The FastDay Forum

I didn't eat bread or wheat products for a couple of days, due to fasting then other nice things to eat. So when I had a couple of slices of toast today and had painful prickling on the roof of my mouth it set me remembering other times this had happened. Could it be wheat/gluten sensitivity?
I have invested in a gluten free loaf now (at massive expense :0( ...) which tastes ok, not great, to see if there are improvements.
Anyone else get this at all?

You may have an intolerance or an allergy to wheat or glutem but the only way to find out for sure is to go yo your physician and have some tests done.

I have found that many people don't actually test positive to allergy/intolerance but they still experience symptoms when they eat wheat. Some of these people tolerate spelt, or kamut better than wheat. While these grains (spelt and kamut) contain gluten the gluten is weaker than the gluten in wheat and is more easily digested.

As usual if you are having problems it is always better to see your physician if you need help with your symptoms.

Wife and I are avoiding bread, I have given up oats but she still has muesli. Both feel better and lost weight. Worth reading the primal websites food more info, and Dr John Briffa's Avoiding the Diet Trap book (£4 on Kindle) is a good summary of the best understanding on nutrition at present...

Thanks Peter, he looks an interesting person with a similar approach to Mark Sisson re:health and food and IF.
Anything to feel good about life again!
Just found some gluten free raisin bread and also ginger biscuits, so that's enough treats/naughtiest to keep me going!
I think I have my processed food down to a Quorn tikka masala on a Saturday and these gluten free bread and biscuits now, everything else is real proper veg, fish, fruit, nuts. Got to be good!

The thing with gluten is ,if you cut it out completely for awhile you may have a reaction when you eat even a small amount .this was told to me by a medical doctor.i have found I feel best if I eat very little wheat or gluten but don't cut it out altogether.

There are three levels to gluten sensitivity. Gluten is found in Wheat, Barley, Rye and can be found in oats because of contamination in transport or growing fields with gluten grains.
-Sensitivity, where you have some irritable symptom from ingesting gluten, but doesn't cause any long term damage
-Intolerant, symptoms are more severe and can last for several days...could even be migraines, like after drinking beer
-Celiac disease, can be the hardest to diagnose because the symptoms are so different in different people. And some have no symptoms at all, which is worse, because to continue eating gluten with celiac disease increases your chances of colin cancer by 30 times! It destroys your villi in your small intestine, therefore you receive no nutrients from any of the good food you eat. Common symptoms are bloating and loose stools or constipation, thinning hair, premature graying hair...the list is long, again making it so hard to diagnose.

It takes about 6 weeks for your intestine to heal, so Celiacs don't fall of the wagon intentionally. There is a blood test you can take but it can give you a false negative, but not a false positive, otherwise the only 100% true results is from a scraping of the villi...and it is important to have been ingesting gluten prior to get an accurate test.

Personally, I don't recommend eliminating gluten, if you don't have to, if you are just going to replace it with all the gluten free substitutes on the market. While I appreciate the cookies, muffins, cakes, breads as much as anyone, they are typically twice as high in fat and sugar with little to no fiber. So it's important to limit the substitutes and stay as natural as possible.

I was diagnosed 5 years ago and it turned my world upside down as I LOVED baking. Yes, there are alternatives, but again nothing quite as good, with quite enough fiber, and much more expensive to make.

Thank you so much GoLinda for the detailed info, Sarahg I appreciate the truth of what you say.
I have tried avoiding bread and biscuits and cakes and can to a greater extent but sometimes I just give in, and if there's a gluten-free fall back it may be better, allowing for the sugar grot etc.
When I think back to what I ate daily a year ago it bears no resemblance to current food, so much better now, so hoping for the best, as always :0)

I once had some bread which had the same reaction in my mouth but it was more like a burning sensation. My friend who was with me said she thought the bread smelt slightly of bleach (bleaching from flour maybe?). So it might be how the flour has been treated, or things added to it rather than the gluten. I try to avoid wheat as I bloat badly, but I do so love bread and I have come to a happy compromise by trying to eat only sourdough when I have the craving. I keep a loaf in the freezer just in case. Happily though since starting this WOE these past weeks, I have had no cravings......

