If you’re wheat free, would you tell me what you live on?

[TeapotCollection]

Please 🙂 I’ve got to do 2 weeks without anything with any kind of wheat in and would really appreciate some help

Other grains; you could eat rye bread, or commercially produced GF/wheat free bread, although that is expensive and often not very nice. There are lots of pasta versions without wheat. You could have porridge for breakfast, or, if you must, rice crispies or cornflakes. You can make pancakes or wraps with gram (chickpea) flour, which you can find in the world foods aisle of bigger supermarkets, or in Asian shops. Sadly you can't sub pastry with anything that works well but you can buy GF biscuits - and most chocolate is GF!

meals that usualy have rice or spuds if you don’t want to go for gf pasta. Chocolate rice cakes for snacks. For breakfast I usually have fruit, Greek yoghurt and seeds but gf toast is ok too (Promise or Genius), or porridge.

It will be fine. Just get gluten free items.

Oats! Try Scottish oatcakes for breakfast. Nairns do guaranteed gluten free ones. Have with honey, cheese or banana. Their gluten free Oaties biscuits are also nice as a treat - like hobnobs.

Personally I wouldn’t bother with the bread alternatives - they’re all rank. The only palatable thing I’ve ever found in the bread type category is warburton’s gluten free soft pittas and then only if toasted. Good for lunch with fillings. Otherwise you’re looking at baked potatoes, gluten free soups, salad for lunch.

In terms of carbs/ dinner, you’ll probably need to avoid pasta - gluten free is available but I’ve never been keen. Rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes are good.

Otherwise it’s not that hard. If eating processed stuff, you will need to check labels carefully. Good luck.

For breads I like the warburton gf loafs and schar for things like paninis and buns, tesco pasta selection is good, for naturally gluten free carb bases, I eat a lot of buckwheat, rice, and potatoes

Nothing. Food without wheat is literally everything else. I don’t have any grains, cereals or starches in my diet.

So I eat everything else. Vegetables, in season berries, meat, eggs, dairy. I don’t eat any processed food just by virtue of avoiding grains and cereals so it’s much healthier.

It does take time to adjust to finding difference way of eating, it just takes planning rather than being able to grab a sandwich on the go but it’s not impossible.

My equivalent is going into a deli and getting a carton/tub of sandwich filler so egg salad /chicken and cheese with salad etc. But it’s rare I need to do that because I don’t get hungry much anymore after cutting out the grains and cereals.

Edited to add that we occasionally buy Dillon Organic keto bread which is like the dark Nordic breads and is really nice.

I’m not totally wheat-free but often eat that way as I’m intolerant.

For breakfast a protein yoghurt with berries and seeds. You could add nut butter.

Lunch a soup (usually with some kind of protein in it) with Nairn’s gf cheese crackers or Schar’s Salti crackers. If you must buy gluten-free bread I think M&S is the best.

Dinner something like chilli or curry with rice, or chicken/salmon with new potatoes and veg. Gluten-free pasta isn’t bad if you want that.

Snacks dried fruit, potato crisps, banana.

Assuming you actually mean wheat free (and not gluten), replace wheaty carbs with...
Rye bread (check it's not mixed with wheat)
Potatoes
Oats
Rice
Some noodles, usually rice noodles
Quinoa

Breakfast
Overnight oats
Porridge
Toast (gf/wheat free bread is horrible as bread but isn't too bad toasted)
Eggs, avocado, tomato, mushrooms etc
Some cereals if you don't mind UPFs

Lunch
Soup
Salad
Eggs

Dinner
Curries
Asian food with rice noodles/rice
Baked potatoes
Roast dinners
Omelette
Chicken in sauce type dishes, with rice
Risotto
Meat and two veg
Sausages (check ingredients), mash

It's actually very easy for two weeks. It's when you have to avoid bread your whole life that it gets difficult!

Wow thank you so much everyone, I really appreciate your help 🙂 got a delivery coming on Sunday, got some oatcakes and Warburtons pittas, and a pizza. Not going to buy loads at this stage because it is only 2 weeks…for now 🤞

Last night I had some sort of rice and fish dinner.

Today we’ll have mashed potatoes with fish and vegetables.

I really like Asda gluten free (wheat free) dry spaghetti and pasta pieces.

I avoid wheat - gives me IBS, acid, rosacea - so eat a lot of ryvita as a toast substitute. Tesco finest gluten-free rigatoni is really nice!

