To say eating gluten free food sucks

[Stickseas0n]

It's been a month since I was diagnosed and I'm so miserable as I'm so hungry.
Not to mention how expensive it is for much smaller portions.
I've gained so much weight in the month, my iron is low as shit, I'm struggling at work because as soon as I eat any foods I'm on the toilet.
I'm just so fed up

You need Becky Excell's cookbooks. Lots of gf sausages are available, eg Tesco finest and I think all Tesco sausages will be soon. Heinz baked beans.

I've just come back from the grocery shop and Asada proudly told me they had won some award for being best GF. They do have quite a big selection.

One of DH's bugbears is "free from" foods. He only needs to avoid gluten; he doesn't want foods that are free from gluten AND dairy AND eggs AND ...

I hate all the GF bread, biscuits and cakes pretty much. I ended up hardly eating anything when I thought I had wheat intolerance.
I used to crush up gf cornflakes to make breading for chicken pieces or Kiev. And I quite like almond flour in some home made gf cookies etc.

I will admit that after several years completely gluten-free I was massively relieved to discover that my allergy (not coeliac) to wheat lets me eat Spelt - though I'm careful not to overdo it.

The bliss of not having a constant cough and intermittent asthma and allergic skin reactions is enough to keep me off the wheat.

Warburtons tiger bloomer or sour dough widely available and best we’ve found shop bought (although not as good as normal bread).
Agree with bread maker being best.

Egg fried rice will probably have non gf soy sauce in. Have you checked??

I wouldn’t order Chinese as all the things I like have soy sauce or noodles or prawn toast or Hong Kong chicken or duck pancakes

What is it you’re missing? I have been coeliac 15 years and there are few things I can’t find a decent sub for. Sausages are mostly gluten free nowadays across a range of supermarkets. For dinner I just have normal meals adjusted as needed:
Curry
stir fry (rice noodles and gluten free soy sauce)
jacket potato and fillings
pie, mash and veg
roast dinner
spaghetti bolognese
pasta bake
risotto
chicken goujons/ fish fingers and chips
sweet chilli salmon
cottage pie
homemade lasagne
sausage and mash with gravy

my family eat 90 percent the same as me to make life easier and they don’t ever notice. I can bake most sweet things apart from biscuits although my cookies have improved recently. It is trial and error as everyone has different tastes

You shouldn’t be hungry, it doesn’t take a lot of adjustment
Loads of sausages are gluten free - look at supermarkets own ones. Lidls and Tesco ones are nice.
Schar crispbreads are £1.50 or less a box and make a great snack with cheese/ham etc
Potato waffles are a good alternative to toast if you want eggs on them (and can be cooked in the toaster)
Sainsbury’s and Asda have packs of gluten free pasta for less than £1
Bread is the only real problem. M&S tiger bread is the nicest we’ve found but it’s expensive so we don’t have it very often.
Today we have had:
Greek yoghurt with granola and berries for breakfast
Baked potato with cheese and beans for lunch
chicken and bacon pasta bake for dinner

tomorrow will be a brunch fry up and salmon, baby potatoes and sweetcorn for dinner
Sunday will be omelettes for breakfast, crisp breads with cheese and tomato’s for lunch and a full roast dinner. Gravy and Yorkshires will be gluten free, everything else just normal.

yes, you do have to plan but you can eat loads still

Nairns GF Chocolate Chip biscuits make a reasonable close to a plain choclate digestive. lower sugar too. I suggest BCC Good Food gluten free recipes that are easy to follow and DK Gluten Free Cook Book as it’s nice simple to follow recipes. www.dk.com/uk/book/9780241185674-the-gluten-free-cookbook/ Buying ready made gluten free is more expensive considerably so, supermarket ready meals are very expensive and rather processed. I batch cook and freeze so I always have a freezer ready meal to go. It takes time to adjust but you will get there. the Cealiacs Sanctuary gives lists of safer places to eat out than most. be careful, if you are severely affected only use cealiac society/ sanctuary listed outlets. Gluten is air borne and easily cross contaminates in restaurants, bakeries and similar outlets.

It gets better.
A month is a short time to get used to a new way. It's a new mindset.

I haven't eaten gluten/diary for 40 years. I don't buy a lot of 'special free food' but go for unprocessed food, fruit, vegs, eggs, nuts, rice, meat. Sometimes I do buy pasta.

