Whether you have an intolerance or full blown coeliac disease, bread from our supermarket shelves can be a common culprit in causing bloating, pain, diarrhea and constipation.
For coeliac patients, avoiding gluten is essential, and more information about gluten can be found in my separate blogs What is gluten? and coeliac-disease
Gluten free foods have been a popular food trend in recent years, even foods which are naturally gluten free such as rice have been given the marketing treatment. However, truly going gluten-free goes way beyond bread as gluten can be found in all sorts of foods-from sausages to sauces.
Many clients describe long life alternative breads, such as Genius, Bfree, Schar, Warburtons etc with varying degrees of satisfaction. In the absence of a coeliac diagnosis, you don’t know if there is something else in the bread which is causing digestive problems, because ingredients such as starches, stabilizers, thickeners, emulsifiers and preservatives help maintain their shelf life. Any one of these ingredients could be irritating the stomach and the gold standard to determine if you struggle with a food intolerance (outside of gluten) is elimination of the food altogether.
Here are some GF foods recommended by fellow NT’s, I can’t say I’ve personally tried them all, and they aren’t always cheap, but can be a compromise when not wanting to give up the taste and feel of flour based treats altogether:
Recommended online:
Seedful - Some of their products may be in Waitrose e.g. The Heart of Nature Pure Grain Bread
John McCambridge order via Amazon or Ocado.
Locally available in the North East:
Cakezy - Gluten free cakes to order from Jesmond
Bake for the Soul - Post boxes, Wedding and celebration cakes that are Gluten Free
Dou_h pizza - pop up pizza van and home pizza kits, in and around the North East
Lily Tree Bakery - GF bread, doughnuts, and cakes.
Running Fox - GF Afternoon Tea £22.50 per person
Guide to Gluten Free Cooking
And for anyone inspired to get into the kitchen, this guide to the best Coeliac Cook books out there was issued last year by the Independent