Gluten-free / vegan?

[evilC]

No, not me.

I'm just spreading the word, in case anyone out there is either vegan or needs a gluten-free diet. (I'm sure there's several vegans here, at least.)

Some foodie stuff:

Crisis In The Kitchen

[Incandenza]

Gluten-free / vegan?

Is it my misguided perception, or do there seem to be more people not eating gluten because of medical reasons? I'm not saying that celiac disease is some new invention, but it seems to be more prominent now than in the past. So is it a matter of better diagnosis, more publicity, or is it in a lot of peoples' heads that they have a gluten/wheat allergy when they actually don't?

[ursus arctos]

Gluten-free / vegan?

All of the above, I'd say, especially in the US.

[Incandenza]

Gluten-free / vegan?

I'm sure there are also probably some cranks that listened to Jenny McCarthy and now aren't giving their kids any gluten at all.

[evilC]

Gluten-free / vegan?

My ex - who lived with me briefly - was convinced that the apparent allergies she developed when at my house were due to dust mites, which she knew she was allergic to. However, when we split up and she moved back to her home town, the symptoms didn't stop - in fact they got worse and worse. It wasn't just 'standard' allergy symptoms by then, either. So she had loads of tests done and it turned out she had seemingly developed an intolerance of gluten. She switched to a gluten-free diet and, sure enough, the health problems all slowly cleared up.

So... I don't know if there's a wide perception of it being 'all in the mind', but I can say that - in her case, at least - it most definitely wasn't.

What I don't understand is how someone can suddenly 'develop' an intolerance or an allergy, like she did. I didn't get hayfever until I was about 21, then all of a sudden it really hit me. I think that, through deduction, I know what pollens aggravate it the most, but I've been able to avoid those plants for a few years now and it hasn't been too bad in recent years. But how does one 'develop' a gluten intolerance?

[Incandenza]

Gluten-free / vegan?

I don't know. I don't want to give the impression that I think that all gluten intolerance is in the mind, and I know this is a rather dumb anecdotal observation, but it seems that in the past 5 years there seems to be more talk about wheat allergy/gluten intolerance.

[Wyatt Earp]

Gluten-free / vegan?

I don't in principle see why intolerances should't be late-onset; lots of things are. But I think most gluten sensitivity is whay they call "idiopathic", meaning no-one really knows the cause.

[ChrisJ]

Gluten-free / vegan?

Thanks for the link, Clive. The food looks rather good, I fancy the carrot soup. Might try replacing the sugar with some cumin seeds, paprika and cinnamon. I'll forward it to a colleague who has gluten issues of some sort.

As far as the onset of these things goes, I've known at least two people who discovered an intolerance of gluten in middle-age. The one certainly seemed to become a different person (for the better!) after she changed her diet. It was more a discovery of the intolerance than developing it for both of them.

Got to say tho' I'm gobsmacked by the time taken to prepare the stuff. I think it was 3 days sprouting the buckwheat before starting to cook? And I make the Samosa Pot pie - when she wanted quick Indian food because she was feeling 'lazy' - to be a minimum of an hour and a half! She reckons Indian food usually takes a 'decent time to prepare.' If 90 minutes isn't a decent time - 'kinell, I can have dal, rice, saag, mushroom/peas bhaji on the table in half that!

Do people really have that much time to devote to their food? I'll take an hour or so over lovingly creating a soup or a chilli on Sunday, but that's because it's going to be 2/3 meals* and some in the freezer, so there's less to do in the week. Otherwise it has to be from conception to plate in 20 mins.

*Serving suggestion:
1. 'Straight', w/rice. 2. w/tortilla chips, avocado, fresh tomatoes, crisp lettuce. 3. In wraps w/hummus, avocado, green salad.

[hobbes]

Gluten-free / vegan?

I had no allergies as a kid. Then I developed an allergy to burgundy clothes dye. Gave me a rash. Then it went away a few years later. The allergy to cats that I picked up around 20 years old is still with me though. Makes nut eating and bee stings a bit of a lottery...

[Wouter D]

Everything was fine until you pointed out I ruined it!

[Sits]

That’s excellent and I’ve forwarded to my vegan^ daughter.

^ and coeliac.

[Balderdasha]

I am vegetarian and get irrationally angry at vegans because their existence points out my hypocrisy in greatly enjoying cheese and eggs despite the inherent cruelty in their production. Whenever I go to a restaurant these days, at least half of the tiny selection of vegetarian options have been replaced with a vegan option, and this enrages me.

[Sits]

I remember ticking the box “Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian” for a Qantas flight a little while back. The definition includes egg and dairy products but no meat. First meal was lunch, and the man next to me got a little tub of butter with his bread roll. I got sunflower spread. Then he got ice cream for his dessert while I got some weird orange concoction. I called the flight attendant over.

