Celiac disease

[Loveduppenguin]

Asking here because i don’t where else to post, and traffic should be good here. I’ve been diagnosed as celiac this morning. I’m still waiting on my dietitian and gastroenterologist appointments to discuss things further. But just asking on here for any information on foods, tips etc etc ANYTHING at all to help me out on this transition. It would be so much appreciated ☺️ thank you

Oh! What do you use then? I have never had a problem with it

Whilst most Bisto Best products are not made with gluten containing ingredients, you will notice that the manufacturer, Premier Foods, has included a ‘May Contain’ statement on the packaging. This is in line with best practice guidance for including gluten contamination advice on labels.
Bisto Best is made on equipment which is also used for products containing wheat flour. Although there are controls in place to reduce the risk of cross contamination, Premier Foods cannot remove the risk of gluten contamination completely.
Previously, we have listed Bisto Best products that were not made with gluten containing ingredients as the product when prepared for consumption, would be suitable for a gluten free diet. Under our new policy, we are asking food manufacturers who include a ‘May Contain’ to consider the threshold for gluten free (< 20 ppm gluten) and if they have determined their products consistently have no more than 20 ppm gluten, to also consider labelling them gluten free. In the absence of a gluten free label they will no longer be included in our food information listings. We are continuing to engage with the manufacturers to achieve a commitment to enable these products to be labelled gluten free in the future.
Premier Foods have a Bisto gravy which is labelled gluten free, this product can be found in most Free From supermarket sections.

But there are so many other vinegars you now have the perfect reason to try.

Rice and Apple Cider vinegar are great on chips (as is balsamic or gherkin vinegar - and mint sauce - but I am an absolute culinary heathen).

Sounds like you might be a 'savoury' type of person, though - so, important stuff. Stokes sandwich pickle and piccalilli are GF. For mustard, get Colman's mustard powder and mix it 1:1 with water (it will be hot) instead of the premixed jars. French's mustard is GF. Most supermarket own brand yeast extract is GF. Mrs Elswood pickles are GF. Squid brand fish sauce is GF and if you splash a little bit of that and a little bit of balsamic on cheese on GF toast, you get a similar enhancement to Worcestershire Sauce.

Don't bother with Bisto GF. It's phenomenally overpriced. Get a supermarket version (eg, ASDA or Morrison's).

A lot of processed GF foods seem to have more sugar in them, which makes them taste weird. If you've got no choice other than to eat them or go hungry, adding salt/salty things can reduce the weirdness. Black olives are really useful for rendering slightly weirdly sweet things edible, as is anything that adds acidity.

@Loveduppenguin Italy is one of the best destinations for coeliacs, even though the first thing you think of is pasta.

Coeliac is common in Italy, in Rome we noticed a lot of restaurants specifically advertising gluten-free. Detailed allergy menu breakdowns also were very common.

There's also lots of information out there on coeliac friendly restaurants worldwide. We regularly eat out with a coeliac friend, just google the town + coeliac and someone will have provided a run down of where does a proper gluten-free menu and no cross contamination in the kitchen, where you have a couple of options and where claims to be gluten-free but isn't trustworthy.

Hiya, sorry to hear you’ve been diagnosed coeliac - from my experience, it’s likely to be a steep learning curve… My youngest is coeliac and we’ve known for 8 years and a fair bit of trial and error over that time.
The loopy whisk website - and her recipe book - is amazing for dough - pizza, pasta and bread - and baking recipes. I tend to make a loaf and slice and freeze some - or if I buy some, slice and freeze it as my daughter doesn’t eat enough bread on her own to get through it.
Over the years, we’ve managed to find some really good substitutes / recipes - people genuinely don’t realise they’re gluten free. If you want any, please do pm me. The only one I haven’t cracked is American style cinnamon buns so if anyone has a fail safe recipe, please share!
xanthum gum is your friend for baking - stops it crumbling apart - but too much makes it like rubber so be careful!
psyllium husk helps for bread and pizza dough.
Schar for me does the best products - a lot of dupes of things and they do frozen croissants and pain au chocolate and rolls which are useful to have in the freezer. My daughter tells me the warburton wraps are the best, although El Paso also do gluten free ones.
For holidays, Italy and Spain are great - they are countries with a relatively high proportion of coeliacs and take it seriously and we’ve found excellent gluten free restaurants and good gluten free options at other places and there’s a lot of products in the supermarkets.
Also, in terms of beer - if you’re a beer drinker - there are gluten free ones, estrella damm and peroni amongst others, in the gluten free aisles.
One final thing, gluten free does not always mean coeliac safe - this is particularly the case in places like pizza restaurants. That said, the range of substitutes now are amazing and getting better all the time - it is better now than it was when we started on this journey 8 years ago.
Good luck and feel free to pm if you want any specific recipes.

