So I have Hashimotos

[Bexs1]

Hi I have been advised I have Hashimotos and that I need to start going gluten free. Any good gluten free products I can try? Or any easy and affordable gluten free recipes? We are on a low income. Thank you

[crimple]

try to cook from scratch, gluten is in so many manufactured items. GF porridge oats, supermarket own and Morrisons do their own brand GF bread which is quite reasonable. Rice, different types of beans, plenty of veg,. supermarket own brand pasta. Doves farm do GF flour to make sauces, pancakes, biscuits and cakes. A lot of manufactured GF foods/meals contain too much sugar, fat etc. I make soup in winter for lunch. Coeliac society have an app showing which foods contain gluten

[SAUK]

Hi Bexs

Welcome to the forum!

Gluten free is actually a lot easier and cheaper than you think!

I was quite anti-gluten free, because I was scared of the cost, but it really helps a lot!

The key for me was to prep. meals in advance and shop around.

Main gluten free foods that are cheap are: potatoes; rice; sweet potato; coconut flour; oat's (some may be prep. in wheat or barley factories, but unless you are coeliac, the little trace of this should not affect you); Quinoa; Buckwheat.

I would suggest don't go straight to the gluten free section- shop around the normal shelves/ international self section- you will find a whole lot more options than you knew about before!

Meat and Veg are also gluten free! NB to look for goitrogenic fruit and veg!

Good luck

[Farrugia]

Hi Bexs1 - I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's in October and went gluten free then. The first few days are really tough as you have a kind of withdrawal - I found myself almost crying outside the cornish pasty shop at about 8.30 am and I don't even like cornish pasties! I think it's worth doing a bit of advance planning so you have some substitutes ready to hand for when you get the cravings. They did seem to calm down after about a week. If you enjoy cooking I found Naomi Devlin's gluten free book for River Cottage really helpful as well as her Food for a Happy Gut. I got both from my local library (I had to order them) so that I could see what I thought of them before buying them.

amazon.co.uk/Naomi-Devlin/e...

I don't like a lot of the gluten free substitute foods you can buy but I do like brown rice pasta (I prefer the taste to pasta made from corn or lentils) - once you get the sauce on you hardly notice the difference though I find you have to cook it for longer. Good luck with it

[EbonyEvans in reply to Farrugia]

Hi Farrugia,

I found Sainsbury’s now has an alternative gf range. I have pea pasta spirals. And a few others from foreign countries. I make an effort to pop into European pharmacies as that where I often find gf pastas. I’ve got a stunning beetroot red fusilli that I’ve yet to try and also there was an orange on also in Sainsbury’s and it was a small high street branch. As a fellow pasta lover I thought I’d mention this to you. I’ve yet to find a substitute for Udon noodles which have wheat in them 🤦🏾‍♀️

[Josiesmum]

Worth weaning off gradually over a couple of weeks so it's not such a shock to your system. Make sure you eat lots of fibre to replace fibre from wheat. I agree with others, cooking from scratch is best. Lots of veg like parsnips, swede, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots etc, and beans and pulses are inexpensive.

[Baobabs]

Personally I have found having no bread/ gluten free substitutes beneficial for several reasons. Commercial gluten free bread/pastry substitutes are expensive, tend to have empty calories and still contain grains of some sort that many say are best avoided altogether. Although no bread/pastry rule was rather cold turkey initially, I now live without happily unless I smell hot fresh bread and then it’s a different story. For me, grains can be easily substituted with nutrient dense foods such as meat, fish, fruit and veg. I have been known to succumb to brown rice pasta. The texture is light, very good and can be eaten cold. I eat lots of filling root veg such as sweet pots and roasted parsnips. I no longer bother with potatoes. There are already lots of good tips and ideas offered to your post. Hope this helps!

[Fruitandnutcase]

I just went straight for it. I had already catered for a couple of GF people and when I did that I just made everything GF so I was used to doing it. It takes a bit of plann8ng to begin with.

Good basic food is gluten free, my stand by was shepherds pie. I just thicken with cornflour or I buy a GF gravy mix from Tesco .

You will find loads of information and recipes online. There are hundreds of gluten free websites and recipe books if you want them. I joined CoeliacUK because they produce a handbook of all GF foods that are available, they also have a good website for ideas and recipes and a magazine.

I don’t eat much from the free from aisles - I find the bread too sweet and I don’t eat much bread anyway, although the free from stuff can be handy but junk food is still junk food even if it’s GF. What puts me off (and not just off free from stuff) is a list of chemical ingredients. If I can’t pronounce it, I don’t eat it and if I’m too lazy to bake a cake then I don’t have it.

I found having a quick snack when I was out the most difficult thing. In the end I used to grab a pack of cooked chicken or a cooked chicken thigh or breast and nibble on that. Nuts or fruit are other quick on the move options. My GF is combined with low carb, high fat LCHF which narrowed my snack options down even more.

Read the labels on absolutely everything, it’s amazing how gluten can crop up in the weirdest places - a handy size tube of mixed nuts in M&S for goodness sake. I mean who needs to put wheat in a tub of nuts?

I went GF three years ago to see if I could reduce my thyroid antibodies - I’ve got Graves Disease - it was only going to be an experiment for three months but my thyroid antibodies reduced so much I never went back to eating gluten. I knew what was happening because I used a home finger prick test every three months or so.

You have got to be totally gluten free though - there is no such thing as almost gluten free. You either are GF or you aren’t.

Give it a good try, you won’t regret it.

[Kimmie4 in reply to Fruitandnutcase]

Hi there Fruitandnutcase, what is the finger prick test you speak of? Thanks!

[Treepie]

Being gluten free seems to help many with Hashimotos but not all. I am not gluten free but to be fair I have not tried.

[EbonyEvans]

This website helps for shopping:

Scan Gluten Free UK App for Iphone - Enjoy Gluten Free Livingitunes.apple.com/us/app/sca...

There’s an alternative for android cell phones.