Is there an easy guide to wheat and gluten free food etc ?

[GetStrongKeepFighting]

I'm trying really hard but I'm clearly eating stuff I shouldn't as I'm still having symptoms albeit not as bad as previously.

I've recently been diagnosed with low iron levels and when I googled to see what it meant I was taken to a page about coeliac issues.

Thank you.

Thank you so much everyone. I understand better now.

I'm mostly avoiding wheat but realised some chocolate I had mentioned wheat. I think said may contain rather than it being a definite ingredient.

I thought I wasn't eating anything with wheat in but having thought there has been the odd thing.

I understand better with lists so I'm thinking don't eat anything with

Wheat
Barley
Rye
Oats. Is it just those four things ? Have I been making this more difficult than it needs to be as well as not being strict enoguh?

I did have the coeliac app so need to look again to see if I still have it.

Thanks again everyone .

Unless you’re buying cereal bars/granola, how many things have rye/barley/oats in?

LOADS of things have barley in as a favouring / colouring. Many non-oat-or-wheat-based cereals including cornflakes and rice krispies, anything 'malty' like maltesers / horlicks, many chocolate bars you wouldnt expect like Lindt truffles and Mars bars, lots of ready meals and soups, pretty much all beer, some stock cubes, many ready-made sauces and gravies... It's a very annoying ingredient for a coeliac!

@BiscuitDrama, barley is a nightmare! It’s in things like Rice Krispies and cornflakes that would otherwise be gf, in delicious choc like those Lindt balls, in tons of BBQ type sauces and marinades! And I react particularly strongly to barley gluten.

OP, if you are in the UK you only need to look at the bold/capitalised bits of the ingredients, plus the may contain, as allergens have to be highlighted. Tbh I would stick to the free from section, plus obviously gf free things like veg and plain meat for a week or two while your body recovers and then you can look at things like baked beans (Heinz fine), sauces, sausages (Asda very good) and so on.

Yes, just those 4 things, which will always be on bold on an ingredients list to make them easy to spot.

I was going to have left overs from sweet and sour chicken noodles (noodles are rice so okay) and decided to check what's in Worcestershire sauce. Yep, barley so can't have that either. I will be very upset if I can't have the planned tea.

Am doing Chinese chicken with home made egg fried rice. Can't have the chicken and would ave to leave out the chilli jam to have the rice. Think I'll do that as not fussed about the chicken but really want the rice.

Also have a problem with sugar cane so I'm beginning to see what I have been going wrong even more now.

Ah fair enough @Tanaqui
I was trying to go for the quick wins if OP is struggling to identify even wheat.

I don't think I said I was struggling to identify wheat. I was needing advice on working out what gluten is and what it is in. Avoiding sugar is proving very difficult. I'm so hungry .

Put proper peanut butter (the kind with no sugar- meridian or whole earth for example) on Nairn’s gluten-free oatcakes- very filling. Or carrot sticks and hummus. Or a chunk of cheese and some tomatoes. Or a baked potato with cheese/ Heinz beans/ tuna mayo. Definitely no need to be hungry!

It's the realising I have to avoid sugar which has made today tricky as it's in so many things. I have food in, I'm just fed up and can't think straight as haven't eaten a proper meal today yet.

And wheat has gluten in so I thought it would be a good start to avoid that.

I want to thank everyone for their help. I am feeling so much better after just one full day of being very strict and not have wheat, gluten and sugar and a bonus is I'm 3lbs down too. I'm going shopping today to look for breakfast food, lunch I'm okay with and dinner I can adapt so if anyone can recommend tasty breakfast stuff I would appreciate it. Thank you.

I didn’t see this in time for you to go shopping! But I would say eggs (on gluten free toast or with tomatoes or in an omelette), avocado, smoked salmon, yoghurt and berries, yoghurt and nuts or seeds, yoghurt and gluten free granola, gluten free porridge, or peanut butter on oatcakes are all delicious and I have them regularly (not all at once!).

Hello! Last week I had a dietary intolerance test that said I shouldn't eat gluten, potato, dairy, caffeine (although they can shove that up their arse, my blood type is Espresso), and other stuff.

