Gluten free diet

[Alliswell3]

i would appreciate any advice / pointers regarding how to follow a gluten free diet.
we are going to start this for my DD who is 16. My plan would be to put the whole family on it. Most of my staple meals will be out, obviously not the most imaginative cook🤣
thank you

You really shouldn’t p your whole family on it they can miss out on essential nutrients (B vitamins, magnesium, fibre, calcium, iron) some GF people end up needing B12 injections for example.

for recipes
https://glutenfreecuppatea.co.uk/

This lady ^ does loads of recipes, although she has a lot of pasta dishes.
Meat/fish potatoes & veg are all GF so maybe go back to basic cooking whilst you are finding your feet.
Asda do some great gravy granules that are GF, their GF flour is excellent for baking too and is good value.
BBC good food are usually quite good for recipes too.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/gluten-free-recipes

Dh has been gf since he was a baby and all the time I have known him.

I do quite a lot of meals that at either naturally gluten free or easily adapted.
it will cost you £££ to put the whole family on a gf diet and some of the stuff especially the bread isn’t nice.

for example we have jacket potatoes regularly.
roast dinners (just don’t give him yorkies and do gf gravy)
standard frozen chips
I don’t bake regularly but my two best items are gf brownies or gf crumble.
dh eats a lot of dairy I think it fills him up - yogurt, cheese, rice pudding, custard.
If dh is home then I do gf Pasta for everyone

what are your staple meals that you think will now be out? Unless you have a lot of pies or bread based then I am sure there are lots of alternatives although it probably seems a bit daunting now.

If you do wish to do pies etc, ready-made gf shortcrust and puff pastry are both fine. I have made quiches and pies no problem.

DD is coeliac. I can recommend joining Coeliac U.K. and getting access to the app, you can scan products.
I personally would not go totally GF yourself. I’ve heard of people developing an intolerance by removing it. And the bread is crappy and not great for you. Just have separate toaster, butter, prep area for bread. No point changing things like cereal for non GF people.
M&S is good as is Morrisons for things. Lots of meals can be made GF quite easily. Try everything until you find the products you like.

Most of my staple meals will be out

Nah, it'll be fine. Use gluten free pasta, and substitute cornflour in any sauces with flour.

Some things are harder but there's not many meals I dismiss completely. Most are a fairly simple switch to a gf alternative.
Puddings/cakes/desserts are a bit harder, as the flour doesn't rise in the same way. But main courses are fine.

Don't make your whole family eat gf bread, it's not good!

I make a lot of cakes, I’ve even won competitions with them. I find they go stale quicker though.
what are your normal meals and we can see how they can be swopped?

Please can you give a bit more detail about why your daughter needs the GF diet? If it's coeliac disease then that's going to be more specific than if it's non coeliac gluten intolerance. Has she been tested for coeliac etc?

Don't use to many replacements like the bread and pasta. Instead eat gf oatcakes, gf porridge oats etc. I use buckwheat, potatoes, brown rice, quinoa, chickpeas, sweet potato, celeriac etc for more carb stuff rather than the shite GF pasta etc. Far healthier.

You really shouldn’t p your whole family on it they can miss out on essential nutrients (B vitamins, magnesium, fibre, calcium, iron) some GF people end up needing B12 injections for example.

I could be wrong but I think that's because people with coeliac disease can have trouble absorbing nutrients, which can lead to b12 deficiency. But it wouldn't be caused by a gf diet generally. B12 isn't found in grains, it's in meat, fish, eggs, & dairy.
Some B vitamins are in wheat flour but there are other sources as well.

Generally though I agree that it's probably not necessary for the whole family to be on it. No need for other people to switch to gf cereal or bread for example.

The main reason why GF people end up nutrient deficient is due to poor absorption before cutting gluten out, @ICouldEat

Using substitutes is obvious but the best advice is to read every single label on everything you pick up in the supermarket. Bread and pasta are obvious but sauces, including soy sauce, malt vinegar, etc, less so. Some oven chips are wheat coated and you will find food to go nigh on impossible.

