What Is "the Basic Diet"

[Missouri Farmer]

I am a 23 year old male and was diagnosed with celiac disease around the first of the year after having an endoscopy. I have done everything I know to eliminate gluten but my symptoms still include constant fatigue, bloating and belching following meals, ataxia, and the need to eat every few hours or I feel faint.

I think that I am having a reaction to other foods and want to go on a basic diet to see if my symptoms improve. From reading this forum the most basic diet seems to consist of only fruit, vegetables, and meat without any rice, quinoa, potatoes, etc. If I eat fruit I get hypoglycemic symptoms so I am going to stay away from fruit for now.

That leaves me with vegetable and meat. My question is can I live completely off of vegetable and meat? I am already rather thin and don't need to loose any weight. Are there certain meets vegetable I should eat more of than others? Where can I find recipes?

Once I gain my health back my plan is to then add in other foods gradually to see what I can tolerate. Thanks for all your help.

[KimmyJ]

I am a 23 year old male and was diagnosed with celiac disease around the first of the year after having an endoscopy. I have done everything I know to eliminate gluten but my symptoms still include constant fatigue, bloating and belching following meals, ataxia, and the need to eat every few hours or I feel faint.

I think that I am having a reaction to other foods and want to go on a basic diet to see if my symptoms improve. From reading this forum the most basic diet seems to consist of only fruit, vegetables, and meat without any rice, quinoa, potatoes, etc. If I eat fruit I get hypoglycemic symptoms so I am going to stay away from fruit for now.

That leaves me with vegetable and meat. My question is can I live completely off of vegetable and meat? I am already rather thin and don't need to loose any weight. Are there certain meets vegetable I should eat more of than others? Where can I find recipes?

Once I gain my health back my plan is to then add in other foods gradually to see what I can tolerate. Thanks for all your help.

It sounds like what you really need is to speak to a nutritionist. I think that apart from the obvious "no gluten", different people can handle different foods, so it's really difficult for anyone to give a basic diet to someone. I would talk to your doc about a referral to a nutritionist who can evaluate your specific needs and help you come up with a menu plan that will provide all the nutrients that you need. Good luck!

[gfpaperdoll]

Yes you can eat with just meat, fish, veggies. can you eat nuts? It is good to add some walnuts to your diet. Maybe some almond butter.

you can boil chicken for chicken salad, bake chicken, bake fish, fry pork chops, cook a roast... fresh or canned salmon...

for veggies I suggest baked sweet potatoes, stir fried cabbage or steamed cabbage, steamed carrots, steamed broccoli, really any cooked veggie that you like & can tolerate.

making homemade soup is a good idea & you can freeze portions for a quick meal. I freeze mine in glass pyrex bowls with plastic lids, I take off the lid, top with a glass plate & heat in the microwave. I suggest soup with meat and the stock from cooking the meat, carrots, cabbage, onions, tomato paste - be sure to buy the brand that only has tomatoes, and any other veggies like squash etc. Do not put white potatoes in it - they do not freeze well - plus a lot of us cannot tolerate white potatoes... also do not put rice in it - if you can tolerate some rice you can pour your soup over a serving - but if you are sick better to not have the rice...

if you can do raw veggies a salad with kale, carrots, tomatoes, jicama, add any cooked meat.

can you eat eggs? you can keep boiled eggs on hand, scrambled with ham for breakfast or bacon or for breakfast you can eat dinner left overs.

have you tried pears?

If your insides are not in good shape you might want to give up dairy, soy, white potatoes, & grains in general - especially all those gluten-free goodies. If you can tolerate corn you might want to try some white corn tortillas occasionally.

there are a lot of gluten-free recipes, if you need a specific one - you can ask for it...

wishing you many happy delicious meals...

[jewi0008]

Sidenote, though, I eat quinoa religiously and it is completely fine. There is no gluten in quinoa. And it tastes so good!

I am a 23 year old male and was diagnosed with celiac disease around the first of the year after having an endoscopy. I have done everything I know to eliminate gluten but my symptoms still include constant fatigue, bloating and belching following meals, ataxia, and the need to eat every few hours or I feel faint.

