If you are gluten free, how do you avoid extreme UPF?

[ToastyBreads]

Listening to Ultra Processed People on audible (late to the party, I know). I have always known gluten free alternatives are not great health wise but things like xanthum gum that I use in baking had never really occurred to me until now. And I’m just thinking how awful gf bread, wraps, pastas are. If you are gluten free and try and avoid UPF, what do you eat?

DH is g/f and generally has never really eaten much prepared foods. G/f used to be expensive and a lot of it was awful.

He's protein heavy as a result, uses cornflour for milk based sauces, eats more rice, potato, beans like chickpeas. There are a lot of good g/f pastas now though so we have a pasta dish weekly. Seasoning is important especially if you want to avoid stock cubes.

@AgnesX thank you. What sort of things would he have for a packed lunch for example? Dinners I find easy but snacks and lunches that aren’t GF UPF seem really tricky. Also rethinking all my baking now with no xanthum!

He eats quinoa or rice based concoctions with veg, cheese, chickpeas...like fried rice but baked. Soup, rice cakes, crisps, oatcakes, cold meats (there are g/f ones). Protein yoghurts and fruit. It's hard when you fancy junk and your default is a sandwich.

He/we don't really focus on actively avoiding UPF, we just avoid allergens. I guess it's old school home cooking in the evening. Last night we had risotto, tonight its pork and apple casserole, leftovers go to work to be heated so it helps if you have access to a microwave!

Simon Rimmer has a couple of g/f cookbooks if you're struggling.

A lot of potato.

Tbh I try to reduce upf and choose healthier options when they're feasible but some of the Facebook groups are ridiculous. I'd love to track the people on them and see if they are maintaining their stance in 3 years.

I'd say do what you can but allergies etc make upf far more challenging so don't be hard on yourself. Life is shit enough being gluten free.

@Sofabum very true! I just wish the gf equivalents weren’t quite so full of “stuff” - I have had a slice of gf bread open before as an experiment and it was two months before it went mouldy! It’s just tricky to think of quick alternatives.
thanks @AgnesX

Remember rice and pasta are gluten free. If you mostly eat foods that naturally contain no gluten, I wouldn't feel bad about a few treats. I'm meant to be eliminating gluten but find that I'm ok if I cut down to the minimum.

Pasta is gluten free?

I really hope you aren't cooking for a coeliac.

I eat quite a lot of oat cakes with stuff like hummus and guacamole and soup and omelettes and jacket potatoes with tuna mayo and cheese etc

Coeliac here. Usual pasta is most definitely not gluten free!! 🙄🤨

I just avoid bread completely (Genius brioche buns are ok as a last resort), and choose the gf pasta in Sainsbury's, and maybe the gf chocolate digestives.

I don't do a great deal of baking, but I make cakes with gf flour and they come out fine. A bit flat maybe, but still as nice as 'normal' cakes. Tbh I forgot about xantham gum and just went ahead and baked without it and have never felt the need to use it.

My favourite meal is a Sunday dinner, and everything that goes into that is naturally gluten free, and I use gf Bisto for the gravy.

I don't find it much of a problem at all and am glad I have stuck to a gf diet for almost a year now, I feel so much better.

Xanthan gum is my treat because it really does make baking better.

For the rest, as pp I try and eat things that would be GF anyway as much as possible.

There are some good GF cooks on insta. I’d think their GF wraps are pretty low in UPFs. Look at Loopy Whisk and Gluten Free Alchemist. They’re quite impressive IMHO.

I think the trick is to not look for GF substitutes for bread, pancakes, cake etc, and just eat differently.

We have

• Loads of veg (esp corn on cob, raw carrots, raw spinch, etc) and fruit
• lots of protein esp nuts and seeds but also much fish and chicken
• rice or Garofalo pasta (no xanthan gum) or occasionally potato

We also don’t react very well to the ‘nightshade’ group which often goes together with GF issues so watch out for paprika, tomatoes, peppers, some potatoes…

DD is gf by necessity and vegetarian by choice. She basically makes everything from scratch. She will occasionally have gf pasta but as she may also be having issues caused by things like emulsifiers as well as the gluten, she doesn’t touch the gf alternatives for bread, wraps etc anymore. She makes her own cakes and is trialling bread but bread is hard to do well with no gluten! She has a few good cook books for vegetarian/vegan/gf recipes and generally makes extra for dinner each evening so that she can have leftovers for lunch the following day. Not many quick meals or eating out for her anymore.

There are lots of unprocessed, home cooked meals that are naturally gluten free, or very easy to make gluten free:

• cottage pie
• stews
• Sunday roast
• Indian curry & rice
• thai curry & rice
• stir fry & rice
• fish pie
• chili con carne
• steak, chips, salad
• various soups

I eats a lot of potato and rice.

I tend to buy and eat a lot of fruit and veg and fill up on them. I occasionally have a UPF that is gf but ultimately they just are not to my taste now as my taste buds have just changed.

I’m coeliac and I eat no UPFs at all.

I eat meat, fish, vegetables, full fat greek yogurt mainly.

I sometimes eat lentils, rice and potatoes. I make lots of amazing Indian food from scratch.

I don’t eat sugar, gave it up a couple of years ago and don’t crave it at all. I don’t eat any gf alternatives at all, so no cakes/biscuits/pasta/bread etc.

Buckwheat bread is nice toasted. Plenty of recipes online how to make it but basically it's raw groats ,fermented,blitzed and seeds etc added then baked. I do two small ones in the airfryer & wrap in wax paper & store in the fridge.

Buckwheat flour is also very nice for pancakes. I use 1 cup Buckwheat flour mixed with 1 egg then whisk in 1 cup milk. Add small amount of water to thin. Really nice with grated cheese in it.

Jamie Oliver does a good gluten free bread recipe

Eat leftover dinner for lunch rather than sandwiches etc. Saves lots of time and energy

I'm gf and just tend to avoid flour replacements. I'm also low carb so will tend to have meat, veg, nuts and a bit of fruit rather than potatoes, rice etc.. at least half the week.

Sometimes I miss a bit of crunch so will have a gf cracker.

Lunch = soups, egg mayonnaise with rocket ( I use hunter gather mayo), salad with cheese and nuts and a bit of dark chocolate, crustless quiche.

I’ve never used xantham gum in gluten free baking. I sub normal flour for gluten free and then up the liquid content so that the batter is much more runny than normal - I judge by eye and use less liquid if I’m doing one with fruit in etc.

We make gluten free bread in the bread maker. It’s pretty good to be honest! Not quite the same as normal bread but better than the processed stuff. It doesn’t have lots of processed stuff in it.

Oh and as for lunches on the go, hummus, veg sticks, cheese and cold meats are the easiest.

Or I will roast a chicken and have chicken mayo (I make my own mayo), with veg sticks, olives.

Please, PLEASE point me in the direction of this pasta. I love pasta. I miss it. All the ones I've tried have been gloopy, stodgy rankness.