Dairy and wheat intolerance? Tips?

[AnneOfAvonlea]

Hi there,
I was hospitalised in the summer with a bowel infection. Since then I have been having stomach cramps on and off, fairly regularly. My daughter thought it may be a lactose intolerance so I have done I of those allergy bloodtests which has come back with high intolerance to cows milk and wheat. And grapes, but I can deal with that.

I do eat quite a lot of bread, pasta, cheese etc and will need to consider adapting my lunches in particular.

Any tips, suggestions, recipe books?

OP allergies and intolerances are completely different things. Was your test one of those things you buy online? Because I'm pretty sure they are highly inaccurate, if not a total scam. I really wouldn't cut out whole food groups on the basis of this - you should see a doctor. Debunking of those tests here

Thank you. That's really helpful.

Bottom line is that I keep getting stomach pain and it seems to correlate with certain foods I eat. But I don't know where to start in resolving it and my GP is overwhelmed right now and it takes weeks to get an appointment.

Hi, I would ignore the test, there is no test that can tell you if you have intolerances. If you've had a bowel infection then you could probably benefit from prebiotics/probiotics to rebuild the gut bacteria. Then you could try gradually reintroducing the foods causing you problems.

Sounds like it could be IBS you could try fodmap

This was v similar to me a few years ago.

Breakfast - porridge with almond milk and berries, seeds, nuts etc. or wheat free muesli. Or (on nwd’s eggs, beans and fried pots.

Lunch - home made veg and bean soup plus oatcakes with peanut butter. Or quinoa salad etc.

Tea - something plus rice ie chili, Linda McCartney red onion sausages, or jacket spud and beans.

I hated wheat free pasta and bread, so avoided them as much as I could. Though I do like the very dark rye bread.

This is an eating plan very high in insoluble fibre, so you might want to go easy on certain foods. I never ate beans more than twice a day.

And always kept some emergency aunt Bessie chips in the freezer plus eggs and beans just in case.

I've got ongoing stomach issues too, OP. I suspect mine are caused by foods too. If you have true allergies they tend cause things like rashes, wheeziness, swelling etc. If it's stomach issues it could be an intolerance or IBS, neither if which are really testable I don't think. I've started keeping a food and symptoms diarynin the hope of narrowing it down. I've been tested for coeliac, which was negative, but I suspect I have either IBS triggered by wheat or a wheat/gluten intolerance.

I'm not allergic but get abdominal pain and IBS from eating wheat. Just cook from scratch really. Menu this week;
Roast chicken with potatoes and veg, gravy made from a kallo stock cube with a bit of cornflour to thicken.
Left over chicken, oven chips (check ingredients as some have flour), salad.
Jacket potatoes and baked beans (with a bit of dairy free marg)
Salmon and vegetables
Chilli and rice
Heck sausages with mash, peas and onion gravy
Chick pea curry (check ingredients if using a jar of sauce). I often use curry powder and tinned tomatoes.
Waffle makers are good. You can make batter from GF flour or coconut flour and almond milk or oat milk.
There's a good ice cream substitute called Swedish Glace.
The pasta these days is really good. My favourite is macaroni from Tesco.
I always toast the bread. It's fine that way.
Lunches are pasta, rice salad with beans, hams, tinned fish or soups.
I'm not dairy free but there are so many substitutes these days it's really not hard to try a week or two without it.

Thank you everyone

I cut out dairy last year and started taking golden linseeds, a Spoonful every day and washed down with plenty water, they are really good for your bowels, they have a gel like substance inside them that is soothing apparently! It's stopped my cramps and helped me get back to normal. Worth a shot.

Also known as flaxseeds, but it's the golden ones you want.

Unfortunately flaxseed/linseed gives me the most awful stomach pains. So does quinoa, which is also supposed to be good for you! Loads of seeded bread has linseed in, so I have to check carefully! Although it's increasingly looking as if bread is a problem anyway...

Check out Becky Excell cook books. Great free gluten free - just need to alter for any recipes containing gluten free wheat. She had lots to suggestions to make dairy free too