Lets Talk Gluten
On 11th December 2016 by HelenBefore I left the UK I went to the GP for some blood tests thinking things would be fine, however abnormalities appeared and after being sent from pillar to post and the wrong consultant it was eventually discovered that I am either highly gluten intolerant or coeliac. Why do I say ‘either’? Well when I get back to the UK I need to have a scope to assess my stomach lining which is a lovely thought to start this blog post on.
What does this mean? Well, when you have an intolerance to gluten your intestines inflame and stop working, they stop absorbing the nutrients your body needs and it can make you very unwell. For most people it starts with bloating, and other symptoms can include pain and cramping, but there can also be much more serious symptoms; severe weight loss, depression, fatigue, anaemia and then you stop producing efficient working red blood cells.
I was tired, for well… years. I’d try everything from going to bed early, cutting down on caffeine and sugar and increasing exercise in a bid to raise my energy levels but nothing was working. I remember at my old job I used to get Wednesday afternoons off and I would get home from work at 3pm and crawl into bed and sleep all afternoon. I then started PT sessions and was just as tired as ever. I could have sworn if one more member of my management team had discussed my diet with me I was going to hit someone – what more could I do? I had breakfast, lunch and dinner, drank two litres of water a day and wasn’t going mad with the snacks (though everyone needs chocolate on a Friday!), I rarely drink and I was too tired to go out partying!
I started noticing something wasn’t right when I was getting really bad episodes of night sweating which is what lead to a blood test. I thought my thyroid would be out of sync but my results came back as seriously low iron and low B12. My GP sent me for further testing for diabetes, pernicious anaemia and coeliac. Like I said previously it took forever (not helped by the fact I was going to Aus) but my results came back that my body seemed to hate gluten!
As a result of this I need to have B12 injections every 3 months and am on constant iron tablets currently in order to raise my levels and maintain them. I also cannot eat any sources of gluten.
After my initial dose of B12 medication before leaving England I felt so good and I had forgotten what it was like not to be tired, I suddenly had the energy to go out and see people and continue going to the gym. I started to feel happy which I hadn’t done in a while. That was great but I had then forgotten what it was like being tired. Over the last couple of weeks though I started to feel pretty rubbish again. I began to feel tired, low, irritable and I was increasing the amount of sleep I was having considerably on my days off from work. I also had very poor concentration.
Thankfully though the GP I have signed with in Sydney has been awesome and I got my top up dose of meds so fingers crossed I can have my energy back!
A lot of people keep asking me what I can and cannot eat so here’s a brief run down of some foods that are out:
Pasta, cake, biscuits, gravy, certain food flavourings, sauces (no more HP), mueslie, oats, rye, spelt, bread, basically anything with flour, Cadbury’s chocolate.
However I can eat:
Fruit, vegetables, meat, nuts, seeds, corn flour, quinoa, rice, buckwheat, marshmallows, anything certified gluten free.
Sooooo my friend Olivia and I decided we would do some baking and made sure I could eat everything! We used a recipe from food.com and had a fun girly afternoon baking and creating kitchen havoc, read below to see what we did and the results…
1 – We started by combining the sugar and butter then added the egg and golden syrup
2 – In another bowl we mixed the gluten free flour, spices, bicarbonate and baking powder
3 – Then we mixed the two and put the mix in the fridge for 1 hour
4 – Afterwards we rolled out the mix – seriously messy!! It’s a very wet dough
5 – Cut into circles and baked!
6 – Once cooked and cooled we had fun decorating – they are meant to be festive but I think they got a bit confused between Easter, Halloween and Christmas
And these are the final results…they are so delicious
I’m still learning as I go with this and I hope this post maybe answers some questions people may have about this condition. There’s also so much more information on the coeliac society websites for the UK and Australia so take a look.
https://www.coeliac.org.uk/home/
http://www.coeliac.org.au/
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