Help!

[pinkmonkeyblossom]

Have just found out in the last two days that i have a wheat intolerance, that my childhood lactose intolerance that went away never really went away and that im allergic to a chemical in toothpaste! have started to look into what i can eat and it looks like im on aduki beans for life!

[Copper]

Hi and welcome. I too had lactose intolrance as a child and has now come back to stay :( I have other assorted food allergies too but not wheat. Matt on this site has a problem with dairy and wheat/gluten and is a mine of information. He is a night owl so he will only see your post at about 4am!!!

Do not despair we can help you. It would help if we knew which country you live in :)

Have you looked at these threads on this forum?

http://www.dairyfreeuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=363&highlight=wheat

http://www.dairyfreeuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=635&highlight=wheat

http://www.dairyfreeuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=632&highlight=wheat

[cnc]

Welcome to the site!

If you have any questions, ask away, normally someone knows the answer, or can search around for it.

There are plenty of foods around to eat, its just a matter of being prepared to swap ingredients to something suitable.
Hope you stick around

[rebecca c]

Welcome to the site. I am dairy, soya and gluten intolerant amongst other things including salicylates - what are you allergic to in toothpaste?

Its not always easy but as far as I'm concerned its worth keeping clear of things in order to be well. The key as Claire says is to find the alternatives you like and swap them for the dairy and wheat ingredients as well as trying new things- doesnt have to be aduki beans!!!

Also getting lists of the names that dairy and wheat come under in ingredients, Matt and Pam are good for these, I'm afraid I still dont know all the ones I have to look out for but try to prepare most of my own food anyway.

[pinkmonkeyblossom]

Its Xanthum gum im allergic too in toothpaste which also rules out chewing gum and just about any chewy sweets. i live in the uk.
i know theres plenty out there to eat its just that with my job i dont have time to spend in the supermarket looking for food etc. im used to ordering online and getting it delivered. and there is also my life long love of cheese and all things cheese like!
just a bit worried about what i am going to do really :unsure:

[cnc]

I had a massive love of cheese as well, at one stage I was eating cheese for lunch and dinner.... You do get used to not eating it, and the alternatives aren't too bad, they just take some getting used to, and have a vague resemblance to cheese, so if you get desperate enough, I'd recommend the tofutti slices.
You should still be able to order a lot of the stuff online, but it depends where you order it from as some supermarkets list the ingredients and others don't.

[Copper]

I used to be the greatest cheese eater of all time. There are substitutes out there but you may not like some or all of them. You have to get the idea that they will taste like cheese right out of your head - then see if you like the taste of the pretend cheese.

I like Scheese especially the Cheshire style. I get mine from an independent health food shop in Poole. I go there once a month and stock up. As you like to have shopping delivered you could look at this site

http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk/cgi-local/frameset/sect/CDACH.html

I have pasted the page with Scheese on it :)

This firm have foods for special diets so you should be able to find food which contains no dairy and no wheat.

[Pen]

Hi PinkMonkeyBlossom

What a lovely name by the way.

Can you have goat or sheep products? If so you may be able to find goat cheese (as well as milk, butter and yogurt). The first goat 'cheddar' I found was absolutely tasteless and reminded me of a bar of soap. However, with trying different brands I found a wonderful Mornington's medium cheddar which is as tasty as the cow variety. I also use goat brie (Woolwich Dairy) and occasionally goat feta. Goat milk is not good to drink neat, but it is fine on cereal and in tea. The yogurt (Hewitt's) is good too, but I wouldn't recommend the butter unless you were cooking with it. Three of the main goat dairies here are Hewitts, Morningtons and Woolwich--you may find imports of their products in the UK. If you can't have goat products, you could try rice milk. There are other types of milk too--check out this article in March 2005 edition of 'Alive' magazine http://www.alive.com/home/index.php?page_type=article&topic_id=1001299&article_id=8099&site_id=23&go_id=2&take_id=6.
Just in case anyone is interested in checking out some of the other articles in Alive, go to http://www.alive.com/home/index.php?page_type=year_page&site_id=23&go_id=2&take_id=6.

If wheat is the only grain you cannot have, I would imagine there are other types of bread available to you (in Toronto there is rye, spelt, and other grains--I do not recommend rice bread)! There should also be wheat-free crispbreads and crackers.

