Cutting out gluten tips?

[Dolphin-991]

Hi all. I have been suffering for some years now with IBS symptoms and after a few tests the doctor is pretty sure it is IBS. She has advised me to alter my diet or basically follow FODMAP to ensure it is IBS and not something more sinister. The thing is the whole thing really confuses me. I have bought a book but if I'm going to do it I need to do it properly and st the moment I am no where near educated enough to be able to do that. Since I have IBS symtpoms every day, and I eat alot of things containing gluten I decided to cut gluten out of my diet for a few weeks so I could see if I was a gluten intolerance. I do have reasons for this, it's been known to be worse after eating high gluten foods and I've also been sick after consuming it, rarely but it has happened. Basically all I want to know is, should I be taking any supplements if I'm going to cut gluten out? I'm not massively educated on diet and nutrition so I'm not sure if I could be potentially harming myself by completely cutting out gluten and not supplementing it with anything. The last thing I want is to become even more ill. Any tips would be appreciated.

[Hidden]

Gluten is simply the stretchy stuff in Brea you will not be deficient by eating gf bread. As for formal the best thing you can do is get the Monash university app on your phone. It tells you at a glance which foods are high and low FODMAP. I think it's about 5 quid sterling. Hope this helps x

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Not formal it should say fodmap

[Lilagrace87]

Should be fine without supplements, gluten isn’t needed and it’s crazy how much stuff it is in!! Luckily there are so many gluten free options these days. Although a lot of those are loaded with sugars and other things instead, so I wouldn’t have too much of the gluten free pre made products (my opinion). Ideally sticking to a meat/fish, veg and carb option (rice, potato) and it’s then naturally gluten free. Make it yummy and not boring by switching it up, melting a bit of cheese on your chicken, or making a a lasagne with butternut squash sheets or courgette (set portion sizes with low FOD map) or aubergine.

If you enjoy baking, make your own sweet treats, if you can have oats, then they’re great, or buy the gluten free oats. You can bake so many things with them in replace of flour

At first I really struggled with gluten free but now I love it. Good luck, you’ll feel better for it xx

[Aurora1990]

Hey. I've cut out gluten for the last 10 Years and you won't get a deficiency from it. My advice would be to make sure you take suitable snacks with you if your going out anywhere or on holiday as I really struggle to find anything out. Also research restaurant before you go out to ensure you can be catered for. I've just got back from 4 days in london and even tho I packed snacks, eating out was a nightmare. I've also found I can tolerate small quantities of gluten now. Good luck xx

[BabsyWabsy]

Hi,

Please be vigilant about reading food labels if you buy any packaged food. Wheat starch is in all sorts of places you might not expect, such as soy sauce and canned soups. In UK, it will be highlighted in the ingredients list (not the nutrition panel) as an allergen, which makes it a bit easier to spot. It is a pain in the bum, but you will get used to it. Cooking from scratch as Lilagrace suggests is a great idea.

[Budgie5]

Just wanted to say good luck and that after years of suffering from Bad IBS symptoms and just putting up with it it reached a climax where things got v bad so I had investigations and have been diagnosed with severe diverticulitis on both sections of colon as well as redundant colon loops. I also have gallbladder issues. I cut gluten out several weeks ago and it really has been astonishing. Now if I eat just the slightest amount, like a tiny piece of birthday cake, I notice the consequences as things have settled so dramatically I now have - without being too gruesome! - formed stools for the first time I can really remember! I also have two big tablespoons of seed every morning, so I don’t know how much that is alsonplaying a part. Anyway good luck.

[Alysm]

Hi if you in UK download FODMAP app. It’s brilliant as it scans the food by the bar code and tells you if it’s ok to eat

[hampson]

Hi I've was gf for 3 years. Ibs suffering for over 20 years. The diet was boring and really expensive. There are positives and negatives. I've returned to a normal diet due to losing half a stone. It's different for everyone but I'm sure you'll find something that will work for you. It's trail and error. Good luck

[keebarr66]

If the doc wants you to do the FODMAP diet , which is really difficult (I’ve done it), ask to be referred to a specialist dietitian. They can help you a lot

[mno123]

I am Coeliac and cutting out gluten does not help me with my IBS.

[Dolphin-991]

Hey everyone, thanks so much for all the advice. The fodmap app sounds good. I was going to purchase it the other day but thought it might be very americanised. If its suitable for UK that would be really helpful. The doctor hasn't been overly helpful with the fodmap thing to be honest and it's so confusing. I'm starting to think what actually can I eat :/ will definitely buy the app now to see if that helps. Cutting out gluten is just s stab in the dark. It really could be anything. I just knew I needed to do something that might help because I csnt go on like this anymore. As dramatic as it sounds its ruining my life. Thanks for the support 💕

[Stuart24]

Hi Dolphin, I have been on the FODMAP diet on and off for 7 years and I disagree with some of the above, although previously I would have agreed! I am about 50% low FODMAP now. It is VERY hard to get the amount of calcium you need from the FODMAP diet, you really need to be on the lactose free milk and cheese at least, or you won't make it up, as most of the high calcium foods are cut out. Calcium supplement tablets are not good because they consume so much stomach acid, and if they have high magnesium added they will give you diarrhea. Non-coeliac gluten intolerance is very common, and is so crossed over with IBS that it's practically impossible to tell the difference. You don't need to be exclusively on the FODMAP diet, there are many versions and opinions on it, but it is advisable to cut out wheat and milk while you are getting back in control. I've got a drawer full of IBS medicines and pro-biotics that I have taken over the years, and do you know what I take now? None of them. After 27 years of suffering with IBS-D I have found that the long term solution that actually works is all about vitamins and fasting and both are equally important.

