Going gluten free. Any tips or pitfalls to look out for?

[Tailfeather]

Having struggled with my underactive thyroid for years it has been recommended here that I try a gluten-free diet. I started today! So I obviously know the really obvious culprits - bread, pasta, cakes, biscuits etc that are made with wheat flour. But have you found any products you were surprised to find that they contained gluten? And any tips or advice greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Barley/Barley Malt is in lots of stuff, like Vimto, some crisps and some hot chocolates etc. Lots of people think couscous is gluten free but it’s not. Check out multi vitamins etc. Wheat free doesn’t equal gluten free so things like rye or spelt bread don’t contain wheat but do contain gluten. Cafe Nero do wheat free cakes that aren’t gluten free. You’ll need to eat gluten free oats as some oats contain gluten. Be prepared that you will probably gain quite a bit of weight especially if you are eating gluten free bread/cakes/shop bought free from stuff as gluten free products are loaded with more fat and sugar. Try to stick to naturally gluten free foods such as vegetables, fruit and meat/fish/poultry and avoid the free from aisle as much as possible!

Soy sauce - you can substitute with gluten free Tamari, but it means that Chinese food (and many other Asian foods) is now your most difficult takeaway!

Go to M and S and eat all the many many GF goodies they have whenever needed.

Good luck x

My husband is ceoliac after diagnosis last year the most striking thing is the cost of specific gf items. Most of the supermarkets are doing their own ranges I think Asda are probably best.

Eating out is definitely harder as we have the worry of cross contamination and eating on the go can be too.

We have an app from the coeliac society you can use to scan barcodes and it's comes up safe or not (though it's easy enough to read labels)

Oh and pretty much all the bread is ghastly

There's a new one called juvelo (I think) which dh has found to be the best so far

You won't gain weight if you take the opportunity to eat differently. More pulses instead of carbs.

Lunch is the hardest meal of the day when gf. In winter I tend to rely on ready made soup with a tin of pulses added. Maybe some cheese on top.

Try to eat "natural" - don't buy special gluten free breads which are packed with weird stuff to substitute for the gluten and can affect your digestion in unhelpful ways. Get your carbs from oats, rice, potatoes etc instead.

Lots of crisps and chocolates/sweets contain gluten annoyingly. Also soups, some yoghurts etc. Coeliac UK have a gluten free food checker app -you can scan barcodes of products in certain supermarkets and it will tell you if they contain gluten.
www.coeliac.org.uk/gluten-free-diet-and-lifestyle/gluten-free-food-checker-app/

Agree that you are better off avoiding substitute cakes, bread and biscuits etc. For example, have potatoes instead of pasta with bolognese. Do you usually cook from scratch? Much easier that way. The one I found most surprising is gluten in soya sauce, as mentioned upthread. Oh! You could make flapjack with gluten free oats if you want something sweet.

And if you want cake, try making this: www.nigella.com/recipes/lemon-polenta-cake

My dd is recently diagnosed as gluten free and finding good stuff has been a bit trial and error. Ocado are good, they have their own stuff which she’s mostly liked, especially their ‘gold’ cookies which are delicious. But all the supermarkets have decent ranges, M&S are good - dd was delighted to see a chicken and mushroom pie.

Gravy was a surprise as was the variance in items from the same brand for instance, dairy milk bars ‘may contain gluten’, twirls fine. I guess it’s different production lines?

As pp said things are expensive and bread slices are small?!

Eating out, cross contamination at dominos which was bad, especially as the small pizza was more expensive than a large! Good places we’ve been to are Wagamama, Nando’s, pizza express, carluccios. Our local chippie does gf twice a week and a local, independent burger place does gf buns.

It’s been a big change for us as dd has always eaten absolutely everything from being tiny but she’s been great.

Good luck, it’s doable but takes a bit of effort. We’re off on holiday today for the first time since she was diagnosed so we shall see how we get on!

I'm on week 1 completed for similar reasons. I am eating as much "whole food" as possible.

Quinoa is good in salad. For winter I'm guessing soup will be my go to lunch or left overs. Having "lasagne" tonight made with layers of courgette and tomato instead of pasta sheets.

Malt vinegar contains gluten, as does most soy sauces. I see a pp has already mentioned that.

I agree with the pp - go for naturally gluten free foods rather than the subsitutes. Most supermarkets are good at labelling these days so will have allergens in bold. If you google paleo diet you’ll get loads of ideas as that way of eating avoids gluten even if you don’t agree with the principle behind it.

Lots of pre-prepared foods and sauces use flour as a thickener. Crisp flavourings often contain it too. The only thing you can do is get used to reading cereal packets very closely!

Cereal packets? Where did that come from. It should say food packaging.

Nothing to add to this but following as I've literally just been diagnosed with CD. Definitely agree with PP to avoid the free from aisle - most things are a bit of a rip off.

I've ordered some stuff from Doves Farm - bread mix, sponge mix and lentil pasta. I'm no baker and I've heard the gf bread etc is crap so I'm going to have to learn! God help my family and workmates 😀

Most Salt n vinegar crisps.
Soy sauce, this made me really poorly a few times before I realised.

Oxo cubes.

Easiest way to do it is avoid spending a fortune on highly processed very expensive GF supermarket crap and cook as much as you can yourself from scratch. If you base your meals round rice and potatoes rather than bread and pasta you're halfway there. A Sunday roast is GF if you avoid Yorkshire puddings and make your gravy the traditional way with cornflour.

The key to this is reading the ingredient labels on everything.

I found going GF really helped me but I believe what was really causing my problems was low stomach acid making it hard to digest properly caused by the under active thyroid. I ended up going off piste with thyroid treatment as the NHS kept telling me there was nothing wrong when I was almost on my knees. Since I function properly again like a normal person all my digestive related problems have gone.

I buy gluten free soy sauce and flour so I can make my own sauces, so many have wheat in.

At least products are well explained in terms of ingrediants now.

I buy the gf bread when its on offer and freeze it, taking slices for toast when required. Otherwise i dont eat bread.

Ive been gf for just over a year. Im intolerant and sometimes give in, but my aches/pains return. Its weird.

Sausages etc often contain wheat.

Most Tesco finest sausages are gf, as are Heck sausages.

I think sausages did, traditionally, but more and more are now gf. Check the packaging.

“Check the packaging” is why I mentioned sausages. If you don’t think to check you won’t know. The Waitrose standard ones I have in the freezer contain wheat for example.

Gf housemate likes shopping at 9pm when the bakery stuff and other aisles is hugely reduced and that includes loads of gf food. Stocks the freezer. Apparently the gf ready meals mostly aren't great but can be handy.

Gluten free oats may still cause you upset so watch out for that.