You won't be able to have wheat pasta, but there is corn pasta (I ate it for a while, but went off it as it has quite a strong smell) and Tinkyada rice pasta, which is really good--I use this. It is Canadian, but you can get this mail-order from London--see http://www.bumblebee.co.uk/tinkyada.html (http://www.bumblebee.co.uk/tinkyada.html).

Toothpaste--maybe you could ask for advice at a health food store as you are more likely to find something there that you can use.

Don't despair--there are plenty of foods out there to eat. There are about 70 different foods I cannot eat (including cow dairy and wheat), but I still have wonderful, tasty food to eat and am much healthier for it too.

Good luck :) .

[Nic]

Welcome!

And don't worry about cheese, it might be that you're OK with some sorts, for instance I can eat goat and sheeps milk cheese, just nothing made from cows milk. Worth looking up the Uncheese Cookbook on Amazon - its not the same, but gives some ideas and (to my taste) is nicer than the cheese substitutes you can buy.

And you might also find you go off the taste of things that you can't have. I used to *love* chocolate eclairs (the cakes with lots of clotted cream in the middle) and now (admittedly more than 10 years after giving up dairy) cream tastes foul to me, and I wouldn't want to eat it if I could. So you won't necessarily be stuck with cheese cravings forever.

Best of luck with all this.

Nic

[Pen]

I just did a search for 'Goat Cheese UK,' and found these two places that do Goat and Sheep Cheeses by mail order.

SAVORIA are based in London UK, and do mail order of Italian products.
http://www.savoria.co.uk/sess/utn;jsessionid=1543063d7e4ff47/shopdata/index.shopscript (http://www.savoria.co.uk/sess/utn;jsessionid=1543063d7e4ff47/shopdata/index.shopscript)


TEDDINGTON CHEESE ONLINE
http://www.teddingtoncheese.co.uk/acatalog/index.html (http://www.teddingtoncheese.co.uk/acatalog/index.html)

[matt]

hi, guilty as charged here i am at 4:30am. odd sod that i am.

firstly, who has told you to avoid wheat dairy etc etc.

the easiest solution to start is avoid all processed food. can still order online get the supermarkets list of food without. etc.
but in short term i'd try to get to the shops yourself to get used to looking at the ingredients.

scheese is my choice. avoid the cheddar version, cheshire, edam, mozarella are nice again my local health food oreders it in for me.

you need to balance the rest of your diet with leafy stuff like broccolli for calcium if you don't take extra or use one of the fortified milk replacements.

where in uk are you? what's your situ at home? ie do you have to cook for others or just yourself.

i'll stop now. ask anything specific. if one of us doesn't know then i'm sure i can google it for an answer.
it's not as hard as it appears.:D

[Pen]

Its Xanthum gum im allergic too in toothpaste

I have two different brands of toothpaste from my health food store and neither has xanthum gum as an ingredient. Instead of xanthum gum these two have carrageenan which is derived from seaweed (another alternative would be guar gum). On the offchance that they are available in the UK (or for any lurkers in North America with the same allergy), here are the details:

1. Tom's of Maine--Natural Toothpaste with propolis and myrrh, spearmint flavour (not the nicest tasting white toothpaste, but is okay) www.tomsofmaine.com (http://www.tomsofmaine.com/)

2. Jason--Oral Comfort, veryberrymint flavour. A natural whitening gel toothpaste for sensitive teeth. I love this one--lovely taste and texture.
www.jason-natural.com (http://www.jason-natural.com/) (at least, I think that is their site--cannot seem to access these sites this afternoon).

There are US companies who mail order these items, but not sure if they will do this outside the US.

[PinkyPrincess]

Hi, I can't find it on the website, but Lush have just brought out a new toothpaste, they are really into their natural stuff so you could check the ingredients on that if you can find it, but you may have to go into a shop if there is one near you? www.lush.co.uk (http://www.lush.co.uk)

I guess my best advice would be not to panic, and to do lots of research. And definitely focus on what you CAN have rather than what you can't. It's hard but it's worth it in the end!

