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

The frozen rolls by schaer are about the only gluten free bread I can bear to eat. I mainly have crackers or the old el Paso GF wraps.

Last month I discovered sainsburys do gluten free brown rice pasta (in normal section not gf section) it is way nicer then GF pasta.

Why are you hungry? Real food is naturally GF. The only thing you need to replace is bread and pasta.

use brown rice pasta. Far nicer than any other mushy shit.

bread is preference. I like M&S brown bloomer. But I’m not a big bread person and rarely have it.

tesco and Asda do the best range of gf biscuits and most cakes are pretty good. Don’t bother with pastry, it’s all gross.

Also Becky excell. She has everything you can imagine that’s delicious and homemade, including Yorkshire pud.

making a cheese sauce for cauli cheese is super easy, just sub gf flour.

This might annoy your husband but a lot of people who are gluten intolerant have other intolerances too like lactose and egg! I am gluten and lactose intolerant, so it’s hard work finding stuff which has both without it!

Have you tried cashew nuts?

Sainsbury's Promise bread is really nice

Birds Eye do really nice frozen gf nuggets , Tesco finest burgers are gf , M+S have a good gf selection - chicken goujons , nice gf ready meals like lasagna , spaghetti bolognaise and their pizza and garlic bread is ok . Pizza Hut do gf pizza delivery and most Italian restaurant chains are fine with a good selection . Leon do frozen waffle fries and chicken nuggets but we tried the chicken nuggets at a services and thought they were revolting, they are made predominantly of grey meat ( which I have no objection to eating usually ) but it really wasn’t nice and looked awful . When out and about lots of places do gf sandwiches - M&S , Waitrose , boots but you obviously get very limited choice on filling and bizarrely not basic ones like cheese .

I've not read the full thread, but totally empathise. Being GF is rubbish, I'm celiac, vegetarian and Type 1 diabetic, so I have to really watch what I'm eating. I can definitely recommend the Becky Excell cook book How to Make Anything Gluten Free, and she has a website too.

Yorkshires ate easy, 200g cornflour, 300ml milk and 5 eggs. Huge crispy puddings every single time!

I’m coeliac and genuinely once you’re used to it, it’s fine. I find the issue isn’t the availability of food, it’s just always worrying slightly when you try somewhere new to eat out, always double checking packaging.

For good bread from a supermarket, the Warburtons tiger bread is the best imo. Waitrose also does a good sourdough. Tbh they’re all mostly ok toasted but some cheaper ones are a bit dire. The best gf bread I’ve ever had is the brown loaf from good grain - you can search them up and buy it online.

Pasta I can’t really tell the difference anymore tbh, pizza express does a good gf pizza and the Schar bases are decent too. For a cheeky frozen pizza. White Rabbit is nice for a fancy ish one and Goodfellas do a basic one.

I also eat things that say “may contain” and have always been fine by YMMV. It just means things like cadburys, walkers etc are ok.

in terms of home cooking it’s very easy to make things gf. Consider a separate toaster also, or you can get toaster bags. Coeliac U.K. have them - incidentally, my mum (who has been diagnosed my whole life) joined for us when I was diagnosed but I’ve honestly never used their stuff. That might be because I’ve grown up familiar with it though.

Travelling is largely fine - you can easily Google it ask ChatGPT for GF recommendations but honestly when we go away, especially in Europe and ESPECIALLY in Italy, we often bump into little gf places that we didn’t see online.

The one issue I have with availability is the lack of lunches you can get “on the go” in supermarkets. You have to go for more “picky bits” (M&S do a nice 3 for £8 selection) or sushi (the Tesco one has gf soy sauce!). Never be drawn in by a gf pre packaged sandwich. Awful.

I actually lost a lot of weight when I found out I was coeliac because I lost a lot of joy in eating but honestly it’s fine and I eat well and normally. You just have to get used to it!

I went gluten free for about 6 months while trying to identify the cause of some health issues. I totally agree that gluten-free bread is horrible, and I avoided anything bready (including pizza etc), but I definitely didn't go hungry. There's so much you can eat which is naturally gluten free (rather than a processed gluten free version of something that would normally have gluten in it). I found gf pasta fine though.

https://www.how2bglutenfree.com/Gluten-free-food-list.html

I’m trying GF at the moment on the advice of GP and not finding it too bad. DC didn’t notice the difference when I used GF pasta. Curries, ‘’meat and two veg’ etc all okay, crisps/chocolates okay. I’ve made cake and dumplings with GF flour.

I have to do a few weeks of dairy free after this trial and I think that will be harder!

