Wheat free diet and info for the in denial.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

For ages there has always been 'something' wrong that I can't put my finger on to do with my digestion and general sluggishness.

Now at 20 weeks pregnant it is in the extreme and my mw has suggested I cut out wheat for a month and see if things improve.

I don't even really know what wheat is, let alone what it is in. Would cutting out things like bread and pasta etc help even if I am unwittingly eating it in other ways that I don't know about?

Can anyone give me any clues as to how to go about it?

Many tia

Starlight, how about a continental type of breakfast, with cheese or ham. Omelette, scrambled egg.. That, with a banana would be fine.

cooked fruit for breakfast? I find that very easy on the stomach.

Perhaps if giving up wheat helps, you might find that you feel more like eating at that time.

If I am lucky enough to get pg soon I am going to try eating no wheat as I suspect it gives me shocking water retention. But I often eat no bread for weeks at a time so am used to it really. I cook huge pots of brown basmati rice with onions and stock and re-heat it for lunches with tinned tuna/ham/boiled eggs etc.

Be careful about rice and reheating it as rice can cause a really nasty bout of food poisoning if not handled correctly.

You might find this useful.

I just wonder why you're not consulting your doctor or a dietician abiut any of this, and frankly it alarms me that a mw is doling out advice that could have adverse consequences for someone who doesn't have the werewithal to do this in a healthy way.
But I can see I'm a lone voice so I'll butt out - take advice from people who think fruit is a healthy breakfast.

Every now and then I consult a doctor who sends me for blood tests which I'm told are negative. I am also told in a patronising voice that tiredness is a symptom of having children/working on computers/winter weather/too little exercise/too much exercise etc etc. And that every other appointment us about sluggishness.

I can't do fruit Humphrey. I find it too tart, especially when cooked.

I coukd do eggs fror breakfast though. Perhaps cold meat.

Bunbaker I don't think it is at all unusual to be starving when i wake up!

My last meal of the day is at 7.30pm - it's usually meat, or more often fish and veg, and a piece of fruit- no pudding and no snacks before bed, so that means I have had no food for 12 hours.

I know loads of people who are hungry when they get up.

Starlight I have to agree with the other poster who said you are basically not having a healthy diet. I said this many, many posts back.

If you are now PG it is very important that you eat enough- not "for two" but enough protein, vegetables and fruit and some complex carbs. Your baby needs it as much as you do.

I have, never, ever felt hungry on waking up and most people I know don't either. Perhaps it is because I have to get up at 6 am and eat breakfast straight away. I am just not hungry at that time in the morning.

Apart from the timings what on earth is unhealthy about my diet?

I have at least 2 portions of protien a day but often more, 3 portions of veg, one or two pieces of fruit and carbs 3 times a day. Nothing is processed. I don't even buy shop bought sandwiches. I have fish 2-3 times a week.

It might not be perfect but plenty on much less healthy diets don't appear to suffer in the way I do.

shotgun - I raised similar concerns earlier in the thread. Cutting out any part of a major food group in pregnancy should really be done under supervision.

Starlight - I sympathise. My GP fobbed me off constantly & one even told me to do some pilates to help with the discomfort when I repeatedly went back last time I check pilates doesn?t actually help with coeliac disease.

I was diagnosed by chance in the end through a biopsy for something else. They did a blood test at the same time which was negative.

No breakfast
Toast with marmite around 11
No lunch
Egg Mayo sandwich with apple around 3
Banana/scone/flapjack around 6
Some meat mixed in tomato sauce with veg acc with rice/past/potatoes or fish with veg and rice/past/potatoes at 8.
Glass of wine/beer/milk

Is this a typical day's food for you?

(Trying to help here, not be a cow BTW)

There are a lot of carbs which are empty calories- toast, sandwich, flapjack , scone. Unless these are wholemeal flour then there are few nutrients. But anyway- you are now trying to give up wheat!

I'd say that you are possibly a tad short of protein considering you are PG as all you are getting is the egg, ( is it always the same sandwich???) and one portion of meat or fish.

You could do some basic googling to find out how many grams of protein a PG woman needs and how much you are having on an average day.

You are also- looking at the above- short of calcium- unless you drink a lot of milk? Can you add in yoghurt, or cottage cheese, or sardines, or other food with calcium?

Also- depending on which veggie you have you could be short of vitamin C - are you having green veg almost daily, or a piece of citrus fruit, or an apple etc?

The glaringly "unhealthy" aspect though is that as i said right at the start, you are not having any protein until 3pm - do some reading up about the importance of breakfast and getting some food inside you early in the day.

I do understand what others are saying, but my family went to the doctors for YEARS with no answer. We have all had tests for coeliac, all negative. My late dad, and my brother, in particular, had every test going. Nothing was ever found, until it was too late in my dad's case.

When my midwife agreed with me cutting out wheat, I saw my GP. She said, if it makes you feel better, just do it.