Also, you can get gluten free ‘malt’ vinegar (our fish and chip shop does it along with gluten free fish and chips) and also gluten free Worcestershire sauce. (As I just saw reference to these on the thread.)

Warburtons pittas, wraps, crumpets and tiger bread are good alternatives
Morrisons carry a good GF range and they have a an offer on just now until the 7th of May to save 25%

it depends on your eating habits if you cook from fresh you’ll be fine as it’s usually easy to adapt recipes.
at the beginning check everything then you build a
core staples cupboard

have they said youll be given b12 injections or monitor your b12? You might also be sensitive to lactose so keep an eye on that.
it sounds daunting but places are getting better at offering GF options
the gluten free scanner app is good l, not everything is on it but it does help doing a quick shop

Waitrose is best to shop for pasta: other brands and their own. (I find Tesco own brand ingredients not great and it tastes inferior)

This is the best bread, esp toasted. Promise Gluten Free soft white loaf.

Since going gf my diet is a lot healthier as I'm not filling up on empty carbs. It's hard and expensive but honestly you will look back and feel better. Good luck
Pm if you want

You can buy gf soy sauce from everywhere. Tastes the same.

I’ve found it’s hit and miss for monitoring.

I was diagnosed privately, but as my health insurance doesn’t cover any ongoing monitoring of issues, I was referred to the nhs dietician clinic. They contact me every 18 months to 2 years asking if I want bloods and if I want to stay under their service. I usually do have them. Mine are always fine (I’m mainly carnivore so there would have to be something very wrong if I was deficient in B12 or iron, I live off red meat 🤣).

I also had a dexa scan when I was diagnosed, and they said I will have one at certain ages.

other people I’ve spoken to get nothing going forwards.

I’m in Ireland so most of my treatment will be under my health insurance so I’ll go private. I’m still waiting for my appointments to come through with the gastroenterologist and the dietician so it’s very very early days. I am looking forward to a change, but at the same time I’m also finding it very daunting as I do love my food and I love eating out.
I have found some apps here based in Ireland and some websites that list out restaurants that are coeliac friendly gluten-free etc and I’m surprised to see some of my favourite restaurants in my area are actually included in that list. I’m delighted.
I’m going to start going to the gym next week. I was going to do that anyway because I haven’t been feeling so shitty in myself.
So with the going to the gym and establishing a new diet, hopefully things will pick up and change for the better. I’m excited for this in lots of ways.
@NeverDropYourMooncup you are absolutely right. I’m very much a savoury person. I’m not really bothered about the impact this will have on sweet things because I don’t really eat much sweet things. I don’t bake that often and if I do, it’s really just for the kids so I will invest in some gluten-free flour just on the off chance. But again, I’m partial to a packet of crisps as they’re savoury. I’ve looked up crisps here in Ireland that are gluten-free and there’s one particular brand that stands out so I’m happy about that.

I cook a lot of meals at home from scratch unless it’s a busy night and the kids have clubs so again, I’ll just need to sort some gluten-free sauces like Thai curry pastes. I’ve joined the Coeliac Society here in Ireland and they have a list of all Foods sold here in supermarkets that are coeliac friendly/gluten-free so that’s a big help for those things 🙌 thank you everyone for your kind words and suggestions, keep them coming! ☺️

@Debtfreegoals I’m not coeliac but am NCGS - I’m ok on small amounts but the minute I eat something like say a pizza or cake with gluten I get wobbly legs and very sore eyes- most bizzare. Came on when I was 60 post covid. I agree with you about Sainsbury’s- best GF section by far - I actually don’t mind ‘promise’ bread - they do those lovely cheese nibble biscuits and I use a lot of nairns GF cheese oatcakes plus Schar crisp bread - pasta wise I like M&S GF spaghetti best, but Sainsbury’s isn’t too bad.