Hi,

You may want to read this book to find out what grains do to the human body. I personally react to all grains not just wheat, rye, barley and rice which are problematic for coeliacs. My reactions include swelling and difficulties in swallowing, ulcers in the tongue, feeling spaced out and of course the usual colon symptoms. Gene testing has proved I do have a problem and i must stay away from grains, but you may also reconsider your approach to grains after learning a few facts explained in the book.

Kind regards
Venere

"Dangerous Grains: Why Gluten Cereal Grains May Be Hazardous to Your Health" by
James Braly & Ron Hoggan

I've been told by a couple of specialists and by a friend who has problems with gluten that allergies to gluten and wheat are "modern diseases". People sensitive to them, aren't actually sensitive to them but to the additives that are used nowadays.
Perhaps the answer to your problem is less "plastic", industrial bread and more baking yourself, using good quality flour.
I know that many people would find this hard to believe but I have a coeliac friend from the US who eats bread, pasta etc in Greece and has no problem at all. She says that she avoids bread (but not pasta) in Athens -because there's lots of crappy bread here as well- but she eats lots of it in the islands and villages etc and she is A-OK. I also find that while I don't eat much bread in Athens, I overdo it while on holiday and I never feel bloated or uncomfortable. I guess that back to pure is the answer, and not cutting wheat products out of our diets. Just a thought...

Many thanks each. How's the AI holiday going T?

I agree with GoLinda. If you are going to get checked out do it now before you start cutting out gluten and wheat or you will mess up the results.

I had suffered from dreadful mouth ulcers for years and not one professional picked up that it could be down to gluten! It was the first thing to improve. Avoiding grains and going gluten free is a very different kettle of fish. I avoid the commercially made gluten free stuff as most of it has an ingredients list that reads like the formula for a chemical weapon! Most bear no resemblance to anything found on a pantry shelf! They taste pretty awful too.

The longer I've been gluten free the more I react when I accidentally eat something that's contaminated. Its a major pain if we have to eat out. Even when menus suggest an item is gluten free you can't be sure some idiot hasn't gone and stirred it with the spoon they've just taken out of the pasta! At home I have to have my own butter pot so that no-one gets crumbs into it. Even a few crumbs can make me really poorly for days.

I would see if your doc will do a blood test. If he wont or if it comes back negative you can decide if you want to go down the lines of an elimination trial. A true gluten intolerance can affect a lot more than your intestines so it is worth ruling it out.

[wildmissus]

I agree with what the others have said. My father has coeliac disease but thankfully at the moment I don't and hopefully never will develop it. Before I started 5:2 I ate a lot of supermarket bought bread and I have to say that I felt bloated and sluggish. When I started 5:2 I also bought myself a breadmaker and what a difference. Firstly I don't eat so much bread now and as TML says I know what I'm putting into it so no nasty extras. So for me cutting down gluten but not cutting it out makes me feel a lot better. I also try to buy the least refined I can, eg. I use jumbo rolled oats for my porridge, in the hope that is as natural as it can be.

I think that supermarket bread is a big culprit in the fact that late onset gluten problems are on the increase. My hubby used to be a baker in a small bakery owned by his family. We ate freshly made traditional breads from quality ingredients. It was before the new craze for artisan bakeries and we were forced out of business by the cheap supermarket breads. My gluten problems started when I had to buy my bread. I went back to baking for awhile and seemed better but as my other health problems started I went back to buying. I'm sure the problems are caused by cheap flour that is propped up by chemical additives to get speed of turn-over. Good bread needs decent flour and lots of time. The gluten alters during the resting and kneading and becomes less irritant.

Keep baking Wildmissus and you may fend off any problems and be able to continue to eat good bread. I really miss a good, crusty loaf!

Many thanks each. How's the AI holiday going T?

Well... let me see... I'm currently lying on the bed, unable to move and drinking soda.

This afternoon I met the chef and told him that I never get second helpings from the buffet. This evening, he probably placed a bet with his mates that they would prove me wrong and they did! Everything was fantastic!

Other than that, I tried the spa and I've got a tan!

Work is going great too, I managed to get the best of everything and have a bit of me time.

On the subject, a friend of mine once suggested to make a dough made of industrial flour (the one that bakery chains and supermarkets use) and water and bake it. I was shocked to see that it actually rose. With NO yeast!!! That was the end of supermarket bread for me.