Who else is gluten-free?

[ZennaBug]

I have struggled with digestion woes and stomach pain for as long as I can remember.  As a kid, I often had to get up mid-meal and rush to the bathroom and would be stuck in there for up to 30 minutes.  My dad thought it was rude, my sister thought it was hilarious, and my mom thought it was just how my tummy was (she has a touchy stomach too, so didn't think it was all that unusual).  I've been to the ER twice in my life for excruciating abdominal pain, both times so bad that I was barely able to stay conscious.  The doctors were afraid that I had appendicitis, but nothing ever came of it.

Then, this fall, I had some old friends over for dinner and they warned me that they were gluten-free.  I figured out what I could cook for them and asked them why they switched.  Both had been diagnosed with Celiac's and as I listened to them describe their pain from before the diagnosis, I started to get a thought that wouldn't go away.  A few weeks later, I had my annual physical at the doctor and asked them to run a blood panel to test for food allergies - specifically gluten.  A couple days later, they called and said that I came up positive on a Celiac's panel.  I've heard stories about people who try for years to get a diagnosis, I feel so lucky to have a doctor who listens to my concerns and puts her faith in how well her patients know their own bodies.

The first couple days after were tough, I was mad and grieving the loss of my beloved breads and pastas.  But once I started to get the hang of things, it became easier.  After one month of cutting out gluten cold-turkey, I decided to test and see if I could eat just a little.  It was really bad.  So now, I hardly even crave it at all.  When I smell bread, I automatically cringe away from it, because I know exactly what will happen to me if I cave.

I know I'm not the only other person here who is gluten-free *pokes Stomper* and I can think of at least two other Celiac members, just off the top of my head.  So come on in!  Share your stories, your struggles, and most importantly... YOUR RECIPES! 

I adore Pinterest and keep many of the recipes I love or ones that I want to try in there.  My food board is 100% gluten-free friendly, with recipes that are already safe and ones that would be easy to convert.  http://pinterest.com/zennabug/food-and-drink/

[pinkkittywinks]

i think you already know i am celiac

some of the recipies on your pintrest look amazing!

love pkw xxx

[Eviecorn]

My baby's daddy is gluten intolerant but not Celiac.  I need to get you some recipes - they're meatless (as both of us are) but totally satisfying.

[ZennaBug]

*snuggles PKW*  Thank you again for all the encouragement when I first found out, I was so upset and it really helped.  I feel awesome now! 

Evie, any recipes you would like to pass along would be great!    Vegetarian dishes are just fine, I cook meatless all the time.

[Ren-Ren]

I'm currently dropping weight with a lchf eating plan, and am, in conjunction, experimenting with gluten/grain-free as well. So far this winter I haven't had any of the joint pain that I usually do when it is cold and I think it is due to my severely decreased wheat intake (though the intensity of my joint pain varies from year to year so I can't be 100% sure).

[ZennaBug]

That is probably a big part.  I really didn't want to believe that wheat was bad before, but I keep reading about all the bizarre and nasty side effects that come along with it.  I can't really say whether or not my joint pain has improved BECAUSE of going GF, since I also had two major hip surgeries this year to fix the damage, but I am feeling a lot more mobile that I had in the past.  I'm glad you're feeling better!  Good luck with the weight loss. 

[Katgyrl]

Thanks for starting this topic, zennabug!

I too grew up with constant stomach issues (though not as bad as your by the sound of it!). Sometimes I would just feel so sick that I had no appetite even though I knew I needed to eat! I just thought that's how my stomach was. It wasn't until almost three years ago, when I moved back to Seattle, I remember laying down in bed on my stomach and feeling like there was a big lump inside, which I later found out was my bloated stomach! It was like that for so long I finally went to a specialist and they did a endoscopy and thankfully celiac was specifically one of the things they were looking/testing for and I came back postive. Which is pretty ironic because my sister has been lactose intollerant for most of her life and I remember always thinking "I'm so glad I don't have a dietary restriction, that would be so aweful!" and now here I am! It was doubly hard when I was diagnosed because I got pregnant with my third right after and so I was SO nauseous but couldn't eat all the usual bread and crackers and such (and I didn't yet know about all the good substitutes out there). I remember being really upset, but now it's gotten a lot easier, especially since I discovered Udi's bread! It was also a blessing in disguise, because since I was diagnosed I was able to learn a lot and figured out that my daughter (2 at the time and constantly throwing up) was probably also celiac. Now our whole family eats gluten free, and my daughter and I have been feeling so much better! Now if I could only get my baby to sleep through the night...

I actually started a blog, just recently (only two posts on it) to try to do some "ratings" and comparisons of gluten free products out there, flour mixes and cake mixes and prebaked cookies and such - convenience foods. I thought that would have been helpful when I was new to know which brands and which products were good and such. And it also is helping me expand what I have been using and try new products! If anyone's interested it's here:
http://iggymamaglutenfree.blogspot.com/
I have to warn you though, my three young kids keep me busy so I don't post super often! But I'd love it if other gluten free people wanted to comment on the products I rate! It's always good to get more people's perspectives!