I am literally a different person now. It is a combination of avoiding gluten, and taking a Vit D supplement. I have energy, I am not doubled over with bloated, cramping pains. Same for my sister and brother.

This may not be the same for you, and you must talk to your GP about it, but if it makes you feel better, then I would do it.

Amelia, - no it isn't just egg at lunch-ish time. It was an example. It can be cheese, ham, chicken, - usually with tomato, sometimes with lettuce, but my favourite of all time (At least twice a week is egg mayo with onion).

I also drink at least one glass of milk a day but usually more. No idea if that is good or not but the habbit started when I fell pregnant (maybe that is what is making things worse - who knows?)

I always understood that Milk has protein.

Toast and sandwich are at least 75% of the time wholemeal. Potatoes usually new potatoes with skins - rarely jackets.

But yes perhaps substituting carbs for protein might help.

tbh though, I find I feel worse after eating wholemeal than on white bread days.

sorry, just saw your milk thing. Yes I drink milk. I blame it for having become humungous during this pregnancy, and cheese and mayo in my sandwiches and sometimes in/on the dinner.

I wouldn't be surpirsed if I had a vit c issue though. Can't stand fruit, especially citrus, but do have tomatoes with sandwich quite often, and most sauces for evening meal are tomato-based (cans with herbs added, not made up sauces).

I'm not a fruit fan either. You can easily get your vitamin C from vegetables.

my cooked fruit has added sugar - not huge amounts but enough to take the edge off. I only mentioned this because I saw you had said fruit was too tart earlier in the thread, and maybe this could be a way of introducing it into your diet.

I hope you feel better soon.

TBH, the healthiest I have felt in ages was last week after I had a rare McDonalds.

You don't seem to have said what the actual problem is Starlight - not to put too fine a point on it, is it IBS? Or is it mainly the tiredness/sluggishness?

Are you much of a cook? I only ask because, rather than 'give up wheat,' and feel deprived, plus possibly ending up eating highly processed substitutes, you might find yourself feeling better if you focus on finding tasty, varied and healthy recipes to eat - stir-fries with brown rice rather than noodles, or more meals made with pulses rather than meat - chickpea and spinach curry is yum. Short grain brown rice (only from healthfood shops) is a godsend for IBS. It's even nice as a muesli with warm milk, nuts and dried fruit - another breakfast for you.

It will involve more effort, which is probably not what you feel like at this stage (understandably), but it has to be worth a try if it means you can feel better without resorting to a mw's crackpot advice (and I'm a past IBS sufferer who followed a pretty restricted regime for a couple of years - but I wasn't pregnant!)

I don't think it is IBS tbh. It is sluggishness and sleepiness really but if I don't eat I can keep going much longer. It is also the HUGE tummy. My baby is still in my pelvis but under my boobs is massive and my bra cuts into it. It is usually much better in the mornings provided I don't eat. I have taken antacids and even omezprozole but they don't make any difference.

Once I do eat I feel both full and starving at the same time. If I eat toast or something at breakfast then I seem to get mad sugar cravings all day and can't walk past a shop without buying and eating crisps/chocolate etc, not to mention eating peanut butter/ nutella/ strawberry jam out of the jar with a spoon to satisfy the sugar craving iyswim. I haven't done that for a long time since I delayed breakfast, but on ocassion (like a couple of days ago when I was staying in a hotel with breakfast paid so felt I had to eat it) the all day sugar craving returns.

I just find the sluggishness really a problem but every GP I have been to says everyone complains of that.

I'm not a brilliant cook, but prefer to eat unprocessed and fresh/frozen food.

I love pulses but they always seem like a huge faff and I have never been able to figure out how to cook them.

The meals I like are the ones where you chop everything and stick them in a pot and then in the oven, with perhaps an additional hob pan, but preferably not.

So sausages(okay not that unprocessed), apples, onions in gravy and mustard all in a pot with pots and then perhaps carrots and peas.

Or lamb mince with mixed peppers, onions. chopped apricots, cinamon, chopped tomatoes all in a pot with rice and salad.

That kind of thing. I just stick things in the pot during the day and stick it in the oven indefinately, cooking the hob stuff just before dh gets in.

I must spend all of 15 mins in the kitchen in total per meal.

Starlight the reason for this is very simple

You feel tired because you are living for over half a day on refined carbs and have not eaten since 8 the night before.

These give a quick bost of energy but they are followed by a huge slump.

It is also quite possible that if food ( carbs in your case) make you feel worse then you have an intolerance to wheat.

rather than mull it all over, again and again, why don't you have eggs for breccie for a week with an oat cake or two or a piece of gluten free toast? Or porridge and bluberries or a banana?

p.s. not Vit C in tinned tomatoes- killed off during the canning process which heats them to a very high temp.

But I only feel tired ONCE I've eaten iyswim. My body temperature also drops (I forgot that one) and I feel very cold too.

But it won't hurt me to attempt a protein breakfast for a week as you suggested and see if that helps.