Too much GF bread gives me the squits as badly as wheat as it’s full of weird stuff like wood pulp, though the pittas are OK

I have been wheat free. I lived on a lot of oats and rye. I love rye bread but because of the colour it's a pain to toast

For me, breakfast options are usually Greek yoghurt with any of the following: berries, nuts, seeds, apple and cinnamon and rains, protein powder, nut butter; a green smoothie or banana/berry/protein powder/almond butter smoothie, or eggs (omelette, scrambled eggs with mushrooms or smoked salmon, shakshouka, Spanish eggs) or bubble and squeak is there are leftovers

Lunch is often salad with something like tuna or salmon (can’t eat chicken any more) or boiled eggs, or omelette/scrambled eggs if I didn’t have them for breakfast, in winter often veg soup

dinner often fish or meat with veg and potatoes, or fish and salad, or eggs if haven’t had earlier in the day, or burrito bowl with rice, or GF pasta. Don't eat a lot of meat but sometimes will do crackslaw with mince (google it; it’s a keto favourite).

keto/low carb recipe sites are good for inspiration. I like dietdoctor.com. I have a few great recipe books and once you have a supply of pantry items you can make lots of healthy whole food cakes and slices but the ingredients can be expensive to gather.

if it turns out you have to do it long term the key is to thinking ahead and being prepared. It’s harder to grab food on the run.

good luck!

Meat, fish, eggs, cheese, full fat dairy and seasonal vegetables.
If you eat meat and fish with vegetables you need to add more fat to the plate to keep you full, so butter on cooked veg, avocado with uncooked veg and salad etc.

Wheat free or gluten free?

Wheat free isn’t too hard. Gluten free is harder. I’m non coeliac gluten intolerant and wheat is my main trigger but avoid all gluten containing grains (nonGF certified oats, rye, barley, einkorn).

I just buy GF bread and pittas if I want a sandwich etc

make 90% of meals from scratch and have a lot of rice bowls, stir fries, interesting salads/ sides with fish or meat, roast chicken with salad, steak, curries, roasts with GF stuffing and Yorkshires. Lots of stews with lentils and butter beans etc

Usually carby sides would be potatoes, rice, GF pasta or rice noodles

increasingly supermarkets are making their tempura chicken goujons wheat free- so they’re a good quick meal. Also easier to get GF pizza and garlic bread now.

GF pasta and gnocchi is fine fresh but crap reheated

much harder when you’re out and about - I tend to get sushi or salad for lunch if I’m out and about as hate refrigerated sandwiches- but watch for soy sauce as it’s not GF

carry my own gluten free bread bun EVERYWHERE in my bag, so if I’m out and there isn’t ANYTHING gluten free available, I can at least get a burger without a bun from McDs and put it in, or grab some ham from a supermarket and make a fast sandwich (sad tho, because GF bread is shit untoasted)

Breakfasts - oats (porridge or overnight oats), eggs/avocado / smoked salmon on rye bread, rice krispies, corn flakes, granola.
Lunches - soup with gf bread / sandwich, salad & new potatoes, eggs, jacket potato
Dinners - things with rice (stir fry, curry, chicken & roasted veg, risotto), rice noodles with stir fry, meat or fish with potatoes & veg, gf pasta. Check any ready made sauces / stock / gravy etc for wheat!
Snacks - raw veg, fruit, yogurt, hummus & oat cakes, rice cakes & peanut butter, chocolate, nak'd bars, dried fruit & nuts

I would avoid leaning too heavily on bread substitutes - if you're new to this, you will only be disappointed! (Don't get your hopes up about that pizza, soz! 😂) If you must, Marks seedy loaf or oat loaf are passable.

I agree with Nairn's oatcakes, they come wrapped in packs of five so you can take them out with you. Schar do individually wrapped Madeleine that are good to go. I quite like the GF pasta myself though it's not quite the same... Spuds, rice and those bags of mixed grains are handy (as long as you check on the GF ones). A surprising amount of crisps are GF - manomasa are nice - also cakes and some biscuits are generally okay.

I will never forgive Marks and Spencer for ceasing production of the individual GF brownies... those were great on the go - now their only GF snack has hazlenuts in it, so excluding a lot of people with sensitivities... 😠

Good luck!

Try lentil or chickpea based pasta - Holland & Barrett do some good ones and if you're lucky your local Aldi might have some. They are naturally gluten, wheat and grain free and only contain one ingredient. They cook up nicely and I don't feel like I'm missing out at all. Same with Mr Organic chickpea or red lentil rice (also available at H&B) which I tend to make stir fries with and use sweet chilli sauce that isn't made using flour.

