Delicious wheat/gluten-free bread?

[juneau]

I've been wheat-free since last May and have noticed a real difference to my general well-being, but so far I've just avoided bread altogether and I miss sandwiches and toast.

So do any of you coeliac/wheat-free types have any good recommendations? I've been told 'Just make your own, it's really easy', but TBH I can't arsed and would rather go without than make my own bloody bread. So, what's nice? Is there a nice, light, tasty loaf out there that makes good toast and sandwiches? Not rye or pumpernickel - it's too heavy for me.

My favourite is M&S by far and I don't think it has preservatives which I like. I find it very hard to make a loaf light enough for a good sandwich!

Sainsbury's seeded loaf is good. Warburton's do really nice bread rolls that are gf.

Thank you! I've got Sainsbury's and M&S in my town, so will go and have a look.

Warburtons gf wraps are good.The seeded bread makes good toast.I buy my gf bread from our local market and from the local artisan baker though as they generally taste better.

I know this is a bit of hijack Juneau but would be interested to know how you feel better and whether you chose to go wheat free or had to. Glad that it is going well and well done

Sorry for being nosey but have been suffering with thrush for a while now and should probably be considering some kind of exclusion diet and interested to know how you go about giving up something like this?

Many thanks

purpleprincess I just cut it right out. Swapped as much as possible for gluten-free alternatives and did it like that. I could not be bothered with a gradual reduction.

My tummy troubles improved (not quite gone, but a vast improvement) and the inflammation in my joints reduced considerably.

Oh my, yes, those seeded Warburton's wraps are amazing. No idea how they got anything gluten-free to be so pliable and delicious. I suspect witch craft.

Two main reasons I gave up wheat/gluten.

1. I noticed that any time I ate it my stomach blew up like a balloon and I looked about five months pregnant.
2. Doc thinks I probably have IBS, due to various symptoms, the bloating being just one of them, and he recommended I try fiddling around with my diet to see if it makes a difference. It does. Avoiding wheat, sugar and dairy eliminates the symptoms I was having.

Did your doctor give you a coeliac test juneau? If not, it was very irresponsible of him/her not to suggest it before you went gluten-free.

The best bread by far that I've found is Glutafin Select. We get it on prescription for coeliac DC - I think you can possibly order it and pay for it via a pharmacy though.

As for giving it up and how you do it - you just start reading food labels! Wheat and gluten are in all kinds of things, things you wouldn't expect often like some soups. You don't need to start buying 'free from' foods, which are expensive, but it helps if you educate yourself. To start with you need to think carefully when you eat out and you can't just grab a sandwich or a croissant any more, which for me took a bit of practice.

Tesco multiseeded loaf is good. Also the warburtons wraps (agree it must be witchcraft!). I find the warburtons rolls are too crumbly. Glutamel do some half-baked rolls, like small baguettes, which make wonderful pizza bases. Can also recommend the warburtons breakfast muffins and similar cakes that they do in a packet of 2

I couldn't be arsed to have the tests undecided. I don't believe I'm coeliac and I do sometimes eat things with wheat or gluten in them, but generally I choose to avoid them.

If anyone thinks gluten/wheat affects them, PLEASE go and request a coeliac test from your doctor BEFORE you change your diet. It really is important - too many GPs are not aware of this.

I had the test, and it came back negative. I also had the biopsy, and that came back negative as well. It IS important not to give up gluten/wheat before you have the test, as it will affect the results.

The other interesting thing I've discovered is, although wheat generally makes me bloated and ill, when I went to France the croissants and baguettes over there had no effect. Buoyed by this discovery, I came home, and had a croissant... promptly ill. Am now considering moving to France...

Mary - there is an article somewhere that I've read about how traditional bread-making (which is still common in France) doesn't use the same high-gluten flour or methods that highly-processed bread (such as we generally have in the UK). The article suggested that a lot of people suffer from digestive problems with highly-processed bread but are okay with traditional bread. That doesn't apply to coeliacs, of course, but you've ruled that out.

Also - there is an increasing amount of medical evidence for 'non-coeliac gluten-sensitivity) - where people suffer coeliac-type symptoms from eating gluten, but without the antibodies/villi-damage that coeliacs have.

Spelt Bread is pretty low in gluten compared to normal bread and some people can tolerate it (and it generally tastes much better than gluten free bread).I've tried it and still develop IBS type symptoms.From that I've deduced that I'm probably reacting to the Oligosaccharides(Fodmaps) in the wheat.So maybe some people are not gluten sensitive but oligosaccharide sensitive( also present in some vegetables and garlic and onions which I also react to).

Really interesting and timely thread for me. I have just this week decided to cut out wheat. I've been aware for years that bread etc doesn't agree with me. I get bloating, lethargy and palpitations when I have it. I don't eat it often but more than an odd bit will always affect me. My symptoms seem to have got worse over the last few months. I've looked at the coeliac info sites, but the symptoms there don't seem really like mine, so I have assumed that it is the wheat itself, rather that the gluten. Also, swapping to gluten free bread a couple of years ago didn't alleviate the symptoms.

MaryBS I've had the same experience with french bread too, which has confused us no end wondering why I can eat it there but not at home. I have been putting it down to lack of preservatives in their bread, so it's interesting what you day undecided about their bread-making methods.

I went on a low carb diet a few years ago and that's when it really dawned on me that I feel so much better without bread, pastry, cereals etc. It's so convenient though, to grab a sandwich when you're out, rather than always having to plan ahead.

Still worth a coeliac test though Agatha, before you change your diet. The initial test is just a blood test that your GP can organise. The range of symptoms is enormous - some coeliacs have no external symptoms at all (but are still sustaining internal damage). Bloating and lethargy are pretty classic coeliac symptoms by the way. And you wouldn't see your symptoms disappear until you'd cut out all gluten for a sustained period, so just swapping bread wouldn't do it. Gluten is in a vast array of stuff (stock cubes, soups, chocolate, fruity yoghurts, ice-creams - the list is endless..)

If you are coeliac and don't know it, you risk causing serious long-term damage to your body. Just cutting down on gluten isn't enough, you have to cut it out completely. Very non-coeliac people who go on a gf diet follow it to that extent - which is one of the reasons why medical advice s to get tested as without the diagnosis you don't have the motivation to do it fully.

Thanks for that advice undecided. I'll phone my GPs for an appointment.

That's great, Agatha. You might know this already, but it's really important you don't cut down on gluten before the test (as the test looks for the presence of antibodies that your body makes to gluten - no gluten, no antibodies). You need to be eating it for at least 2 meals a day for six weeks before the test. Coeliac UK have a 'diagnosis' page on their website that gives you the details.

Genius gluten free bread was by far the best I tried. I think they have expanded their range a bit now too.

I really appreciate the advice, thank you.