Sits: “Excuse me, I seem to have a Vegan meal, I asked for Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian”
Attendant: “Oh sorry sir I’ll check that for you”
<attendant goes to crew section>
<attendant returns with printout>
Attendant: “Just checking Mr. Sits, no it’s correct, you have a Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian meal”
Sits: “But I didn’t get butter or ice cream. Those are allowed in a lacto-ovo vegetarian meal”
Attendant: “Well this is the Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian meal”
Sits: “Please can I have ice cream instead of this dessert?”
Attendant: “There’s no ice cream left I’m afraid. The meals are pre-packed”

It went in a bit but was obviously futile.

Aside from that I’m feeling increasingly guilty over my hypocrisy, as referenced by Balderdasha. Well Balderdasha doesn’t refer to my hypocrisy, clearly.

[Hot Pepsi]

I try to be as vegan as I can.

[G-Man]

Five years ago my wife suddenly developed an intolerance to gluten. She had some nasty side effects, especially stomach pains. We discovered early in the elimination process that it was the gluten. So she went gluten-free, which was as hell of a lifestyle change. There's gluten everywhere, even in some spices.

Half a year later she developed what at first was diagnosed as pneumonia. But when the symptoms spread to the other lung, the pulmonologist determined that we are dealing with an auto-immune issue. So he put her on a heavy course of cortisone. That did the trick -- and during those six months, the gluten intolerance disappeared. And as soon as she finished the course, the gluten-intolerance reappeared. While the symptoms are similar, she is apparently not celiac.

The immune system does some stupid stuff sometimes. I suspect that in some people, the immune system rejects some genetically modified foods.

[treibeis]

So he put her on a heavy course of cortisone. That did the trick -- and during those six months, the gluten intolerance disappeared. And as soon as she finished the course, the gluten-intolerance reappeared.

I had the same two years ago, except I refused to take the cortisone. Fuck doctors who prescribe cortisone without a very, very good reason.

I don't know whether I'm officially gluten-intolerant or not. All I know is is that, if I eat gluten, I shit myself, and if I don't, then I don't.

[hobbes]

I suspect that in some people, the immune system rejects some genetically modified foods.

How would that work?

[Hot Pepsi]

Autoimmune is nasty. I have a friend suffering from a non-specific autoimmune thing possibly related to Lyme disease, but the doctors aren’t 100%. She’s on a very restrictive diet.* But she said she wished they’d told her she had MS. At least then she’d have a diagnosis they could specifically treat. I have another old friend with MS, which sucks, but he’s handling it so far very well.

Another friend of mine’s wife has some kind of autoimmune thing that has led her to be on a super restricted diet. They don’t travel together because it’s so hard for her to eat in restaurants. Sucks. But she is doing better lately, so that’s good.

Are autoimmune things more prevalent in women?

*And her husband, by coincidence, has gluten-intolerance and their son, adopted, has other food allergies. So it’s not genetics. They all have these issues separately. It’s rough.

[G-Man]

I had the same two years ago, except I refused to take the cortisone. Fuck doctors who prescribe cortisone without a very, very good reason.

To be fair to the doctor, the course of cortisone was a last resort rather than the quick-fix.

[treibeis]

To be fair to the doctor, the course of cortisone was a last resort rather than the quick-fix.

It was the first - and, as it turned out, last - course of action the doctor offered me. When I asked him whether there were any alternatives, he said there weren't. And so when I rejected his proposal, he gave me the Doctor's Fuck Off (stood up, shook my hand and told me to "get well soon".)

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

I missed this thread back in 2010, and didn't know then what i know now anyway, but add me to the list of people who can attest to the existence of medical issues with gluten very different from coeliac allergy which are fundamentally physical, rather than in any way psychosomatic - and I mean no disrespect here to anyone suffering psychosomatic symptoms from gluten or any other factor, as problems are no less real for being partly mental.

My wife has had compound and major cardiac issues for years, requiring several electric shock cardio-versions to rescue her from fast fibrillation as well as giving her tachycardia episodes several times a month (most days in fact). We discovered many years ago (not long after the cardiac issues kicked off) that gluten is a major aggravating factor, because the bloating effect it causes in her stomach causes upward pressure on her diaphragm which in turn stresses her heart and pushes it into nasty tachycardia episodes. That's not some amateur self-diagnosis, it has been confirmed as extremely likely by her cardiologists. It has also been accidentally "blind tested" in that she once accidentally unknowingly ate the wrong bowl of left over pasta from our fridge (thinking it was her rice pasta) and had an unusually nasty attack of tachycardia an hour or two later.

Novak Djokovic also has a lot to testify about how going gluten-free made him feel massively healthier and transformed his physical fitness for 5 set matches.

I'm very lucky not to suffer from gluten issues myself as I'm rather partial to wheat bread and wheat pasta.