Food intolerance's have become somewhat more ‘popular’ in the
sense of people have become a lot more aware of them. And with this greater
awareness food manufacturers/restaurants can now cater for dietary
requirements. My interest for further understanding about dietary requirements
has been answered by a dear friend of mine whom is ceoliac and has an
intolerance to lactose.
When and how did you discover your intolerance to gluten?
I went to see the
doctor when I was 16 with bad stomach pains, after eating and especially when I
went to bed at the end of the day, my stomach would be visibly having spasms. I
was told to avoid wheat and gluten to alleviate the symptoms, unfortunately I
didn’t heed the advice to start with but when I did the symptoms went away
immediately.
How did/do you cope with the change in diet?
It was really
difficult to follow to start with. Five years ago, the products available in
the supermarket were poor quality, but having to follow a gluten-free diet has
been a blessing in disguise, it has allowed me to be creative with the food I
eat and I have learnt to make good gluten-free foods, especially breads and
cakes. Fortunately, there’s more awareness for the intolerance now and
companies have seen how lucrative the market is, so there’s a huge range
available now, of high quality products. Living with Coeliac’s disease now is
not as hard as it was.
Are there any recipe websites where you can find good gluten
free recipes?
The blogger ‘Gluten
Free Girl and the Chef’ has great recipes and advice on which restaurants to go
to, Jamie Oliver has a good gluten free section, and the gluten free company
‘Udi’s’ has good recipes. There’s a great website called Celiac Travel, which
is brilliant for where to eat in different countries, and has printable allergy
cards, in a variety of languages, to give to the kitchen so they know exactly
what you can and cannot eat. I went on some courses with ‘Gluten free baking
and living’ which were fantastic, their recipes actually work, and taste/feel
like products with gluten in (which is often the difficulty with gluten free
foods). Also, blogger ‘Nourishing Jessica’ has loads of exciting, healthy recipes
and are free from dairy as well.
What restaurants would you recommend to someone with the
same dietary requirements?
In Britain, I would
recommend 2 Oxford Place in Leeds, which is an entirely gluten free restaurant,
with fantastic food and drinks at good prices. In London, the Truscott Arms is
amazing for gluten free foods, I had a Wagyu beef burger at this pub-style
restaurant, and their pub quiz is great. Again, in London there’s an
Indochinese restaurant called Banana Tree, everything is fresh and there’s a
lot to choose from for gluten free customers, I hadn’t had Chinese food in a
long time when we visited here, and the waitress answered all the questions I
had as I was a little speculative but they are entirely trustworthy. Finally,
in London there is a chain of restaurants called Honest Burger, where
everything apart from the bread buns were gluten free but they had gluten free
bread buns to replace it anyway. Their onion rings were gluten free too! (I
hadn’t had these for 5 years!). A bit further afield, in Paris, there’s two
fantastic places to go, Noglu, gluten free restaurant, and Helmut Newcake,
gluten free patisserie, seriously worth a visit.
And finally any tips to those that have to follow a certain
diet?
Some tips I would give are: - experiment with the different
free from products available - Don’t be shy in making your needs clear in
restaurants, it’s really important they know - Learn to bake and cook, it’s
healthier and more interesting
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