Of Birds & Cake the Blog of Paul: Gluten Free-Dom

Firstly before reading this post remember I have zero in the way of medical qualifications any changes you make to your diet are your own business and should probably be done in cooperation with your doctor!!! I am writing this in the hope that it might help someone in the same position as me, but remember there are a lot of different causes of Bowel problems and what has worked for me may not work for anyone else!

This Link is pretty well balanced and explains better than I can about Gluten, basically for most of the population it isn't a problem and changing diet would be pointless and if not done right could have a negative effect on your health!

Gluten

So a bit of background, why Gluten Free!! Basically Irritable Bowel Syndrome!! For the best part of 30 years on and off I've been to the doctors with the same symptoms, Admittedly on and off has been about every 5 years! Fatigue (I've always felt I've been more tired than I should be) dodgy guts (usually up to 6 times a day!!) and gut pain, this has gradually got worse over the years until it got to the point where the pain was waking me pretty much every night, The doctors here gave me anti-spasmodic pills, of which I take 3 a day and one doctor casually mentioned "had I tried "FODMAP" "I obviously had never heard of this but reading up, it's about identifying the food groups that are a problem for you and removing them from your diet, I had long suspected Onions and Garlic and so started with them, results were good my guts settled down a bit most importantly the pain stopped and I carried on with life!!

However the old guts were still dodgy and I always have to know where the nearest toilet is and on several occasions I only just made it!!! Had the cubicles been full I would have been fecked!! It can also be a little dodgy when out birding, but lets just pretend it has somehow always been ok 😂😏😱 It is obviously an embarrassing subject, people don't like to talk about it and I've no doubt there are lot's of people having their lives blighted, especially with councils and government disgracefully shutting down public toilets left, right and center and restricting opening times of those that are open, meaning many less forthright persons than myself are virtually housebound😢

So although improved, my guts were still prone to the odd bit of explosive action😱😢 and having to make a lot of visits to the toilet throughout the day, constant bubbling and burbling and being extremely careful when farting😂💩 At Christmas this year when talking to my daughter , she mentioned about Gluten basically being the most evil substance on the planet, causing all sorts of problems, including mucho problems in the gastric area, problems like mine, so I headed for internet, a bit of research confirmed her assertion, in fact reading the symptoms and peoples experiences they mirror my problems pretty much exactly, I vowed to give up Gluten!! Unfortunately I had about half a ton of delicious Organic homemade Christmas Cake to eat so didn't get fully started until about the 10th of January!! It is surprisingly easy to go Gluten Free with numerous products available, but remember do not rely on processed food, eat plenty of fresh whole foods, fruit, vegetables and good quality meat, all Organic preferably (to benefit the environment and help wildlife) it's slightly more difficult for us, because as both my regular readers will remember, we try to only eat organic food, we have pretty much stuck to that although the bread type products tend not to be, I have made some cakes using Gluten Free flour, a Victoria Sandwich which turned out quite well, taste wise was excellent and not bad in terms of texture, the chocolate cherry cake I made was not quite as successful, delicious flavour but texture wise not the best, though covering it in Chocolate Custard mightily improved things, doesn't it always😀!! Another tricky thing is Gluten is in loads of things you wouldn't expect, Stock Cubes, Crisps etc etc but we don't eat that much processed food and luckily most Chocolate is gluten free.

So has it worked, well pretty obviously yes or I wouldn't be writing this duh!!😂 Been over a month now , the word miraculous is thrown around a lot, but got to be said the difference has been amazing, my guts have settled right down, visits to the bog have been greatly reduced, ( I had one day where I didn't go at all!!! I don't think that has ever happened in my life before!!!) Sweetcorn when eaten is taking two whole days to go right through instead of appearing first thing the next morning😀💩 I also have tons more energy. Obviously by removing bread and other Gluten containing foods causes concerns that the new diet may mean I may not be getting certain Vitamins and Nutrients though eating plenty of Fruit/veg/ nuts etc and I'm doing a Multi-vitamin daily, so hopefully shouldn't be an issue!! I've also had to remove Oats as well as even though they don't contain Gluten they have similar compounds in them that effect some people, sadly I'm one of them, though Oat Milk seems ok ,I'm still ok with Diary just don't like milk, but eating Cheese, Butter and Kefir Yogurt.

Do I miss cakes? Well if I'm honest yes,😢 don't forget Margie works for Truffles the bakery chain (where she gets all her Gluten intake) and regularly (every working day) brought me home little treats, Donuts, Danish Pastries etc but to paraphrase Kate Moss's famous phrase ("nothing tastes as good as skinny feels") "nothing tastes as good as not being in agonising pain and running the risk of pooping my pants feels😂😂" So I will bravely carry on !!!

It has to be said I am fairly annoyed that after 30 odd years of visiting doctors with these symptoms not once was it suggested to me Gluten could be an issue, obviously there are many other causes of bowel problems but you would have thought one would of mentioned it, even the FODMAP thing was a casual suggestion by one locum. Although in their defence Cereals are one of the food groups so had I done the FODMAP properly and not assumed Garlic and Onions were my main problem, I might have got to this point sooner! Probably I should have pushed it more, too polite that's my problem😃 I think modern research is suggesting that Gluten can be a problem for more people than previously thought, obviously Coeliac Disease is the most major issue and luckily mine is nowhere near as bad as that!!

Hopefully if I stick at it I will get better and better apparently it can take over 2 years for the bowel to fully repair itself from the damage caused by the Gluten!! Fingers crossed that going forward my problems will continue to decrease!!!

Now as said at the start, if you are reading this and are having similar symptoms/problems it might be worth you considering giving up Gluten, if so, do your research, consult your Doctor before making any changes to your diet, it seems to have worked for me (fingers crossed) that doesn't mean it will for you but could be worth a go!!!!!

A few of my Gluten Free creations below!

Victoria Sandwich tasted and looked good, texture a bit crumbly, but seemed a bit claggy when eaten

Chocolate/Cherry cake, again looked good and tasted nice but texture again a bit off, but covered in chocolate custard was delicious

Margie's Lasagne made with Red Lentil Pasta, was delicious, Margie has taken to Gluten Free cooking like a duck to water and produced some excellent meals, although we don't talk about the Yorkshire puddings!!

Fruitcake, having discovered Xanthium Gum, the texture was much improved as good as the original recipe, which is a relief and bodes well for the Christmas Cake and Pudding I will make in the next year!