Just a thought.

I am sure no one on here could have slipped through this net, but...
With a long line of bakers in my family, how ironic would it be if I was like this lady?


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It's worth cutting out gluten for a few months and see if it helps. My IBS symptoms almost disappeared after I stopped eating gluten. I sneak pizza or a sandwich every once in a while with no real problems but I can't do more than one a month or so.

Did you ever get a test done Alli. My eldest daughter has BAD IBS, she cant work or have a normal life.

They gave her a blood test for celiac and it was negative, but I heard you can still be intolerant.

I never had a test done but suspected gluten was a problem for quite awhile. A test won't show gluten intolerance. You figure that out by how your body feels on and off gluten. I hadn't been able to eat whole wheat bread for a few years as it immediately gave me an IBS attack. Once I finally let it be ok not to eat wheat, I improvement right away.

It is worth trying. People of Northern European descent have problems with gluten, the worst is celiacs, the rest of us get IBS, pain, migraines, fibro, etc... anything that can be the result of inflammation, which gluten intolerance will cause. Once I did a little research and took my ancestry into account, I figured I fit the profile and cut out gluten. One of the best things I ever did.

The blood test she had was for Celiac and it was negative. So that puts her back to the IBS as far as the GP is concerned.

But she could still be gluten sensitive right?
And the only way to find out is to cut it out.
How long is long enough to find out?
It seems to be in everything and she eats really badly because of the IBS.

Yes, the test only finds if you have Celiacs as that leaves definitive changes in the gut and blood work. Gluten intolerance can't be found with a test yet. Gluten creates a protein in the blood that causes problems but can't be detected in blood work as it is "normal' to be there. But gluten intolerant people can't deal with high amounts of this protein.

It only took a week or so to see a dramatic changes in my IBS symptoms. I used to have IBS attacks almost every day and now only when I have a bad migraine or I cheat too much. I ate a LOT of pasta and bread so I could tell the difference pretty quickly. If her IBS is that bad it will not hurt anything to cut out gluten and see if it helps.

It really isn't that hard to cut it out. You do have to prepare more of your own meals rather than using packages but once you get the hang of it you don't really miss it AND your gut behaves!

Thanks very much Alli, I have read it out to her. We think on the whole bread is the biggest problem. We have tried Gluten free bread. Now you dont have to be a baker's daughter, as I am to know it is disgusting.

None of us are crazy about bread, but it is a handy thing to have around. How do you get around that one Alli?

Rye Crisp crackers. (Crackers in the American sense not English - I know you call cookies crackers) They are made from rye flour. I use them as a kind of open face sandwich. Crunchy but good. On occasion I have been able to find rye bread that has no wheat flour in it. That is a treat!

I also use thick cut potato chips and tortilla chips like crackers. They go well with deli meats and cheese.

I'm not fond of Rice Cakes but those work too. They are a little to dry and bland for me.

And I do have a recipe for a gluten free sandwich bread that isn't horrible. It's not that dense rice bread that is so icky, but a decent substitute for sandwich bread.

We call Cookies cookies Ali, but we also have some we call biscuits. Confusing or what????

We have crackers. We have Rye crackers, we dont tend to have saltines and we have no graham crackers...


I would be interested in the recipe please Ali.
We are going to try this for the sake of my daughters raging IBS ,my transient IBS and my fibro and migraines. Can you make it in a bread machine....no matter if not. I am a baker's daughter...

Oh, forgot. Are we avoiding wheat or gluten, they two are not the same. Which is the bad guy?

Wheat gluten is the problem. There are different types of gluten but wheat gluten is the one that people have problems with. Oat gluten is ok for me so I can eat all the oatmeal that I want.

So when you go gluten free it is ALL wheat products that you are eliminating. Since flour is used as a thickening agent or breading it is in everything which is why you have to read labels.

Biscuits.... that's what I was thinking of... That confused me so much when I was a kid. It thought you were all deprived over there as you only got biscuits and no cookies!

I'll get you the recipe tomorrow. You can do it in the bread machine but I just make it without. You don't have to knead it as it is something between a thick cake and bread.

Thanks very much Alli, I shall pass it on to #2 daughter, baking is her charge.....

More confusion over what Southern US calls biscuits, more like our scones without the sugar. And we all speak English....

Yeah but scones are better than most biscuits. The only ones I like are buttermilk biscuits dripping with butter and honey. But I can't eat them anymore Or scones... with jam...

I know a lady who was diagnosed with gluten intollerance through a DNA test.
She was not celiac but she still had celiac-like symptoms (skin rush, ibs, fatigue....).

She saw an immunologist who prescribed a very particular and expensive DNA test that showed that the gene that causes the celiac disease was only partially damaged in her case. This partial damage was not enough to cause alterations that could be detected in the blood but was enough to cause symptoms.

The gluten-free diet has solved all her issues in 3 weeks.

I have been tested for celiac disease 3 times and I'm negative to it.

I have anyway tried for many months to eat gluten free but my migraines have not changed a bit. I have no other symptoms (no ibs, no fatigue, no skin rush) that can be connected to celiac disease apart from migraines and low iron.
Glad about that...I couldn't live without pasta and pizza

Yea... I think I miss pasta and sour dough bread the most. Being part Italian, pasta was a mainstay my diet my whole life. Rice pasta just isn't the same. Quinoa pasta is much better but it isn't quite the same.

But not having my stomach kill me for hours after eating is well worth the trade off.

We eat a lot of pasta and rice. Not tried Quinoa pasta, but the gluten free pasta is okay, unlike the bread...