Gluten free/paleo expensive

[beewritesx]

My husband wants to do a paleo and gluten free diet. I do all the food shopping and I find gf and dairy free stuff extortionate and generally eating meat everyday is expensive. I want some money to treat myself and ds at the end of the month. I told him to get tested for an intolerance/celiac disease before going gluten free but he won't and said he'll buy it himself. I'm worried about how this will impact our finances!

My friend thinks I should consider his health but the fact of the matter is that she only has herself to buy for and she's not on such a tight budget. Prior to going gf DH ate a lot of white bread and biscuits, etc so I think it's a question of cutting down, not cutting out.

I was prepared to make him a sandwich for work everyday, but not sure I wanna do a paleo meal for him! If he was actually diagnosed with having celiac disease I'd feel differently, but he's not! AIBU?

@SpindleWhorl

Or he could forage some wild grains? Bash them about a bit with rocks, lovely mixed with some river water and cooked on a nice bed of burning charcoal and wild garlic leaves.

Spread with mashed up duck egg.

(I went down a rabbit hole, @MrsTulipTattsyrup!)

Excellent work. You’re getting the idea

Potatoes are not on any paleo/low carb diet. hmm

Neither are gluten free wraps. I was trying to offer an alternative that didn't cost £3.50.

Paleo is a boring fad.
Yes its unneccierily expensive ad he doesnt sound like he knows what it is if hes wanting GF flour products.Ugg the caveman didnt eat wraps.
ask him do the research and then write a lists and go shopping with you.
Get him to show you where his info is coming from.

@bananapumpkin

Potatoes are not on any paleo/low carb diet. hmm

Neither are gluten free wraps. I was trying to offer an alternative that didn't cost £3.50.

It's such a rip-off, isn't it? I'm currently on a very restrictive diet for gastroenterological problems and bought a Schar loaf. £2.50 a pop for a tiny loaf that looks like the Borrowers baked it

@5329871e

Thing is, going gluten-free doesn’t improve your health UNLESS you have coeliac.

This is not true. Being gluten intolerant is now a medically recognized thing. Gluten is tough to digest and can be too much for a damaged gut, lit "the last straw" (gastroenterologist joke).

But yes, you dont need to buy gf substitutes to be gf. And if you are doing the paleo diet you cant anyway as they are full of things you are not supposed to eat.

Molluscs were apparently an important part of the European Palaeolithic diet. Lots of luvverly molluscs. Whelk-eaters in furs.

Still-living hunter-gatherers still living the ancient paleo lifestyle get 20% of their calories from.... honey. Nice carb-heavy honey.

"Hunter-gatherer diets were characterized by an identical carbohydrate intake (30%-35% of the total energy) over a wide range of latitude intervals" below 40 degrees latitude.

I'm not coeliac but am intolerant to the fructans in modern wheat. I can't eat any wheat products (not that I've discovered yet anyway) except for spelt sourdough. It's really annoying & expensive TBH. So mostly I eat rice, potato, oats, & quinoa by way of carbs. Seeds, nuts & vegetables. I don't expect anyone to provide me with anything special. If I want something specific I sort, source & budget for it myself.

He shouldn't be expecting you to facilitate his expensive diet when he's not even sure he actually needs it. He may be coeliac, maybe not. Maybe he's got IBS issues like me (i.e. he needs referral to a dietitian & to do a low FODMAP diet to identify what is causing his problems). Maybe it's stress. Maybe it's SIBO, treatable with medication & diet. I'd insist he sees a medical professional before you start providing him with expensive meals that are going to mean the rest of the family can afford less food.

Why anyone would want to eat gluten free voluntarily is beyond me. Gluten free stuff is expensive and just not as good as normal food. I’m coeliac and it’s not a barrel of laughs… also it is actually important that he gets tested (although it will take forever to get an endoscopy if you don’t go private) because if he is, it predisposes him to a bunch of other stuff like RA. Also, even a tiny amount of gluten will cause him long lasting damage so he will have to avoid cross contamination as well.

He can go to the GP and get a blood test to test his tissue transglutimase levels or something… basically tests the antibody levels in his blood. If they come back borderline or positive then you can be fairly sure he’s coeliac.