You can learn to bake quite a lot of glutenfree bread, cake and snacks.

You can explore different kitchens and find your favorites. I do online cooking courses. FB has groups with a lot of sharing how to cook glutenfree.

But it takes time and some work.

Eating out can be a PITA but eating at home really shouldn't be too onerous after you've made a few storecupboard switches. It will be different for everyone but my main ones have been:

Tamari for soy sauce
GF stock pots for stock cubes
Henderson's Relish for Lea and Perrins

GF pasta for regular (look for Italian brands, this is something worth paying extra for!)

There are loads of GF breakfast cereals and breads and you will have to do trial and error as everyone's tastes are different. I find the Warburtons GF pittas to be extremely versatile and they freeze well. Their seeded sliced loaf makes decent toast.

Tesco finest sausages are gf and very nice . Promise bread is the best type and they also now do English muffins which are really good . It’s early days and honestly you get used to it and it’s so much easier now than when my daughter was diagnosed 14 yrs ago . We all eat mainly gf now except the odd ready meal and snacks / puddings for my husband .

Lots of the supermarket best ranges of sausages are GF. They’re not particularly labelled as such, you have to check.

Agree that naturally gluten free is the best way. The convenience foods are shit. But then I think the same of non-GF convenience foods.

M&s do GF chicken nugget/fillet type things which are ok (in the fresh section)

As someone else said don't try and eat what you ate before, look at it with fresh eyes, apart from, most substitutes are horrible. Go for potatoes, rice, brown, red, carmargue, and quinoa. In terms of snacks, nuts or cheese and GF oatcakes.

I think a large part of my problem is I'm used to processed foods, I wouldn't eat lentils or pulses or oat cakes
Haven't ever really been a fan of fruit and veg intake is very minimal

Which supermarkets do you use?
We can be helpful.

Lots of people put on a bit of weight when they do GF. Once you stomach starts working properly, you stop suffering from malnutrition.

Why don't you say what you do like and we can try and recommend safe alternatives?

Kindly OP, thats probably the issue. Its fairly easy to follow a GF diet if you minimise processed food, and a lot of supermarkets now offer some really good alternatives (Tescos GF pasta is really good, and less than a £1 a bag).

It'll take a while for you to adjust but it will get easier, I promise!

I'm sorry but you'll just have to learn to like them. Processed foods are horrendous for your health. Think of your new diet as being one that will help prevent cancer and heart disease etc.

I hear you with the cost...

I find gf pasta fine taste wise, you just need to make sure the water is boiling when you add it and be careful not to let it cook too long or sit in tepid water or it'll go gloopy. If you're doing gf spaghetti, you need to separate it with a fork a couple of minutes after it's gone into the pan or it clumps together.

Gf bread is not great, you definitely find the most expensive (promise) is much nicer than the (somewhat) cheaper supermarket brands. All gf bread is much better toasted than as bread.

You can get gf chocolate digestives which I happily eat!

Where I live, there's a local gf/coeliac facebook group and that's great for tips on new products, special offers in the supermarkets, eating out ideas etc. There might be similar where you live?

I honestly don't understand. I just moved out of a house with a gluten-intolerant person who lived there. Also we travelled together (for work) so I know a bit about her meals abroad.

She loved bread & missed it.
Accidently eating gluten hugely sucked, that's true, it made her quite ill.

But her diet otherwise was great! Lots of choices.

Would you eat rice & stir fry veg ?
Are you fine to still eat milk products or meat & eggs ?
Can you learn to make your own cake using safe ingredients?

Maybe you should look at that in a new way? It will make cooking easier for you.

The breads are rubbish, I’ve moved to potatoes, rice, gluten free grains for my carb hits. What did you used to eat to keep your iron up? High iron foods tend to be gluten free?

It's a massive adjustment. I felt like I was told to give up 100 of my favourite foods all at once. And yes I did go hungry sometimes at the beginning or when out and about. Hope you find some more foods you like soon.

Look out for a beautiful gluten free multi grain loaf by Promise. I buy mine from Morrisons, approximately £3.60 a loaf, it’s the closest to normal bread and makes a lovely sandwich.p.s the white loaf isn’t much cop.

It does gets easier, I have to cook mostly from scratch, which isn’t such a bad thing, although time consuming.