Also DP who I live with is allergic to gluten, dairy AND fucking yeast and he manages very well so I have to say I have it easy in comparison 😂

Loads of sausages are gf you just have to get used to reading labels. I can't have oats and i find some of the nicer biscuits are oat flour so i can't have those but i do hand the free from bourbon biscuits and custard creams.
For eating out / takeaway Indian is easier than Chinese.
Lots of gf bread is awful but the tiger gf warburtons is nice.
I've got a bread machine and i get the freee brand i think it's dove farm or something. That's nice.
Things you have to look out for are sauces and gravy.
I don't miss cereal for breakfast as it doesn't fill me anyway i have eggs now or fruit and soya yoghurt as i can't have dairy either.
If you're cooking proper food rather than processed stuff it's much easier but being out and about grabbing a sandwich etc is more challenging

Use tesco shopping app. You can select for foods that don't contain gluten. I believe Tesco own brand sausages are gluten free

Sorry you're finding it hard, OP.

I reckon give yourself time to feel glum about it all. If you were quite happy enjoying easy, processed foods, then it is going to be a tricky change to switch up your whole diet when you didn't even choose this.

But when you're done feeling sorry for yourself, you're just going to have to take charge and think positive. This is for your own good, and honestly, as many posters have said, a GF diet isn't too restrictive these days.

I actually like the fact that I can never have the office donuts or a bad-decision kebab because it keeps my weight down to always say no to stuff like that.

I'm not going to list what I eat in a week because it sounds like our preferences are quite different, but as other posters have said, come and tell us the sort of things you like, and I bet we can help you out with reasonable meal plans that taste good and won't bankrupt you.

The only things I still sometimes miss after a decade are a nice cold beer on a hot day, and proper Marmite.

Or cornflour!

The more food you prepare yourself the easier it is.
You can plough through your usual foods to find gluten free alternatives or you can change your diet to more naturally gluten free alternatives or you can push for a median position.
I was mostly wheat free for years (until they figured out it wasn't my diet) while trying to find a middle ground with 5 hungry teens in the house. It is definitely possible.
The fact that you are gaining weight suggests that a gluten rich diet was preventing you absorb nutrients properly.
What do you need? Gluten free recipes? Gluten free alternatives that taste like wheat but aren't? Home cooking? Gluten free convenience food?
I'm sorry that you're struggling. There must've loads of us on MN. What can we do?

You can make great yorkshire puddings with cornflour!

Sainsbury's brown rice pasta was our favourite gf pasta.

1 month is a tough time when removing a food you have a few staples but have lost the excitement of finding a suitable food because of disappointment

Try and find a support group. My daughter had cmpa and multiple other food allergies and the knowledge of others if FB pages and a local parenting group has been brilliant at helping us navigate new food constraints!

Well, quite. It’s equally annoying to find something in the free from section that is not gluten and dairy free. Why is it marked free from then?
And M&S - Plant Kitchen or Made Without Wheat. That is my personal bug bear.
Mostly I just eat lots of salads, vegetables and fruits.

The only GF bread I’ve found worth bothering with is Dr Schär-tiny but bread like and not crumbly. I make my own granola with GF oats. GF pasta is pretty good and you can make great sauces to go with it. You can get couscous made with maize flour which is gf. A lot of oven chips don’t have batter made from wheat. Rice flour spring rolls are nice. However advice from pp is spot on-rethink the way you eat and make from scratch. Home made chilli with crispy tacos-made from maize. Tuna nicoise for lunch-has potatoes, egg and tuna which is filling. Roasted vegetables with goats cheese and gf pasta. If you like cake, the M and S coffee cake is great-or make your own with gf flour. The problem with manufactured gf stuff though is that much of it is ultra processed-so look to that for extras rather than the mainstay of your diet.

You’ll get used to it. Stuff I like:

M and S GF macaroni cheese, coffee cake, chocolate muffins and cheese and onion rolls

Garafalo pasta is decent.

Warbuton’s tiger loaf

I eat a lot of jacket potatoes! Make my own versions of Chinese takeaway.

I miss bakery goods but sometimes I buy GF pastry and make my own versions.

Eat lots of veg!

First you gave to accept your condition and change your mindset.

used to have the ‘poor me’ I can’t have xyz mindset and feel miserable all the time looking at the world of what I couldn’t have.

I was taught by a very wise councillor - gluten to you is like rats poison … if you eat even a tiny bit of it it makes you desperately unwell.. why would you want to do that to yourself

(I’m ‘lucky’ that u am symptomatic and the tiniest bit gives me gastric and other awful effects)

now - if someone offers me a biscuit I no longer think ‘oh - I loved them - i can’t one - I’m sad ‘ - I genuinely look at them and think ‘that is poison’ because to my system it is.

there is so much I still can have and a couple of good gf cook books and learning to read every label in supermarkets etc - I have a good life.

it is hard - but it is mind over matter - and I am so much healthier and feel so much better not having poison induced in my system on a daily basis.

There are lots of gluten free sausage options. Most of the higher quality meat sausages are gluten free.