Coeliac Disease and Me. Part 2: Living Gluten Free

This is Part 2 of my Coeliac Disease and Me series, and here I’ll talk about coming to terms with my coeliac diagnosis, telling my friends, and going on dates. To read the gory details of how I was diagnosed, take a look at Coeliac Disease and Me. Part 1: A Grisly Diagnosis.

Sure enough, within a few weeks of my endoscopy and sigmoidoscopy, I was given the news I’d been dreading. The doctors has confirmed that I had coeliac disease and every time I ate gluten it was damaging my insides and making me ill.

Hearing the news transformed me into the biggest baby ever and I cried the whole way home in the car and lay in bed for days feeling really upset and sorry for myself. Although deep down I knew that it wasn’t the end of the world, and I was lucky that I didn’t have cancer or something, I felt so alone and angry.

The food

I’ll be honest and say that in the five years since I was diagnosed with coeliac disease, I haven’t taken it half as seriously as I should have done for the vast majority of that time. There are certain things I’ve found really easy to give up. Before my diagnosis I used to be a beer drinker, but since I found out about my coeliac disease I’ve found it easy to ditch. For the most part, switching from regular bread to gluten-free bread has been a walk in the park too, thanks to the fact that I get gluten-free bread on prescription.

There are still plenty of foods I can eat, it’s all just a matter of checking the labels before I buy something. In a large supermarket there are tons of things for me, and it’s possible to have plenty of variation in my diet by cooking lots of meals from scratch. Problems arise though when I’m unable to cook something at home and have to grab something quick on the go. Good luck finding a gluten free sandwich in Tesco on your lunch break!

Another big problem I’ve had has been when it comes to going out for meals with friends or resisting the temptation to eat bad stuff just because everyone else is.

The number of restaurants offering gluten free foods is on the rise, but there is still a long way to go before they offer the amount of choice that people like me deserve.

How to lose friends and alienate people

In the weeks following on from my diagnosis, I gradually explained the situation to my friends, which was much more difficult than I thought it would be. Many of them didn’t understand the severity of the situation, and to be fair to them, I probably didn’t help by occasionally still eating gluten whenever it suited me.

It was really tough and all of a sudden, simple things like going out for meals or to a friend’s birthday would become a big ordeal. If I said no to going to a restaurant, some of my friends would take the mick and act as though I was being boring or fussy or just using it as an excuse not to go somewhere.

If, on the other hand, I agreed to go for a meal with them and eat gluten anyway, someone would point out that coeliac disease can’t be that bad really. They’d then use that particular occasion as an example if I ever turned them down at a later date.

Sometimes I’d feel really ill straight afterwards and would find myself missing out on the fun.

Other times I’d feel fine after, and over the years this has caused a few of my friends so much confusion. How can I be okay one day and ill the next? I must be faking it!

One of the most annoying reactions from ‘friends’ has been that of disgust. It’s so upsetting when someone acts like you’re disgusting because you have a disease that makes you ill.

Once, after quietly sneaking off to the loo after having a meal with some friends, one of them pointed out to everyone else at the table that I’d probably gone for a crap, before loudly asking all about it upon my return. I never usually would wish coeliac disease on someone but there’s a first for everything.

On the morning of mine and Jake’s first date last summer, he suggested going for a picnic. Instantly I was filled with dread. “What if he brings sandwiches?” I thought to myself. “What if I eat them and feel ill and throw up or there’s nowhere to go to the toilet?” I was panicking so much over what really shouldn’t be such a big deal.

Eventually, I decided to woman up and send him a text telling him about the situation. It would be pretty snide of me to let him turn up with sandwiches only to refuse to eat them.

I was worried though that he’d instantly think I was some ‘eat clean’ fanatic, but thankfully that wasn’t the case. He didn’t make a big deal out of it or ask me loads of probing questions about what happens if I eat gluten. Nobody wants to be sharing those gory details on a first date!

When we sat down on the grass in the park he pulled some FreeFrom chocolate brownies out of his bag and some ciders. “I hope these are okay. I spent ages checking the labels,” he said. What a cutie.

It’s only really in the last year that I’ve actually started to feel better and benefit from the results of a gluten free diet. When a person with coeliac disease eats gluten, it can affect them for weeks afterwards, and because I was eating gluten so frequently before, I was never giving myself a chance to feel better. Now that I’m consistently going gluten-free though, I feel fine.

Having coeliac disease isn’t just about getting ill when you eat something with gluten in it. The consequences can be much more severe. It suddenly dawned on me a few months ago that unless I really stick to this, I could wind up with cancer or osteoporosis. Every time I eat a Big Mac, I’m damaging my fertility and increasing my chances of having a miscarriage in the future. If I one day find that I’m unable to have children, I’m not going to look back and think “Oh well, it was worth it for all those pies.” Instead I’ll look back and hate myself.

I eat gluten free too!

Coeliac disease makes you hate everyone. Not only do ignorant people wind me up, I also hate it when you tell someone that you can’t eat gluten and they reply “Oh my God, I know, right? I’m on a gluten free diet too!”

If gluten is making you ill in some way, I applaud you for giving it up. But if you think that giving up gluten is the key to losing weight, have words with yourself and eat some pasta, will you?

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdJFE1sp4Fw]

The reason so many people see results when they go on these ‘gluten free” diets is because they’ve cut out junk food and are eating healthy. It has nothing to do with whether or not gluten is in the food you’re eating, but it has everything to do with the fact that a lot of foods with gluten in just so happen to be unhealthy.

For example, a person on a gluten free diet probably lives off things like fruit, vegetables, chicken, potatoes, fish and lentils. All these things are healthy and it just so happens that they don’t have gluten in.

If however you’re living off pizzas, pastries, sandwiches and biscuits, you’re not having a healthy diet. Sure, these foods all have gluten in, but it would be stupid to say that gluten is the reason why these things are unhealthy.

It’s worth noting though that there are also plenty of gluten free foods that aren’t good for you. Chocolate, ice cream, and crisps, for example, are often gluten free (check the labels first) but that doesn’t mean you’re going to lose weight by eating them.

If you eat a healthy diet, throwing in a gluten-filled bread roll at breakfast isn’t going to cause any damage or make you gain weight. Think of it this way, a gluten free cake is just as bad for you as a gluten-filled cake. Gluten free pasta is no healthier than regular pasta.

Anyway, I think I’ve rambled on enough for one day. I hope I’ve not bored you to death/made you throw up in your tea!

If you’ve gotten this far and have taken the time to read both my Coeliac Disease and Me posts, I think I love you a little bit! If you have coeliac disease yourself, or gluten makes you ill, get in touch in the comments below. We can share horror stories and then cheer ourselves up with lovely gluten free cake recipes!