Hi Everyone, hope you’re all okay. I’ve just been told I have Coeliac Disease which makes me Gluten intolerant. Do any of you have it along with your ms? I’m asking as it’s another autoimmune disease and I’ve heard there may be a link, but through someone who is studying autoimmune diseases.
As you can imagine I’m a bit angry and upset as I love my food and am really pee’d off with the fact that they now want to change my entire diet. I know some of you choose to eliminate gluten and would also like to ask you which cook books, ingredients etc are out there for you.
Not the answers you’re looking for but I can tell you that my son and a good friend both have Coliaic disease and although the diet sounds difficult they both say they find it easy to stick too because it makes them feel so much better. There are loads of free from foods available now too which makes it a little easier than it was years ago. I also met a lady recently who got all her gluten free items on prescription.
Thanks Nina and Jan. I’m feeling a bit angry and anxious at the minute. I’ve been going through my freezer and food cupboards and nearly everything has gluten or possible traces thereof in them. I love bread and most foods that contain dough and pastry which I know are making me fat but to lose both that and pasta is really frustrating me.
Jen and I went to ASDA yesterday and looked at the foodstuffs that were gluten free and they’re about three times the price. We live on benefits (not by choice I must inform you) and I’m getting a bit stressed about it all. I’ve also heard I can get help with bread on the nhs so I’ll have a chat to the dietician when I see her, thanks again for your replies.
I am not gluten intolerant, although I do tend to avoid it if I can. Most gluten free bread tastes like cardboard, but Genius bread is the best I have found. http://www.geniusglutenfree.com/en_GB
The plus side is that you will soon feel healthier for eating better food and your taste buds do adapt.
Thanks Whammel. My uncle has coeliac disease too and left his bread at my house. He lives a long way away so I don’t see him often for advice unfortunately. I agree, it’s really awful, has the texture of a dry sponge, so thanks for that, I’ll definitely keep it in mind. I hope I get used to it very quickly, your post is very positive and I really appreciate it.
Aw Cath, I fully sympathise. I wrongly assumed I had coeliac disease when I fell in love with baking - given my Mum has CD it seemed like I was making myself ill. When I cut out the gluten it did help with my sleeping patterns weirdly, I think gluten is just really hard for most people to deal with every day!
Anyhow, ground almonds are new best friends when it comes to baking and there’s loads of other flours out there (I like sorghum and mix it about 50/50 with regular supermarket gluten free blend for baking cakes/biscuits).
The warburtons GF sandwich squares are pretty good. Warning, here are still some truly rotten loaves out there… it’s when they taste sweet (allegedly savoury ones) that I can’t stand them. On the more pricey side, Tesco Finest have some VERY good GF biccies (rasperry and white chocolate ) and M&S do GF stuffing and GF ‘breaded’ chicken and fish. Plus their sausages/burgers are well labelled and mostly GF.
I’m lucky that I’m gluten intolerant and don’t have CD… but the jury’s still out on Crohns! Regardless, I barely ever eat gluten now and on the rare times I do, I will be asleep til gone lunchtime the next day.
Our local chip shop does GF fish and chips on a Monday, it’s better than normal stuff. Apparently they clean the fryers out during the day so no cross contamination etc.
You will find stuff to suit you and some of it’s better - I’m on cider vinegar, better than malt
I’m dairy allergic and felt a sense of despair when I discovered it - I used to love chocolate, yoghurts, cheese… And they put milk products in so many things, like some cereals. But I don’t miss cow’s milk at all any more, there are so many excellent alternatives. Hopefully it is similar with gluten allergy - a real nuisance in the beginning, but less and less of an issue as you find other things/ways.
Hi my daughter has C/D has had it now for about 3 years there are a lot of gluten free foods out there most supermarkets put them together its just a case of looking . l do make her buns cakes have yet to do bread as l use a bread maker will try it.
It does sometimes take me longer to do the shopping as l have to read the labels its amazing what foods have gluten in, but it is getting better with the labeling. l do try not to eat food with it in and l have lost 2st over the 2 years that must help my ms. ask the drs they have lists that you can get through them daughter allway says that the bread is better if lightly toasted first.
Thanks to you both Sonia and Jan, your posts have given me hope. I love baking (or did before ms fatigue hit) and I’m sure once I’ve seen the dietician and get more info on overcoming the flour and baking powder etc issues I’m sure I’ll try a few new things. Your info Sonia has really eased my mind a lot. Hopefully by cutting out the gluten I’ll have more energy to cook too. I’m getting quite depressed going through my cupboards and seeing how many of the things we love that’ll have to go.
Lapwing I really feel for you. Losing dairy products must be even more difficult, and makes me a bit embarrassed about getting into such a state about my problems. It makes me wonder just how many of us with ms have food allergies or intolerances.
