A Coeliac's Diet

This was written in response to a request for what I eat from a student, who is doing a gluten free diet for her GCSE.

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You have to avoid gluten, which is present in wheat and barley.

So basically, this means no bread, no pasta and no beer.

But you can eat rice and maize, so as a simple example you can eat Rice Krispies or Corn Flakes, but not Shredded Wheat!

You can get special bread, but it is awful and goes stale very quickly, so I don’t. To replace that carbohydrate from bread, I tend to use brown sugar on my cereal each morning and there are usually cold boiled potatoes in the fridge. I eat the potatoes like others eat biscuits! The only biscuits I ever eat are some special rice crackers called Springfield, that you get from Sainsburys.

Main meals are very similar to everybody else. Meat and vegetables, but never followed with a pudding. I’ll have fruit instead or something like hot bananas cooked in the over. I have never met another coeliac who is a vegetarian, as you need the meat to get the vitamins you need. The only thing I can’t drink is beer, but cider is fine. (Ask Taylors! They’re near you!)

Snacks are a bit of a problem, as when I travel most people would have a sandwich. I can’t, so I tend either not too, or have some crisps, nuts, a Coke or an orange juice. Chocolate tends to be out, as these have small amounts of gluten. Except Crunchies!

One of the saviours though is Indian and Chinese food, which if you ignore things like nan or crispy duck in pancakes, uses very little wheat. GNER, who run the trains from London to Scotland, have recently introduced a chicken tikka snack, which is great!

As to drink, it’s everything except beer. Even whisky which is distilled from barley is fine, as the gluten stays behind in the distilling process!

I hope all that helps.

One thing you could do, is check the various web sites to see companies policies. For instance, Cadburys, Walkers and Kelloggs have a very open policy publishing all their ingredients on the Internet. Others do not! You can decide for yourself whose products I eat.

If you want to read more see my My Coeliac Diary on the Internet.