Sainsbury’s do some quite nice escalope things under the white rabbit brand and M&S GF fish fingers ( in freezer) I think are better than anyone’s non GF ones.

i eat an awful lot of Longley farm cottage cheese which I get from Poundland!

to be honest one thing about having the issue is it made me eat different things and be more creative .

I will add though that a diagnosis of coeliac isn’t all bad.

it was actually the best thing that could have ever happened to me. Before I was diagnosed almost 5 years ago, I weighed 27 stone (at 5 foot 4), and I lived off junk. Takeaways everyday, I could, and would eat, 4 Greggs sausage rolls each day with that, I ate and ate.

Obviously, not being able to eat gluten put a stop to my fun. I’m now 15 stone lighter and the healthiest I’ve ever been because I can’t just eat all the shit I want, day in, day out and couldn’t afford to eat the gluten free alternatives to all that junk anyway - and now don’t want to as it’s even more full of shit than normal food.

It's not so fun when you weren't overweight to start with, I struggle to keep weight on now.

Often gluten free options in restaurants are also promoted as healthy options so have half as many calories as other mains, treat food is often 50% of the size, sometimes you aren't catered for so meals are replaced with emergency handbag snacks etc etc.

Yeah, I get that must be hard.

And don’t get me started on GF being lumped in with low calorie or vegan food too. Infuriating, and the portions are made for pixies.

It’s a very overwhelming at the start but you do get used to it and things have improved even since I was diagnosed 3 years ago. I feel so much better since diagnosis and it explained a lot!
That’s not to say I don’t get frustrated at times!
It can be hard when you’re out and about and need to grab something on the go. I so took this for granted before! But there are worse things to have-I was convinced I had bowel cancer so it was a relief to know it was only coeliac disease!

Schar frozen rolls are my favourite-stick them in the air fryer on ‘bake’ and job’s a good ‘un! The Old El Paso wraps are good too and I always carry a little pack of Nairn’s GF biccies with me.

Good luck with your GF journey!

Promise multi grain gf loaf (£3.60 ish) is the only GF bread that tastes nice. The rest either taste like cardboard and have a strange texture.

I'm 34 and was diagnosed aged 5. There wasn't a blood test at the time and I had to have a camera down my throat to get diagnosed. I was so ill the doctors told my parents I probably had leukaemia!

I can imagine it's harder to be diagnosed as an adult as I don't really remember what gluten products were like (apart from weetabix as that was my absolute favourite ironically!)

It is so much easier nowadays, I used to have to get bread and flour etc on prescription as nothing was available in shops!

There are loads of apps and things. I don't generally eat bread now as it's not that nice. I opt for things like soups, salads, omelette etc at lunch times. Be careful of shop bought sauces, soy sauce and check labels. You can get scanning apps to easily check things. Homemade cakes are way nicer than shop bought!

@Pineapplesunshine i made Becky Excell’s GF cinnamon buns from her book. Not sure if it’s the same recipe as you can find online - but the one in the book was amazing!

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@Loveduppenguin for Thai sauces I use the red and green curry kits from Blue Dragon or Spice Tailor.

Oddly specific but if you’re ever in Gloucester the cafe in the cathedral does a gluten free coffee cake to die for. Good luck - it does get easier.

So I had a scour around and these are all the bits that I could find that I would use or could use to supplement into the meals that I already make. And also a few little treats I don’t have the biggest sweet tooth but I like something small with a cup of tea so these forest fruit selections are amazing and they are all gluten free.

Ireland is actually quite good as such a large percentage of population have it - cafes & restaurants tend to always have a selection and Aldi/dunnes and SuperValu have good bits - you may need to do shopping in a few places to get all the bits you want! Make sure you claim too - there’s a tax rebate or allowance for those in Ireland, can’t remember exactly how it works but citizens info will have the details.

@Psychologymam i just posted my haul 🤣🙌 I’m quite lucky as there’s an area in my town that has Aldi, Lidl, Tesco, two healthfood shops, and another supermarket that’s a local name but quite expensive and has a great selection of sauces and snacks. So I think I’ll just make a trip in there once a month and do the rounds. I have kept all my receipts yes, I just need my diagnosis from my doctor and then I can upload everything to 20% tax back 🙌

Oh I also got gluten free soy sauce in the Asian store! 🙌