 3 times in nearly 3 years. Hopefully you'll be able to get shopping soon if this vaccine works.
I dug around and found that pie shop near you, Voakes, Whixley, York YO26 8AY and their website is voakesfreefrom.co.uk. Their pies and pasties are very acceptable. They also do mail order. I would like to order some pies for myself but the freezer is full - I know! Buy another freezer! She wouldn't be too happy about that.
We know York quite well as we were holiday cover at a campsite in Nether Poppleton every year when the owners went on their own hols. We loved it, they had chickens and they were a great source of amusement and brilliant eggs! That has gone by the board this year.
Have you tried anything from thepielife? (wouldn't it have been better to call themselves thelifeofpies!)
How long have you been on a GF diet? When I came over to the lightside I began to feel better within a couple of weeks and I could walk again. Sometimes I belive that people put symptons down to GI, as that is what they expect, rather than it having a completely separate cause. Doctors often have an inbuilt inability to listen to what the patient is actually saying.
Thank you for that, I am now going to have to try both 😂. Lifeofpies would have been a good idea, if I am ever well enough and able to try some of my own ideas I might just nick that 😉. My Doctor is trying hard but I've waited so long to get to the specialist in Sheffield (over a year from referal to getting some result) that I now know I am doing great with my GF diet. May 2018 I was diagnosed but I'd had head and odd tummy issues for years (won't give too much detail😜😂), only reason we discovered it was Coeliac Disease was after radiotherapy end of 2017 and the onset of chronic fatigue. At first they thought it was CFS when I didn't get better but worse after 6 months on gf diet, that is not the case apparently so Sheffield was next, now I'm going to see a neuro psychologist. Not sure what wait for that will be or what it entails. In the mean time I live in the hope that one morning I'll wake up all better 😉😁. It's nice to chat. Take care and hopefully you'll get to nether poppleton again soon!
Some people, whilst not coeliac, do feel better if they cut gluten from their diet. You can be allergic or just sensitive to wheat products so this muddies the water.
When I order in a restaurant I share that I am coeliac as I find that the staff take it very seriously then and I am rarely glutened now.
Warburtons Tiger Bread is nice too. Liquorice all sorts were my favourites ☹
Same here! I say that I'm coeliac.. just easier.. I'm non-coeliac gluten and what intolerant, I just get very miffed at the price of things that are free from! I don't get why the price near enough doubles!
I don’t understand the price either. None of the ingredients are complicated nor is the bread that great overall. It’s difficult finding good gf bread that is an actual full size loaf, not the half sized breads they seem to think is good sizing. I do remember Selfridges selling quite good bread - but the sizing! 😂🤦🏻♀️ I am not keen on some of the wraps I’ve come across - they don’t wrap!
It's because they don't make so many so cannot bulk buy to save. Sad thing is though there are some things they could easily make GF on full production, like tortilla wraps, which would then bring the price down, but then they also have to be made in a separate area so there is no cross contamination. So still we lose 😢. What it needs is a big company to build another factory building just for the GF stuff so being able to make naturally GF stuff in large amounts so muggles buy it too! 😁 hopefully that all makes sense, like walkers toffee!
I know what you mean about the prices of GF foods, we have been doing click and collect shopping during the chaos that is COVID so have noticed more the comparative price of things, for instance a pack of 4 crumpets for me is £2 whereas a pack of 6 for my husband is under 50p! So he gets 6 crumpets for less than the cost of one GF one!!! Just one instance of the exorbitant cost of GF food. We are pensioners so although not on the breadline have to keep an eye on the pennies. I have been coeliac for 30 years now and dread to think how much extra cost that has amounted to over this time. As for people who think going GF will make them slim and relieve arthritis, they need to see me, weight just piling on and arthritis everywhere.
There's a lot of tough calls to accept with gf, and lots of complications. I would not choose it by choice, but until some one cures coeliac, here we all are........
I think the gf by choice not medical requirement is what give coeliacs the grief of also being labelled faddy dieters. The number of newspaper headlines talking about inefficacy of faddy gluten free diets and paleo, etc., negates the medical requirement.
Costa Coffee and Starbucks startd to do GF sandwiches for a while apparently. This was before I properly adopted gluten free diet but coeliac guy I work with thought it was great to finally have cafe options at lunchtime. Then stopped stocking them. He was told it was because there was no demand for them anymore - they were simply stocking for the lifestyle gluten free, not coeliacs. Market seems more willing to bend to will of the faddy diets, not those with medical requirement. Says it all. I also think faddy gluten-free people have brought a lot of below par gluten free offerings on to the market - labelled gluten free but not properly tested for codex or checked for cross contamination, but that's my own observation/thoughts on those products.
Before lock down, I went to Costa with my daughter for breakfast. All they could offer me was tomato soup! I used to like the M&S chilled Made Without Wheat range, they even did a pork pie, but sadly apart from a couple of GF sandwiches, the whole range seems to have been discontinued. I am told I am allergic to wheat, and it is hard work avoiding it and wheat derivatives which do not have to be labelled as such. You do not do this for fun.
Exactly. It's a limited life on all fronts. Very frustrating. The number of times coeliacs go hungry because of no GF offerings is astounding. Or if there is something you can eat, it always seems to be twice price of other meals.
Filmore & Union is great for GF and wheat free, sadly they have closed some branches. Their sourdough is so good I didn't believe it was GF. A coeliac friend went there and was so moved that she was catered for, she actually wept. People don't realise how emotional it is to feel left out in many places.
Honestly, there is a big emotional/psychological impact. I've noticed somewhere else that someone is about to publish a book on this. And when you do find somewhere that will cater with all the whistle and bells you need, it's amazing.
I wish I didn't have to follow a gluten free diet either. It is true though that people are wanting to reduce their intake of gluten and I do feel it can improve their diet, too many people seem to rely on pasta and bread to bulk up their meals, so reducing this would probably be good for them. It's not having the freedom to choose that I don't like, I miss doughnuts and although I could have gluten free ones (if I made them) they would not be the same.
I came across a 10 day protocol, where the nutritionist asked her followers to cut out gluten for 10 days for exactly this reason! She said it wasn't about GF being healthier, but getting people to recognise how much their diet revolves around gluten, so they can then nutritionally diversify. A typical day for many looks like cereal, sandwich, pasta/ noodles/ pizza/ something breaded.
I hated gf bread until I tried Morrisons seeded, it has to be toasted... But it is really quite nice. Not as pricey as some others, which even after toasting taste like cardboard.
And yes, when you Cannot eat gluten your go to food to be safe away from home is fruits, nuts or overpriced gf biscuits.
You can buy ground liquorice root and prepare a cold drink from it, it's delicious, if a little tedious to prepare. Soak in minimal water to blend the ground liquorice with a little bicarbonate of soda for a couple of hours, then add more water to double the quantity. Strain and chill. Very healthy and leaves a strong fresh licourice taste.
I am not surprised more people are choosing to eat less bread even if it’s just GF for starters.
Lots of people report feeling better on a grain free paleo diet. It can help all autoimmune diseases and gut health issues not just celiac disease.
Walkers liquorice toffee!!!!! Tastes lovely and is gluten free. I'm with you there, why would anyone be gf by choice? Try toasting bread twice. Not so it burns though 😊. It is a great improvement!
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