At the beginning of this year I finally self-diagnosed myself as having Coeliac Disease after 20 years of tummy troubles and knowing that something in my diet must be causing the agonising distended stomach and cramps. It took a long time of gradual realisation, piecing together facts about Coeliac Disease before I finally took the plunge and cut out wheat, oats and barley from my diet.
Luckily I was never a huge bread, pastry or cakes eater but I do miss pasta, sandwiches, biscuits, yorkshire puddings, dumplings, crumble and puff pastry. A large proportion of the Great British diet involves wheat we love ‘tea time foods’.
I’m writing this post as it occurred to me that like myself there might be many people who have something bothering them in the digestion department and have never heard of Coeliac Disease and have no idea how simple it is to cure or who might suspect they need to remove gluten from their diet but are worried that it will mean a bland diet which is awkward to incorporate into family life.
It was about five years ago when a friend and I lost weight using the Atkins Diet that I realised I had been feeling well for the first time since my teens. It suddenly occurred to me that the culprit(s) to my chronic (but not serious enough to warrant visiting a doctor) abdominal complaints must have been one of the carbohydrate foods abandoned during the spell of Atkins compliance.
A couple of years later I became plagued by itchy, ulcerated rash patches on my legs which never seemed to heal. I blamed the fact that I wore leather boots all year round and didn’t take much notice. One day I decided to have soya milk on my cereal instead of cows milk in case it was dairy products causing the rash but instead had a hugely violent reaction which consisted of time off work, all over itchy hives, visits to the doctor and other symptoms (I don’t think I made the connection that the soya milk had caused it I was diagnosed as having a strange virus).
Coeliac Disease is a permanent intolerance to gluten, a protein found in many grains but especially wheat, outs, barley and rye. The intolerance can be severe or mild and can produce a multitude of symptoms ranging from diarrhea, constipation, vomiting, headaches, stomach pains, bloatedness, depression, lethargy, breathlessness. Left untreated (ie. continuing to eat gluten) it can lead to long term health problems such as anaemia, osteoporosis, gut lymphoma (cancer) and problems surrounding fertility and pregnancy.
In a person with coeliac the villi (microscopic projections) of the small intestine become flattened instead of standing up and providing a huge surface area of food-absorbing gut wall.
Most of the websites and books relating to coeliacs will tell you that the first step is to visit your doctor. I did this and told them of my suspicion that I was ‘allergic’ to wheat but was curtly told ‘Well wheat is a very bloating food’. Soon after that I became pregnant and the option of samples of my gut being sent away for testing was not appealing. instead I decided to cut out all products containing gluten and to read more information about Coeliac Disease. I very quickly became convinced that I had made the correct diagnosis as have not had an ‘attack’ (which consisted of my having to go to bed with very bad stomach aches). The information ‘out there’ will tell you NOT to give up gluten prior to visiting the doctor as you can not have an accurate diagnosis without continuing to include gluten in the diet for at least 6 weeks prior to tissue samples being taken. Personally the thought of going back to the pain of eating wheat for 6 weeks is enough to make me satisfied that I can live without an ‘official’ diagnosis. There is a theory that you should get a professional opinion as it may be something (more serious?) causing similar symptoms….
During my period of laywoman’s research I’ve also learnt that sufferers often have a tell-tale raised, blistery rash on their limbs, soya allergies are related that it is genetically inherited (my mother has had crippling stomach disorders which have never been explained for as long as I can remember, she failed to thrive as a child has always been underweight, is always lacking in energy and feeling low and also my young son who is so like me in very many other ways will always have a bout of mild diarrhea after eating pure wheat breakfast cereals).
Luckily I really love eating rice and potato which now form the basis of my cereal intake. I eat rice crispies, cornflakes, eggs, gluten free toast or yoghurt for breakfast, I always have avocado on the shopping list as these are a great alternative to a sandwich when we’re out and about (I pack a little tub of salad dressing to pour in the well and eat with a spoon), I make extra rice or potatoes so I can have a rice/potato salad for lunch. We don’t ever eat pasta (but the kids do) as I don’t like the gluten-free alternatives or pies and when I make fish and chips I use a coating of seasoned cornflour and bashed up rice crispies to coat the fish (using raw egg to stick). For sweet treats I have chocolate, macaroons, rice crispie cakes, yoghurt, fruit and am always on the look out for nice wheat-free recipes.
Coeliac Storecupboard Basics (taken from http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/mostof_coeliac2.shtml)
- Bicarbonate of soda
- Buckwheat flour
- Coffee
- Cornflour
- Cornmeal
- Cream of tartar
- Dried and fresh yeast
- Dried fruit
- Dried pulses, lentils and beans
- Dijon mustard
- Food colouring
- Garlic purée
- Gluten-free baking powder
- Gluten-free pasta
- Golden syrup
- Gram flour
- Icing sugar
- Jam
- Jelly
- Marmalade
- Milk powder
- Millet flakes
- Mint sauce
- Nuts, including ground almonds
- Oils
- Polenta
- Pure vanilla extract
- Rice
- Rice bran, rice flakes
- Rice flour
- Rice noodles
- Rice paper wrappers
- Seeds
- Soya flour
- Sugar
- Tamari soy sauce
- Tapioca flour
- Tea
- Tomato purée
- Vinegars
- Whole spices
