This week is Coeliac Disease Awareness Week. So what is Coeliac Disease? It is a severe reaction to all grains (wheat, rye, barley, oats and spelt). Gluten is the protein and the glue in the grains that sticks the food together. Reactions can be severe weight loss or bad diarrhoea. 1 in 100 Brits have it, and of those inc my mum, one of her sisters and her brother, which is why I have decided to highlight here under healthy eating. Wheat is the main grain you can find gluten in, and as I have found out, is in a hell of a lot of foods from the obvious ones eg bread, to things like pastes. Fortunately there are a lot of gluten-free alternatives to these and I will explore these later on this week.
So what am I going to do about it? Personally I have decided to try to go wheat free this week. I can't do without rye and oats and I eat ryvitas and I love my oatcakes, but I can do without wheat as I've done it before. So that is what I am doing and will let you know the results later in the week when I will tell you about what alternatives there are, where to get them and how much they are and what they taste like.
So I shall see you then. I challenge you to go wheat free this week and see how you find it.
Good luck with that - I've been wheat free for about 15 years, so it's not an issue for me. The hardest thing for me to give up is oats because I eat porrage every morning and would hate to give that up.
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