I'd love to hear what everyone's favorite gluten free goodie or most used mix is out there! My absolute favorite is Pamela's biscuit and pancake mix. I LOVE it, the flavor, the texture, everything! I use it for everything like an all purpose flour basically, and I love that they have loads of different recipes on the back.

[fiwen30]

Another coeliac here! *waves* I was diagnosed via endoscopy...3.5(?) years ago when I was 18. I'd always been a very slim teenager, but then my abdomen bloated to a simply emormous size and I looked 5 months pregnant!

I've been gluten-free ever since, and have long since learnt my limits with small gluten-y morsels - half a slice of sandwich bread ever month or so is alright, but a tiny corner of tiger bread is very, very bad.

I don't crave bread anymore, there's enough g-f solutions for that, but stuff like fresh cookies and cakes are really hard to get unless you make them yourself. I've a great recipe for winter biscuits that I'll have to dig out and post

[Pheasant]

I do not have Celiac, but I've been living on a gluten-free diet for nearly six months now, and it's changed my life in a positive fashion!

Until recently, my stomach used to tolerate wheat; but several months ago I ended up having to run to the bathroom after nearly every meal. At first, both my mother and I thought it was due to red meat, because that has a tendency to run right through me. Soon, though, we realized that I was having to always use the bathroom regardless of whether or not I ate red meat. I'm a ballet dancer, and I began having terrible pains in my right knee, which was affecting my dancing - and, of top of this, I'd also had acne since I was seven. It was around that time that my father ran across a book called Wheat Belly, written by Dr. William Davis. Intrigued, he read it. The book discusses a relation between weight gain, joint pain, digestive problems, minor rashes and wheat.

My parents decided to attempt a wheat-free/gluten free diet to see if Dr. Davis' research proved to be true, and it did. We all lost excess weight; our joint pains; digestive issues; and my brothers and I all lost our acne. What a difference it made!

I'll be editing this post shortly to include my family's favorite products, too!

[Zombelina]

Me too!  Thank you for this topic!

I was diagnosed with celiac disease last summer, went gluten-free immediately and I feel SO much better now! Still not 100% great, but I know it can take a while to heal, and for you body to get fully gluten-free (so much ninja gluten in things causing flareups!). I do still want cookies and cakes and things on occasion, but not nearly as much lately--it's like you said, ZennaBug, you don't really crave things when you know how sick they'll make you.

And I now know that I was seriously sick and malnourished because of celiac for at least 5 years before I was actually diagnosed. I was very good at convincing myself that I was just being a wimp and wasn't actually sick (I had constant headaches, joint/muscle pain, severe stabbing abdominal pains, nausea, zero energy, exhausted all the time, worsening depression, on and on...) when I was sick. Very sick. 

And it still upsets me that my doctor never thought to test me for celiac. (I was diagnosed by a different doctor.) My doctor just told me I was low on Vitamin D and iron and to take supplements and exercise, and thought I was just not remembering to take them and being lazy, when my levels never rose and I felt WORSE. Well, they never rose because the parts of the intestines that absorb nutrients were so damaged by the celiac disease that I was not actually getting much nourishment at ALL from anything I was eating.  (Yeah, big surprise I felt like dying after I exercised.)

I wish the celiac blood panel was a standard/common test because I'm sure there are so many people out there suffering needlessly! Wheat/gluten isn't evil for everybody of course but for some of us it's seriously right up there with poison! I feel terrible for all the people whose doctors don't know to just order that simple blood test.  I lost a lot of years of my life because of it.

Happier note... I like Udi's bread too! And everything made by Pamela's that I've tried has been good! (Cookies and cake mixes especially--and I have Rhini right here on the Arena to thank for introducing me to Pamela's! She sent me GF cookies last summer when I was diagnosed and it was the sweetest thing ever--I you Rhini ) I also love Kinnikinnick products, but they are made in Edmonton so I'm not sure if they're available outside Canada? And Mrs Crimble's crisps and crackers are really good--I find those at Canadian Safeway.

*snuggles fellow celiacs/GF peeps*

[kaoskat]

Not me. I'm not sure I could handle it if I had to be.

[zabe77]

ME! After 10 years of pain I was finally diagnosed when I  moved to Australia, SO GLAD we moved there, my Dr's here had me with all sorts of misdianosees, it was literally killing me.

I was upset over the loss of favorite foods but so glad to have my health back. Over time, I find I 'm forgetting more and more the awesomeness that was gluten-foods and like what I'm eating. I'm now planning on trying to make my own bread, as Udi's is the only brand I've found to be bread-like but it's expensive...

Glad* to meet other celiacs, I'll be following your blogs/pins!  As for recipies, I mostly substitute and use all-purpose GF Flour (which I've found is not all created equal, the stuff I used in Australia was SO much better than what I have now that I'm back home), the hardest was pancakes as the GF's tasted terrible... then I figured out that a 1/2tsp of xanthan gum was all I needed to make them the right consistency and they were yummy again!

