The FastDay Forum

I have suffered from IBS for many years and have tracked it down to a wheat intolerance. A couple of years back I went totally gluten free for 6 months and then slowly reintroduced wheat back into my diet. I can now enjoy a couple of slices of bread a week with no adverse affects. If I have those two slices the same day, or have the bread with a pasta dish the same day I will have an IBS reaction within 12 hours, so I naturally limit my gluten intake.

Yesterday I fasted and only had a dinner of chicken and salad. This morning I woke up and knew my normally routine of no breakfast was not going to work as I was very hungry. Recognising that it was a carb craving I decided to give my body what it wanted in the form of 'Ready Brek' a hot oat cereal with milk. I have had the most miserable afternoon and evening of constant trips to the toilet since eating it. Could I now be intolerant to oats as well, or could it just be a bit too much fibre on a fasting stomach?

I am gluten and wheat intollerant and I tried to kid myself for a long time that I was OK with 'just a bit' but if you are truly intollerant it doesn't work and it will bite back! True intollerance isn't a contact irritation in the gut its an antibody reaction and it can affect any part of the body that has epithelial tissue such as the joints, the skin, the mouth and the vagina. Pretty much anywhere really.

Oats are peculiar. They contain a type of gluten that some people with intolerance can manage but others can't. To make things more complicated, most oats are contaminated with other cereals at some point between the field and the shelf. Now you can get oats that are guaranteed to be pure from dedicated oat growers but they are expensive. ReadyBrek most certainly contains gluten as it also has malt extract for added flavour.

I. ean't eat oats which is a pity but you get by

I don't have the antibody reaction, so I have the lesser of the two conditions, the contact irritation. My bodily reaction is burning in a the lower left quadrant of the abdomen and a definite 'get that stuff out of me' reaction. I'm not coeliac in other words.

I didn't even think of checking the label on Ready Brek as I thought it was just finer ground oats, well that will teach me.
Back to the drawing board.