I don't eat pasta very often, out of habit, as I always felt so rotten afterwards but some of the GF pastas are great while others are awful. I avoid anything in fusili shapes as they end up both disintegrated and undercooked at the same time. By far my favourite is the Waitrose brown rice penne - always needs longer to cook than the packet claims but has a great texture and holds up to being mixed with the sauce.

Mostly, though, I cook meals that are naturally GF

I'm gluten free and the only bit my family do is the lasagne sheets and the flour in sauces. My husband also eats gluten free pasta and cous cous if it is just us eating. And the odd bit of baking by my daughter is gluten free. Apart from that there is no reason for them to and my kids would actually riot if we made them. We eat mostly unexciting meals and they tend to be gluten free by default especially if they involve rice or potato.

GF because coeliac or intolerant?

Casseroles need no changes other than use a gf flour to thicken . Good sausages are gf anyway. You can buy gf frozen yorkies that are cheap. I make the same cheesecake as always but with gf digestives. You can buy gf pasta that’s cheap. I make my usual sauce and do the gf one in a separate dish with gf pasta. I am just Also super careful with cross contamination.

I make my own yorkies with cornflour instead of normal flour. It makes good pancakes too.

Thank you for your replies. It feels a bit more doable now. The family are all adults (she is the youngest) so no one would have to be on the diet outside of the main meals. It is more about making sure that we can all eat together and that the house isn’t full of things she can’t have .
An intolerance not coeliac. We were talking about giving it a try and seeing if her symptoms improve, I guess for a month just to see.

Really not that hard and Becky excels yprkies are dead easy just eggs, milk and cornflour. My family eat gluten free for main meals and eat regular bread and cereal.
I have GF flour that I substitute they eat the GF cake I make.

GF bread is twice the price of non GF bread and varies in taste. The M and S oat one is nice but is £3 for a tiny loaf. Porridge for breakfast is easy and main meals isn’t a huge problem - though gf pasta varies , some of it falls apart and goes mushy.

@Alliswell3 if it's likely that she'll need to be tested for coeliac disease then don't cut out gluten yet. She'll need to be on a gluten diet for weeks before any blood tests or biopsies, and reintroducing it is no fun at all.

And another vote for GF pancakes, easier to make than regular ones. Delicious with lime juice and sugar.

We have switched to organic brown rice pasta which the whole family prefers. We use the FREEE brand. Fusilli takes 6 minutes, spaghetti 11.

kaillo to GF stock cubes for things like chilli, spaghetti bol.

we have a lot of curries as can have with rice.

plenty of GF gravies.

please don’t switch to loads of gf junk. It’s expensive and crap most of the time! But Tesco and Asda have the best ranges that are most like the normal version.

becky excel has some amazing recipes especially her Yorkshires.

heck 97% sausages are our favourite.

Be careful with things like soy sauce, you need to get tamari. And don’t get packet anything, usually they have barley or wheat in. Watch out for coatings on oven chips too, curly fries are a big no.

separate toaster, be careful on contamination and may contain warnings.

This is absolutely wrong - where are you getting this information from?

Most home made and healthy foods are naturally GF. It’s processed foods that often contain gluten. Just meat/fish/beans and rice/quinoa/potatoes and veg. Substitute GF pasta for lasagne etc. Casseroles, stews and soups all fine. GF pizza is OK, since she’s not coeliac you don’t need to worry about cross contamination in the oven etc. If you’re sure it’s not coeliac ?

I second the comments about not going GF if you think she might be coeliac before testing.
You have to be eating gluten for the tests to wot, and reintroducing gluten after not eating it for a while can cause really bad symptoms.

Thank you everyone.
Thinking now maybe she should see the gp first. I hadn’t appreciated that coeliac disease could be a waxing and waning disease. I thought it was always an acutely serious disease.
Having read a bit that could be her as she has GI signs especially after eating certain things and has lost a lot of weight.
thanks again

Is she anaemic?