I'm mainly grain free. I have yoghurt with chopped nuts and seeds for breakfast, salads, soups and stews for lunch, chilli, curry, sausage and mash for dinner. Chocolate, hot chocolate, fruit and cream for desserts.

The only thing I really miss is bread.

I'd plan meals around things that don't contain wheat rather than looking for substitutes.

It gets easier with practise, and your biggest difficulty over the next few days will be feeling rubbish from detoxing. Don't be surprised if you get a headache and/or feel very tired.

I eat full fat greek yoghurt for breakfast with ground seeds (including flax) and a few berries and grated dark chocolate 😋 or just coffee with cream.

Salad with fish or hb eggs for lunch usually.

Too much chocolate 😳 Also fruit

Dinner is most normal things, just watch out for gluten in gravy and stock cubes. I normally add butter to cooked veg instead of having gravy.

Eating out can be a pita so worth checking menus before booking

Tesco sausages are usually gluten free but always check the label.

Soup. We have a lot of homemade soup here. I'm used to having it without bread but it's a hard habit to break. Gf bread is tolerable when dipped in soup if you are desperate for bread.

Waitrose do quite nice gf pasta. My favourites are the ones made from pea flour or lentil flour. Nice colours too.

I also eat leftover dinner for breakfast sometimes but I'm hardcore.

Heed the warning about not eating too much gf bread. It can go straight through you, or at the very least it'll make you fart. It's also highly uhp and not very good for you.

If your gut needs help I'd recommend looking up Dr Karan Rajan online. He's on podcasts and has two books out. I've been able to stop taking lanzoprazole/omeprazole since cutting out wheat and working on gut health.

Also recommend the Wheat Belly cookbook

I have coeliac disease and have been gluten free for 16 years. Off the top of my head here are some meals I’ve eaten recently :

Meatballs, tomato sauce and gluten free spaghetti
Cheese and gluten free crackers
Protein shake
Jacket potato with beans, cheese, tuna, cottage cheese etc
Chicken korma with rice
Protein yogurt
Greek yogurt with fruit
Gluten free wraps with various fillings
Roast chicken with potatoes and veg
Gluten free quiche
Soup with crackers or gluten free toast

Oh and also also Amisa lentil crisp bread - I have that with soup a lot. You can get it from Hollndand Barrett or Amazon. Also Kallo lentil cakes - I love the beetroot and balsamic ones with something like soft goats cheese and ham on top. The Kallo cracker thins are lovely too. I love the rosemary and salt ones or the beetroot ones. Again all these things are naturally GF, wheat free (grain free also) and non UPF.

I just don't eat much bread. I buy GF pasta and crackers, Tamari for soy sauce, Knorr or other GF stock cubes, cornflour for thickening sauces instead of making roux. I also buy GF scampi and chicken tempura for an occasional easy meal. Mostly just eat normal stuff cooked from scratch, avoiding bread and noodles.

Quite a lot of sausages are GF except the cheapest. I check the ingredients, I don't just look for a special GF badge on the front as that seems to cost extra.

Dinners are easy. For 2 weeks I'd use GF pasta, rice, rice noodles or potatoes for the carb and use your usual recipes with the above subs. Avoid malt vinegar (use wine vinegar) and avoid brown sauce. Plain ingredients - chicken, spices, yoghurt, lemon - are nearly always fine.

I tend to do greek yoghurt with seeds and raisins or fruit for breakfast, or a cheese omelette, but you could choose a GF cereal such as cornflakes or rice Krispies (check packs for May Contains, buy from GF section if you are unsure). Porridge is a bit controversial, you could get GF oats or might prefer not to risk it as some coeliacs find even GF oats triggering. Lunch is HM soup and crackers, or sushi salad (HM sushi rice, carrot, cucumber, tuna or egg mayo, tamari), or a microwaved potato/sweet potato, or crackers with ham, houmous, cheese etc.

Oh and Domino's do a GF pizza which came recommended by coeliac friends.

How strict do you have to be? Oats are commonly contaminated with wheat due to being processed on the same equipment, so you might consider gluten free oats if you need to be really strict.
Also look out for hidden sources of wheat - it's in soy sauce, many stock cubes, many pre-made sauces/hot sauces etc. Frozen chips are often dusted with wheat flour to prevent them sticking together in the bag. If you need to be strict, you need to really read the labels of everything.