I've been raising the Free From aisles and so far I've found that Nairn's do a DELICIOUS gluten-free range called "Biscuit Breaks" that are v v low in sugar too. I had the ginger ones and they're gorgeous.

Plus Choc Shot chocolate syrup is gluten- and dairy-free, no refined sugar, and is heaven. Just use it as a dipping sauce for fruit or squirt it straight into your mouth. :)

I made my own granola with gluten-free oats, maple syrup, coconut oil and nuts and it's TOO good. I have it with Barista Almond milk and it fills me up all day.

Also, Schär make gluten-free crispbreads that are lovely, and Warburton's gluten-free wraps are nice. Even the beetroot one is really tasty.

As you can tell, I have not lost 3lbs like you have 😆 and am probably on track to gain 3 stone.

Thank you! All great ideas. I decided to look for some muesli today as the GF rice crispie wannabes taste like cardboard . It all had sugar in but eventually in Holland & Barrett I found some and it was half price as use by end of April. Normally £5.99 a box.

Just had liver, mushrooms, bacon, onions, sweet corn and mash to help with the anaemia.

You should also take iron tablets, vit d tablets, vit c tablets and calcium.

I'm not sure what the official advice for long term use when coeliac but certainly while your gut is still affected you won't be absorbing stuff well enough and need supplements to top up.

For breakfast I make nigella breakfast bars. Just make sure you use gf cornflakes and oats but they're very nice. You can freeze them as well and take one out a day

here

I tend to use dried cranberries rather than goji berries and use ordinary cheap dried dates.

I'm on iron tablets from the doctor and I also take starflower oil and Angus castus every day plus vitamin B. I would really like to get a multi vitamin to cover all my needs but there's so many I feel overwhelmed. I've had to stop HRT recently too.

Why are you so hungry?
Can you have jacket potatoes? Roasted veg? Mash, pieces of meat? Make you’re own gravy? Salad? Make soup?

I think you need to get properly tested for Coeliac Disease - there's no such thing as borderline coeliac it's an autoimmune condition so you either are or you aren't.

If you have CD then you should be getting (at least) annual blood tests and occasional bone density scans. Unfortunately getting a CD diagnosis means eating gluten until you have another blood test/ endoscopy.

All 'allergens' in the Uk must be listed in bold in the ingredients but actually if it's specifically gluten you are avoiding Coeliac UK has an app which tells you if something is gluten free or not using a barcode scanner.

As others have said barley is a tricky one because actually some goods which list barley as an ingredient are fine to eat as a coeliac because the level of barley is so low.

So for example providing you don't have a separate barley intolerance you should still be able to have any vinegar containing barley malt.

JuniperBeer - I was only really hungry the other day as I had started being very strict about what I ate but hadn't planned or shopped. The last two days I have had a normal jacket potato and a sweet potato for lunch. I'm snacking on grapes.

pastabest - I feel quite stressed at the thought of eating gluten, wheat etc for weeks to then be tested. I was in so much pain before and would empty by bowel up to five times in an hour in the morning.

I also struggled to lose more than a couple of pounds and looked pregnant a lot of the time. Once I stopped eating the stuff I was intolerant too I lost 1.5 stone very quickly. I've been wondering why a few pounds have gone back on and it's because I've been eating sugar (it's in so many things you wouldn't expect but I've also been eating chocolate most days) so since I looked at my list and realised I've stopped all sugar and feel better and have lost a few pounds.

@pastabest

If you have CD then you should be getting (at least) annual blood tests and occasional bone density scans

I was diagnosed 15 years ago and have never been offered these, does it just depend on where you live?

No I think it's fairly basic standard of care these days for CD?

What's more likely is that your GP isn't actively following it up with you, you are probably expected to remember to make the appointments yourself/ask the GP to book you in for bone density scans.

Thanks, I'll ask the GP about it as they've never mentioned bone density scans.

I think you need to get properly tested for Coeliac Disease - there's no such thing as borderline coeliac it's an autoimmune condition so you either are or you aren't.
Not entirely correct. Often GPs are reluctant to refer on a marginally raised tTG, and if the gastroscopy returns a Marsh Score of only 1 or 2 the consultant may not diagnose coeliac disease.