This is based on some excellent publications, and also just observing how healthy people live. First, go to the doctors and get yourself checked for intestinal infections, and whatever other tests they want to do, you can be a carrier of some bugs and only suffer occasional flare-ups. But, if you are all clear then the first thing to sort out is your vitamins and the timing of your eating (fasting periods). An incident of food poisoning or infection can start you on a cycle that you need to make a really concerted effort to break out of. IBS causes vitamin deficiencies which are very difficult to overcome in most people’s diets, especially because you are probably eating selectively to manage your symptoms. Your vitamin levels affect the health of your guts, and the health of your guts affects your vitamin absorption, so it is a vicious circle that you have to break. Get some really good, expensive, multi-vitamins (ideally constituted for your age) and take them without fail every day before your breakfast. Do not get the ones with high calcium and magnesium initially as certainly in large doses these minerals can mess you up as they consume your stomach acid, and you should get try to get these minerals from your diet. At the same time, sort out your fasting periods straight away. Your small intestine should be practically sterile, and your stomach acid along with bowel cleaning during fasting (called MMC) will usually do this. You need to fast for this to be effective, and by that I mean, ABSOLUTELY NO eating in between meals, only water, or tea with saccharin. Imagine that you never washed your dinner plates and just kept putting food on them all the time!, they would be filthy. You need to give your small intestine plenty of time free of food for cleaning. God didn't design us to have cupboards full of rich foods permanently available day and night. Your stomach will sort itself out when you have got control of your small intestine (although if you've got gastritis you'll need to finish a course of omeprazole first), and then your large intestine will improve later as nutrients are more efficiently absorbed from your small intestine. Eat a good breakfast at say 7am (a big bowl of porridge with lactose free milk or almond milk) and then a good lunch at 12 o'clock - absolutely NO FOOD in between. After lunch, no food again for at least 5 hours, and eat well again for your evening meal because it has got to get you through the night. No supper or snacks, no food or milk at all until breakfast the next day. In general, do not eat fried or roasted starches, i.e. crisps, chips, roast veg or fried rice. The high temperature that gives the lovely crispy bits, makes complex polymers that are very difficult to digest, they feed the bacteria and make you ill. Starches should only be boiled, and this is enough. You will feel hunger in the fasting periods, but you must not respond to it - only with water and drinks - not fizzy drinks or milk. Importantly, when you are feeling better, do not resort to your old ways, you are still recovering, and you need to make a life-style change to have this level of discipline in your eating and continue with it. Start doing some exercise if you don’t already, as this will also help with your gut motility. Your intestines take time to fully recover, it takes a few weeks at least, and you need to persevere. You then need to maintain a healthy and consistent way of eating and always keep the vitamins topped up all the time to prevent you from relapsing. There is a lot of support for L-glutamine to help with nutrition specifically for your intestinal lining, this means buying 500g of the bodybuilder powder type and having a couple of tea-spoons of this a day, one before breakfast and one just before you go to bed, and you can have this in a light cordial drink. A lot of this was taken from this GENIUS paper below, but it does fit exactly with what I have experienced, and for the first time I really feel in control of something that has been a burden for years, but is not longer. Good luck.

Treatment and Management of SIBO — Taking a Dietary Approach Can Control Intestinal Fermentation and Inflammation

By Aglaée Jacob, MS, RD

Today’s Dietitian

December 2012, Vol. 14 No. 12 P. 16

[Dolphin-991]

Thanks for taking the time to explain all of that to me. It does make sense. I feel at a loss at the moment. I have been gluten free for over a week now and the first week really improved my symtpoms. I thought I had hit the nail on the head, yet the last 3 days I have gone back to same old symptoms. So now I'm super confused and worried that I'm never going to find out what's wrong. I am getting extremely fed up with it all now. I feel lonely and I'm sick of feeling so ill every day. I cant make plans because I never know how I'm going to feel that day. I cant have any time off sick because I dont get sick pay. So I'm forced to just act normal all day at work when I feel completely awful. I never knew this issue would take over my life so much. It makes sense about the fasting. I do snack a lot at work so maybe I need to cut that down. Even though it's mostly fruit etc I'm probably still eating more than I need to or should. The tablets that seemed like they were helping dont seem to be helping anymore either