Rice milk - An experiment

Yesterday I did an experiment with eating rice milk. In the recent past I have been having rice milk warm with either cornflakes and as porridge, and both times I got stomach upset afterwards. My mum suggested that maybe it is the heating of the milk was the problem and not the cereals, so try it cold. So, yesterday I had cornflakes with cold rice milk. The result - no problems. There was a few seconds whilst making my bed that I thought I felt a slight stomach quibble but it settled. I was fine for the rest of the day. No pains, no anything. So, maybe my mum is right in saying that heating up the rice milk does something to it that disagrees with me and my v sensitive stomach. If that is the case, then I won't be able to eat porridge with rice milk again or I shall have to find another milk to try. I have tried most other milks so far. I shall try it again on Tuesday when I'm not going out to see what happens then.

Results of my mini-elimination diet

So, I have been an a mini-elimination diet over the last 2 weeks, eating only Free From toast for breakfast and not having any rice milk with porridge. Here are the results - no stomach pains at all, except for when I got anxious about seeing the GP. I shall try having millet porridge with rice milk again later next week when I am not going out that day or doing anything like cleaning. That will probably be Thursday. We shall see what happens.

I have been eating rice and rice cakes, both of which are wholegrain. So, I am wondering if it is just the refined and processed version of rice I can't take now. I have read a reply to a letter from someone who wrote up about this to a gluten-free magazine, and the reply was that it could be the refined version that causes intolerances. We shall see if I get pains again next week. Will let you know. If I do get pains, then I have already bought goat's milk and try that.

Cornflakes a no-no

Well, after a month off from last trying gluten-free cornflakes, I ate them for breakfast this morning with hot rice milk. The result - niggling stomach pains and visiting the small room. So, now I know that I can no longer eat corn/maize. Seems my stomach doesn't like most grains these days. I shall stick to what I know I can eat from now on. That means for breakfast, I will be eating Free From toast when I go out that day, millet porridge with ham or cocoa rice pops when I am not going out that day. One of these days I shall take a photo of what my porridge and that looks like so you can see it.

So, I am now intolerant to: dairy, soya, wheat, gluten and corn/maize. Plus a host of other foods that are too many to name here eg dark green veg.

3rd week of being gluten-free

This is my third week of being gluten-free. Here is how I have gone this week:

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I had toast for breakfast as I went out to places on all three days. I was fine.

Thursday: I had millet porridge with rice milk and jam. I was fine, too. I sat quietly for half an hour reading afterwards.

Friday: I had cornflakes with rice milk. Thought I was fine to start with, but after a while I started to get niggly inside, then it turned into a stomach ache.

Saturday: I had cocoa rice with rice milk. I was fine with that, which surprised me because I had the same amount I had the first time when I wasn't all right.

Today: I had millet porridge with rice milk and jam. I think because I worked myself into a hurry to eat it up, do things so I can get on with completing a form, that I ended up with stomach pains.

So, here is my summary of what I am going to do. I am sticking to toast whenever I am going out, as that seems to be OK with me. I am not going to have cornflakes for another month, then try them again to see what happens. I have a feeling they will not agree with me then, so will have to forget about eating them. I will continue having the cocoa rice as I like those (my mum doesn't), and might not have so many next time. I need to sit quietly after eating breakfast before I get up to do anything, and I have to not get myself worked up afterwards. I have a sensitive stomach, esp in the morning.

In the meantime, I realise that I rather like the taste of rice milk. It has a nice sweet taste to it, which oat milk doesn't. Gives the porridge a different taste; an interesting and less bland one.

So that is how I am getting on. If you are on a gluten-free diet for health reasons, like me, let me know how you are getting on.

Week 2 of being gluten-free

The second week of being gluten free is now at an end. All was going well until this morning. I had been having millet flakes with hot rice milk and some jam for breakfast on mornings when I wasn't going out and have been fine. Yesterday I had cornflakes with hot milk and I had a couple of slight twinges but nothing drastic that would warrant me dashing to a certain somewhere. Until this morning. Knowing I wasn't going out, I had already been over the road to get the paper, I had millet porridge with rice milk and jam. Half an hour later I got stomach pains and had to dash to that certain room. Now I don't know what to think. Is rice now bothering me too? I shall try it again later in the week, again when I am not going out at all that day. I shall also try cornflakes again later in the week, but not have so many and see what happens. So, I am now extending my gluten-free diet for another two weeks to see what happens next time. I seem to be fine with gluten-free oatcakes, breadsticks and bread and rolls.

I will be back next week reporting on how things are going.

A week of being gluten-free

So, I've now been having a gluten-free diet for a week. How is it going? It has had its ups and downs this week so far. I seem to be OK eating gluten-free toast with sunflower spread and marmite on. I have millet porridge with rice milk. One time I had it this week I was OK the other I had slight stomach pains after it. Yesterday, I went out for lunch, having gone to a writing talk. I had a home-made burger and fries with onions. It could have been the burger or probably the onions, as I can react to onions sometimes, but afterwards whilst I was talking to another author I got stomach pains. I rubbed my stomach and tried to find mints I knew I had in my bag. I found them in the end and had one. My pains seemed to ease after that. This morning I had gluten-free cocoa rice like rice crispies with rice milk. Because I had stomach pains when I had them before I didn't have so many this time. I still got slight stomach pains but haven't had to go to the small room like I did last week. There is one thing that I have found I can't seem to eat now - fruit and nut bars called Nked bars. I had a mint flavoured one and an orange one on different days, and both times I got stomach pains after eating it. So, I now can't eat too much fruit and nuts in one go.

I have one more week to go on this diet. I am out for the day tomorrow so will take my own lunch with me and maybe buy a bag of crisps there. My next thing to try is to have cornflakes again but with rice milk. I will try that next weekend when I am not going out the same day and the day after.

I have found that I rather like the gluten-free bread rolls by Warburton. They are much better made than the ones I had before by Sainsbury's.

Going gluten free

I have decided that for the next two weeks I am going to be gluten free. Why? Things have been happening to my diet that I don't like and I need to find out what I can and can't eat. It all started a few years ago on a last day of being at a conference. I had toast for breakfast, a roll with my lunch and toast again when I got home early evening. All that wheat didn't agree with my stomach and I had to visit a certain room a few times. Then early this year, I went out for a social meeting and had a dinner of pasta. The same thing happened. I realised that I could no longer eat proper wheat. The last month or so other grains have been having an effect on me. First it was corn. Then it was rye (I usually have ryvitas for lunch) and then it was crackers made from wheat, and lastly it was oats. So, I decided to cut out the corn first for this month, then cut out the rye and now the wheat and oats. There are alternatives. We have gluten-free bread anyway because my mum has coeliac, and I bought some gluten-free rolls by Warburton as well. For breakfast, instead of the oat milk I have, I have started to have Mum's rice milk. I have found a major difference. One day I had porridge made with rice milk and I had no stomach ache, but two days later I had it with oat milk and did have a stomach ache. The rolls are really nice so will buy more of those. For supper in the evenings, when I usually have oat cakes or wheat crackers, I have gluten-free breadsticks (which are yummy with dairy free choc spread), or gluten-free oatcakes or rice cakes, which are nice with jam or choc spread on. So I have choices. So far so good.

I shall report back in a week's time to tell you how I've got on.