The Awkward Eater

Having a long term food intolerance can have wide ranging effects on your well being, both physical and mental.
In the last few months, I’ve been suffering with extreme tiredness, hair loss, neck pain, heart palpitations, dizziness and sensitivity to light. The doctor’s verdict? Depression. And then she attempted to push anti depressants on me. I insisted on a blood test for my thyroid as there’s been thyroid trouble in the family. Luckily the results came back and my thyroid is fine.
So I was back to square one.
However I recently discovered something called Adrenal Fatigue, one of the causes of which can be gluten intolerance.
The symptoms fit. So now for the cure – less stress! If only it was that easy.

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF ADRENAL FATIGUE
• Tendency to gain weight and unable to loose it, especially around the waist.
• High frequency of getting the flu and other respiratory diseases and these symptoms tend to last longer than usual.
• Tendency to tremble when under pressure.
• Reduced sex …

It's almost the holy grail of GF! (The ultimate would be a gluten free 'real' tasting/textured croissant.)

Having got over the shame of not knowing about this place, I thought I’d post about it and just hope that you, dear readers won’t mock me for my ignorance (hopefully you will join me in my surprise and delight at the find!)

Carluccios is reviewed by celiac diners here http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/restaurants/carluccios-userreview-25872.html
They actually offer a gluten free menu! They serve gluten free pasta dishes! They have branches all across Britain!

The menu on the website states “Gluten free menu available on request. Please ask your waiter.”
Wow.

Now I’m just annoyed that I haven’t been paid yet.

This pie was so yummy, we scoffed quite a bit before I remembered to take any photos as you can see!
I've made this twice now and it's just the best.

Pointer - use an electric whisk for the whisking part as it can take quite a while to get the right thickness of the cream by hand *smirk*

Ingredients

1 pack of Tesco Gluten Free Shortbread http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/tesco-price-comparison/Biscuits/Tesco_Free_From_Shortbread_200g.html (or similar 200g of GF biscuits), crushed
40g unsalted butter
35g Margarine Light
Grated zest and juice of 4 limes
1/2 pint double cream (a small Elmlea is a slightly healthier alternative)
1 small can condensed milk
3 tablespoons of caster sugar

Method
1. Melt the butter in a small pan and stir in the crushed biscuits. Lightly press into the base of a loosed-bottomed fluted flan tin.
2. Chill whilst preparing the filling.
3. To prepare the filling: place the lime juice into a large bowl, add the cream, sugar and condensed milk.
4. Whisk until t…

I found a Biocard™ Celiac test in the Earl’s Court Branch of Boots yesterday after a few unsuccessful goes at finding one in smaller Boots. One Boots pharmacist took me over to one corner after I asked if they stocked tests for Celiac disease, then said “what’s that?” in the quietest voice with the most sympathetic face. I felt like I’d just told her I had the AIDS.So, last night my husband and I attempted to puncture my finger (we are both major wimps it turns out) so I could put the blood in a tiny tube, mix the blood up with the testing solution before dipping the testy wand into the solution/blood cocktail. It was all very bizarre and felt a lot like I was testing for a gluten baby.The wand came up negative. Phew.But! The instructions say ‘you can have a negative test result if you are following a gluten free diet.’ Well obviously….but how am I to know if I have Celiac disease or not? Eat gluten and buy another test (£19.99). Hmm.So I’m wracking my brains trying to remember if I’d…

Despite the McDonald’s connection, (http://www.pret.com/us/contact_us/faqs/) I have been a loyal fan of Pret a Manger for some time. My loyalty was paid of big time this morning when I was drawn in like a moth on my way to work and found the Wheat Free Orange Cake.I’m convinced it actually called to me.There’s no photo of it on the Pret website but here’s the link with the ingredients list etc - *link removed*The cake is soft and moist (unlike most GF offerings elsewhere) and the box actually says “We think it’s one of the first amazing wheat free cakes in the world.” Quite a statement but it really is spot on.With all this sudden pizza and cake madness I’m going to have to take up circuit training or something!In other news, I don’t have celiac disease. I did the test last night. Phew. Next blog update will have more on that.

I am suffering from a particularly painful mouth ulcer under my tongue this week, caused by wolfing down some rather yummy pizza (see previous post). I managed to both burn and scratch my mouth with crust in the same area. Owey.Anyway, it reminded me to do some research about mouth ulcers as I used to have them really bad when I was a teenager and always thought it might have been related to the gluten thing.A study in the US found that in a number of cases mouth ulcers where caused by celiac disease, meaning that recurrent mouth ulcers could now be recognised by doctors as a possible symptom of celiac disease. Hey, whatever gets people diagnosed earlier has got to be a good thing.I found this great article on http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE55S6UI20090630"NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A minority of patients with recurrent mouth sores (aphthousstomatitis) have gluten-sensitive enteropathy, making evaluation for celiac disease appropriate in this population, accordi…

The Gods were smiling on me today when I found a branch of http://hellpizza.com/uk/ while I was on my lunch break.Hell Pizza is really popular in New Zealand but they currently have only 2 branches in the UK, in Fulham and Shepherd’s Bush. Their website says they’re opening one up in Clapham so hopefully they’ll be everywhere soon!They offer gluten free pizzas! As well as a large range of vegetarian pizzas and even a vegan pizza.I tried the ‘Lust’ topping with smokey BBQ sauce and I was more than happy with it!You can sit in the restaurant but you can also get take-away and they offer delivery in the local area.A great find but really, really not good for the waistband!
*Updated with warning! http://ukglutenfree.blogspot.com/2010/02/i-got-glutened.html

When I arrived for my massage on Saturday, the massage therapist handed me a print out from this website on bloat as I said I suffered from it –
http://www.thefooddoctor.com/Bloating-Ahealth_fdw_bloat/

I read through and saw that I avoided the obvious things anyway due to my gluten free diet. However this one sentence popped out -

‘Reduce eggs, bananas, cheese, bread and pasta which actively reduce gut motility.’

(I avoid eggs too as I seem to be slightly intolerant to them.)

My bloat has been ruining my life for the last couple of months and I have been eating a banana every day and sometimes adding to that with dried banana pieces.

The internet contains little about the digestive negatives of eating banana and lots about the positives. I’d love to know if anyone else has experienced anything bad.
I’m going to cut them out for the time being to see if it helps. Shame, as it is one of the few fruits I can stand!

Some readers in the UK may have seen the episode of 'Supersize vs Superskinny' where the show’s segment on alternative diets and weight loss fads covered abdominal massage.
Those of you with a food intolerance or IBS were probably, like me, quite jealous when the presenter announced afterwards – “I just had a poo that was THIS big!”
Well, to cut a long story short, I decided to book an abdominal massage for myself and found a practitioner online.
I found her on http://www.embodyforyou.com/ and if anyone would like her contact details, drop me a line.
Before I booked my appointment, she sent me the following to ensure that it would be right for me.

Abdominal Sacral Massage
This massage is founded on ancient techniques from various indigenous cultures. It is an external non invasive manipulation/massage that brings the organs within the abdominal area back into alignment releasing pressure and strengthening the surrounding muscles and ligaments. This in turn will improve blood, nerve …