I think that I am having a reaction to other foods and want to go on a basic diet to see if my symptoms improve. From reading this forum the most basic diet seems to consist of only fruit, vegetables, and meat without any rice, quinoa, potatoes, etc. If I eat fruit I get hypoglycemic symptoms so I am going to stay away from fruit for now.

That leaves me with vegetable and meat. My question is can I live completely off of vegetable and meat? I am already rather thin and don't need to loose any weight. Are there certain meets vegetable I should eat more of than others? Where can I find recipes?

Once I gain my health back my plan is to then add in other foods gradually to see what I can tolerate. Thanks for all your help.

[GlutenGalAZ]

I haven't done this but a lot of people on here talk about the elimination diet. Where you have a very plain safe diet and then introduce new things to your diet once a week (I believe it is -- double check if it is once a week or every two weeks).

Are you lactose intolerant? Some people are in general and some people are during the beginning of the diet when their body is healing and then you can slowly bring it back into your diet after a while.

You can also keep a food journal/diary....write down what you are eating and drinking during the day that way if you feel sick later you can look back and see what you ate that day or during the week depending how quickley you react to things.

Have you checked your lotions, shampoos, soaps, etc to make sure they do not contain gluten?

Your doctor can do blood work to check for vitamin diffency etc that are not in a normal blood panel.

Be careful with how much food you are eliminating, that you are still taking in enough food. Are you taking gluten free vitamins? If not I would start b/c a lot of the time your body is not absorbing all of the nutrients and vitamins you are taking in.

Hope you can figure things out. Good luck with everything.

[TestyTommy]

Do you have any problems with rice or potatoes? I don't think very many celiacs react to rice and potatoes. I think some of us avoid starches to control our weight, but if you need to put some weight on, nothing will do it better than rice and potatoes.

[BRUMI1968]

There are large families of foods that many folks are allergic or reactive to:

1. GRAINS: gluten (obviously), corn, rice (not so much in the "west"), tapioca (grain?)

2. SOY

3. DAIRY

4. NIGHTSHADES: potato, tomato, eggplant, peppers/chilies, and tobacco

5. EGGS

Eggs, soy, dairy, and wheat are the top allergens. So it makes the most sense to start there. But nuts bother a lot of folks too, and I would not think they belong on a "basic" diet. THat seems like something you would want to add back once you found some stability. Or at least do in smaller amounts - they are great for fat and protein as long as they don't bother you. Never eat them with dried fruit, which you probably should not be eating at all right now anyway, to check for sugar problems.

IF you were to do meat and veggies but are worried about weight loss, be sure to include squashes and sweet potatoes (not related to potato), which will give you some sweetness, some starch, and some calories. Also fatty protein fruits like avocado and if you can tolerate it, coconut. If you want you could add some "grains" to the diet, mostly quinoa (actually a seed) and millet I think as to low reaction potential. If you can afford it, I'd stick to grass fed beef (just way better for you and better for the cow as well) and buffalo for red meats, and organic chicken. I just read an article that talked about how much mainline supermarket beef is fed garbage from the garbage dump (Mother Jones). I eat only grass fed beef from a local farm, and buffalo. Tried ostrich, but didn't like it too well - tastes like chicken-basted buffalo and very lean.

I have lost weight on meat/veggie diet, and I don't have it to lose either. I do think that it evens out a bit as your body adjusts and gets better. Right now if I eat millet bread once a day or so, I gain 5-8 pounds. If I don't, I lose it. (But I'm not eating it since I have an overall itching problem I'm trying to get to the bottom of and I'm testing out the bread first.) I have bottomed out at 123 or so (5'9 woman) which is too light...but it seems to stay around 125-127. I'm just lean I guess.

Now I'm blathering. Keep us posted and best of luck to you.

[MyMississippi]

I would recommend that you go back to your doctor and discuss all these symptoms, particularly the need to eat every few hours because you feel faint. You may need more testing.

Be very sure that you are strictly gluten free.

Hope you feel better soon.