*yet sad for our condition

[ZennaBug]

Wow, more Celiac and GF ponies than I even knew!  to everyone!  I'm horrified that it took some of you so long before a doctor would test you, I literally only had to wait a few weeks for my appointment (which was already set before I started to wonder) and then 48 hours after the blood was taken for my results.  I didn't realize until recently that so many people have a hard time getting a diagnosis.  I have always liked my doctor, but I think I appreciate her more now. 

As for Udi's, they're actually local to my city, so I can find the bread really easily at any regular grocery store, plus they have a cafe that I've been meaning to visit.  We actually have a lot of GF-friendly places near here, burger places that offer GF buns with no extra charge, lettuce wrapping, an amazing breakfast place with GF waffles, pancakes, and French toast... Denver is really Celiac friendly. 

[SourdoughStomper]

I'm not "gluten-free" (as it's widely understood) as that gives an inaccurate impression.

It's not just gluten I want to avoid, but also gliadin. Gliadin is a very effective appetite stimulant. I avoid Amylopectin A, which is the highly-digestible carbohydrate that accounts for wheat's high-glycemic index and ability to increase blood sugar higher than table sugar or candy. (Two slices of whole wheat bread raise blood sugar higher than 6 teaspoons of table sugar.)

I avoid lectins. Wheat lectin is resistant to digestion in the human intestinal tract, is the protein that “unlocks” the normal intestinal barriers to foreign substances. It allows food that enters your mouth to go into your bloodstream that ought not have access. You get conditions like inflammation, leaky gut and autoimmune diseases.

I am completely grain-free as that's more encompassing and accurate. I avoid prepackaged "gluten-free" foods found at the grocery store. They've replaced the wheat with other grains and starches and causes high blood sugar spikes just as bad (or worse) than wheat does.

I also avoid rice, corn, beans, sugars and starches (including potato starch, tapioca starch, rice starch and corn starch). All these things just turn to sugar in the body and puts the pancreas into panic mode. The pancreas can only send out so much insulin to store the blood glucose before it burns out and you get diabetes. The insulin also "guards" the stored glucose to keep it from "escaping", and it causes one to stay fat.

(See the links to Wheat Belly and Why We Get Fat in my siggy if you want to learn more.)

I am so convinced of the destructive nature of modern franken-wheat that I think those who have developed Celiac disease are like the canaries in the mine shaft. They are more sensitive to its destructive nature and succumbed first. I think everyone has a wheat allergy to one degree or another and everyone would benefit from eliminating it altogether.

Being wheat-free is like discovering the fountain of youth! @ other wheat-free folks.

Okay, there's my soapbox speech.

I'll also plug the Wheat Belly cookbook that recently came out. I have made just one recipe so far, but I look forward to making more.

EDIT: here's a link to my Pinterest - lots of grain-free, sugar-free and wheat-free recipes. Again, one of these days I'll make them but I'm kind of waiting for Mr. Stomper to be employed first so I can go nuts with buying all the ingredients.

http://pinterest.com/sonoranarizonan/wheat-belly/

[fingerpaints]

I am allergic to milk, wheat, yeast & cheese, which is pretty much a lactose intollerant celiac. I was diagnosed with these allergies as a child, but haven't really looked after them for YEARS. However, the last 3 months or so due to constant migraine headaches, I decided to cut it all out and see how I went for a few weeks.

I didn't even realise the other issues that I had, and alot of my weight issues also come from the food I have been eating. I had a constant cramp in my tummy, constipation, irritable bowel, hives, my skin was all itchy and red all the time, migraines every few days, and a mirrage of other smaller issues as well.

I have been experimenting in the kitchen with making things that I can have, and as most of you would know, bread I think is the hardest thing to give up. I have, however, made my own recipe for a flat bread (you can't cook without wheat flour & yeast to get anything that slightly resembles bread in my book with a loaf) and I will share it with you all It works well as a pizza base, bun, or just bread to put something on top of like regular bread.

What you need is a gluten free self raising flour, I use "Organ" brand, and it works well for me, but I assume others would do the same job. Here is a pic of it below -

visitors can't see pics , please register or login


All the other ingriedients needed are a pinch of salt, some oil (I use olive oil, but any cooking oil will do) and some water.

In a food processor, or in a bowl, whatever your choosing, put 1/2 cup of gluten free self raising flour, 1/4 cup of water, a pinch of salt & a drizzle of oil. Whizz it up until it forms a ball in the processor (add a little extra oil if it hasn't formed a ball within a minute or so) or mix by hand (I use disposable gloves to avoid it sticking to my hands) until a soft dough is formed.

In a frying pan, add a drizzle of oil and get pan up to a medium or so heat. Flatten out bread like you are going to use it as a pizza base & cook in pan until underside has some brown spots on it (remember, wheat free flour doesn't brown like wheat flour) turn and cook other side.

I have used this for many different things from burgers (you can cut it in half or if you can be bothered, cook half & half of the dough seperately) pizza, to top with tomato or other fresh ingriedients, or with a bit of margarine and jam. It's really yummy and I am sure it will help curve the bread cravings.

This recipe will serve one, if you want more, just double / tripple etc the recipe for extra.

I would suggest to cook it as you need it as well, as wheat free bread doesn't hold up too well. If you aren't going to consume it in the next hour, hold off cooking until you are ready to eat.