Thanks again for your replies. I’ll be really grateful if anyone else has ideas on substituting flour, baking powder, cornflour etc for cooking and baking. I’m sure the dietician will help too, but I’ll be reassured by your knowledge too.
I just wish I knew more about gluten-free stuff, as opposed to just dairy-free, so that I could help you too Cath! But I seem to think that some dairy-free stuff I have had in the past was also gluten-free, so if I come across something nice again, or a good gluten-free recipe, I’ll let you know!
Yes, I wonder about the allergy thing too sometimes, if there is a link to MS.
I don’t know if someone has a tip for preventing the disaster I had when cooking gluten-free pasta that I accidentally bought once - it turned into a porridge-like mass - I would hope that you could avoid a similar experience! Maybe it was the brand, not my cooking!
Hey Lapwing I’ve had so many cooking disasters, it’s all a learning stage I tell the family. If not its because I’ve put the dinner on and dozed off more commonly. I do really pity you being unable to have dairy products, that’s all that seems to be left in my kitchen if I remove gluten. Hopefully it won’t be long before I see the dietician, poor woman won’t know what’s hot her when I put my list of questions to her. Did you see one when you were told to stay off dairy products?
I discovered the dairy allergy myself - it seemed that I became allergic to dairy fairly suddenly. But it took me a couple of years to work this out, during which I had regular stomach upsets. (It’s not lactose intolerance either - I tried lactose-free milk with gusto to disastrous effect!) I had no dietary advice (I wasn’t diagnosed with MS back then and the GP I had at that time wasn’t very good, I have to say). But within a week of stopping dairy products - what a difference. No rushing to the toilet, less lethargy, no dark circles under the eyes… At first I was clueless as to how to manage - one of my treats was to tuck into a bag of Thorntons truffles with hot milk. (Actually, doing that was how I discovered my allergy!) But I found soya milk, almond milk, coconut milk, oat milk, soya yoghurts, lovely dairy-free ice-cream… And some of the best quality chocolate has no milk in it anyway, to my delight! I can honestly say I don’t miss dairy products at all now. The worst part is having to check the ingredients on everything, which is a pain. But the positive side is that it has made me more conscious of a healthy diet. I hope that things also become easier for you with gluten-free in time! I like to use Doves Farm flour for baking - it’s really good quality - I see they have a whole range of gluten free flour and other stuff!
I’m no food expert, but I’ve been experimenting with different foods for 6 months. Whole meal seeded bread, Heinz 5 beans, mushrooms, free range eggs, cooked beef slices, well matured grated cheese, pickles, apples, pineapple, blueberries, seeds, broccoli & pistachios seem quite good. So many more foods too. It’s endless. Trying to get a simple set is evolving for me. We are all different. Then there’s the cooking method.
Thanks Puddle. I went to ASDA today and had a walkabout on my own. At first I looked at things I like and started getting baffled by all the ingredients so I have up and looked at the free from foods and then things I’ve not really bought before. You’re right, so much to choose from… I think I’ll leave it all now as I don’t understand the maize/barley/oats and preservatives etc to avoid so the dietician will be helpful there. I may have been a nurse but I never had to study all the different diets.
Lapwing I’m sure like you I’ll get my head around it eventually. I can see myself with a list of all prohibited substances going from item to item deciding what I can and can’t have. Fortunately I’m past the stage where I worry about what people think, though I might get one of the stores mobility scooters as I can see my first few shopping expeditions taking a very long time. Luckily I’m retired and shops stay open late (and have cafe’s where they serve tea).
Take care everyone and thanks again, I’m making notes to myself on all of your tips.
I just thought that I’d add a note about my favourite stock cubes by Kallo. (I have been known to boil a chicken carcass etc. to make my own stock, but it takes so long and uses so much electricity! I’m no Delia Smith / Mrs Beeton anyway.) I like them because they are tasty and you can get low salt ones. I saw that they are also gluten-free: http://www.kallo.com/things-we-make/stocks-gravies/
Cath I don’t even know what gluten is I eat every thing. But I had a friend who suffered and it made life difficult her food had to be kept away from everyone else’s.
Thanks to you both Blossom and Don. I’ve continued reading and although I’m pleased that there seems to be quite a bit of gluten free stuff out there, it seems like I’m going to have to do a lot more cooking from scratch. No more jars of sauce or pizza bases etc. I enjoy cooking so that’s not so bad but fatigue makes it really hard work at times. Hopefully a lot of the fatigue is caused by the gluten intolerance, that’s my hope. A lot of the recipes seem to indicate that I can make things in bulk and freeze them. I may need a second freezer!