Pinks

[Pam]

Have a look on the goodness direct website. For a small additional charge they will deliver chilled and frozen goods. Their site specifies most common allergens so you will be able to pick out dairy free and wheat free foods but may have a problem with the xanthum gum though I'm sure they list the ingredients for their products.

You need to make friends with the staff at your local independant health food shop (not the big chains), they will be helpful in finding suitable products for you and can probably order items that you can't get in the supermarkets.

Tesco do a lot of dairy free/wheat free products in their free from range so if you have a large store near you it would certainly be worth a trip down there (though their stock levels aren't always what they could be).

And welcome to the site, I hope you find some answers here.

[pinkmonkeyblossom]

Thank you everyone
It was so nice to come to work and see all these messages helping me.
Matt it was my dr who diagonosed me after prodding me a lot and taking blood etc.
i live with flatmates but cook for myself so that shouldnt be a problem.
Pinky princess went to lush yesterday and amongst other thigns brought white and black tooth gel bizarre i know but strangely very nice.
the problem with the xanthum gum is that it crops up in the weirdest of place- some fruit juice etc
am off the tesco this lunchtime to check out what they have.
thank you so much

[PinkyPrincess]

Glad you found the toothpaste, that's the one I was thinking of. Lush are such a great company, only using natural ingredients where possible.

I've just placed a huge order with www.goodness-direct.co.uk and I found the website really easy to use and it had a clear list of ingredients. Also if you register properly with them, you can choose only to display foods which you can eat, by selecting eg gluten and wheat free. Unfortunately you can only do this with two foods and I have about 7, but the thought is still there, and it's helpful!

Pinky

[cnc]

Hope you're going to stay around and share information, its amazing how much stuff I've picked up from talking to people on here :)
Good luck with the shopping.

[pinkmonkeyblossom]

:D went to tesco and brought loads of fruit and veg- some custard creams made by trufree some rice cakes things to try and strawberry puds.
thanks for the help everyone

[PinkyPrincess]

I know the custard creams you mean, and the rice cakes and strawberry puds, the puds are particularly ok I think! Especially with soya custard if you can have it.

One thing I would say - if you have a local market, fruit and veg is SO much cheaper, so you can buy more of it and fill yourself up with that! I never buy my veg from the supermarkets because you're not sure where it's come from, or if it's been treated. I like to know my organic veg comes from a field a few miles away and the muddier, the better!

[matt]

another source for biscuits are a firm called premier. red packet or blue one for choc covered. £1'35 in holland and barrett. wheat ,gluten, yest etc free i have them all the time as a change from the bread.

[pinkmonkeyblossom]

love getting to the market but dont often get the chance as work occupies much of my time. i work with children and young people with disabilities i love each and every one of them but they can be difficult lil sods at times. was trying to eat my salad today and one of them ran off and ate my corn cakes- i nearly cried! also spent much of my day going from one end of a paddling pool to the other. by the time im done and hand them back after six hours all i want is to put my pj's on and crash in front of the telly box- hence why most of my food ordering is online- u can do it naked and no one will be none the wiser- unless you forget to get dressed when the delivery man comes!

[PinkyPrincess]

oh no@ the kids running off with your corn cakes! sounds like you have enough stress in your life without worrying about food too!
that's very true about the online ordering, my huge order from goodness direct should arrive tomorrow, just hope that I'm decent when the courier turns up, if not he might get a shock!

[pinkmonkeyblossom]

might have to have a good long look on goodness direct it would be rude not too of course lol :)

[Pam]

Goodness Direct is like an Aladdin's cave - so much stuff to choose from. Loads of sweets, cheese, ice cream and all dairy free. You can select which ingredient you need to be free from and the lists also tell you which other ingredients they are free from. I want to get some frozen stuff from them because it comes packed in dry ice and I want some to play with. Orders over £30 (I think) are free but if you order chilled or frozen products they charge an extra £3 (?) for the special packing. It is less than a gallon of fuel these days though so would only be the same as making a special trip to a health food shop and paying parking costs.

[PinkyPrincess]

My Goodness Direct stuff arrived this morning, all very well packaged and everything in order. I ordered the Village Bakery ginger cookies, and I wasn't v impressed with those as they weren't the same as you expect a ginger nut to be. All the rest of the stuff looks good, so I will let you know what things are like when I try them.