[MDRB]

It sounds like what you really need is to speak to a nutritionist. I think that apart from the obvious "no gluten", different people can handle different foods, so it's really difficult for anyone to give a basic diet to someone. I would talk to your doc about a referral to a nutritionist who can evaluate your specific needs and help you come up with a menu plan that will provide all the nutrients that you need. Good luck!

I wouldn't bother going to a nutritionist unless you know of one who is particularly good and knows a lot about celiac disease. I have tried a couple and been really disappointed, not only are they extremely expensive but most of them only have a very vague idea of what celiac disease is.

I have recently been considering going vegan in order to speed up my healing and reduce my symptoms. I think the main thing is to stick to foods that are easy to digest such as fresh vegetables, lentils, beans, brown rice etc.

As far as the weight goes, a lot of celiac patients find that they begin to gain weight when they go gluten free because they are finally absorbing foods the way they are supposed to. Give it time, as you heal you will most likely start to gain weight.

Good luck

[gfp]

I haven't done this but a lot of people on here talk about the elimination diet. Where you have a very plain safe diet and then introduce new things to your diet once a week (I believe it is -- double check if it is once a week or every two weeks).

Are you lactose intolerant? Some people are in general and some people are during the beginning of the diet when their body is healing and then you can slowly bring it back into your diet after a while.

You can also keep a food journal/diary....write down what you are eating and drinking during the day that way if you feel sick later you can look back and see what you ate that day or during the week depending how quickley you react to things.

Have you checked your lotions, shampoos, soaps, etc to make sure they do not contain gluten?

Your doctor can do blood work to check for vitamin diffency etc that are not in a normal blood panel.

Be careful with how much food you are eliminating, that you are still taking in enough food. Are you taking gluten free vitamins? If not I would start b/c a lot of the time your body is not absorbing all of the nutrients and vitamins you are taking in.

Hope you can figure things out. Good luck with everything.

This is all excellent advice...

Unfortunately as others have pointed out, seeing the wrong MD or nutritionist can be more confusing. Unless they have actually had to eat gluten-free themselves they rarely "get it" regarding CC and industrial products.

Can you live off fresh vegetables and meat?

Our ancestors did for hundreds of thousands of years. Missouri didn't have rice until introduced by immigrants.

To make this healthy as possible you need a good mix.... as someone else said a mix of green vegetables and meats/fish ... although I eat rice I eat mostly this myself...

gluten-free vitamins are as said a good idea until your body recovers its ability to adsorb food.

Other than these pointers you are exactly where I was after 6 months gluten-free.

After going 100% gluten-free, no prepared foods, no gluten in the house at all and not eating anything I didn't make myself I got the final jigsaw piece.

I am now much less strict in terms of not eating out .. but I do sometimes get ill when I do... however my kitchen is 100% gluten-free so if I do get ill I can "retreat" to my safe haven whilst I recover and stop compounding symptoms...

My trigger for this was a gluten enriched shampoo. I ended up having a very embarassing poop incident and had to go home and clean up. I was so upset and whilst showering actually read the bottle... "enriched with pure wheat protein" (nt even in small letters, a big splash across the front).

This was it for me .... I went through the whole house and binned everything not gluten-free.

I was upset at the time and ruthless ......

6 weeks later I couldn't believe how my life had changed and how much gluten must have been slipping in.

Once you get to this point its much much easier .... you spot CC earlier and know where it came from or at least your 100% sure what it isn't!

[Missouri Farmer]

Thank you for all the advice and for sharing your experiences with me.

Last month I saw a nutritionist who was supposed to be an expert with celiac. She went over the basics but really wasn't able to give the individualized advice that I need. I had my iron and vitamin levels checked and thankfully they are all good.

What do I look for when I check my soap, shampoo, shaving cream, etc? Will it say a key word like "wheat protein" or are there also some code words I should look for?

I am going to ask my doctor about food allergy testing. What are your experiences with the effectiveness of this type of testing?

Thanks

[happygirl]

Have you had your Celiac bloodwork re-done to check that your levels have returned to normal?

[MyMississippi]

About food allergy testing---

I was told about 13 years ago, when I had mine done, that they weren't very reliable (the blood test, that is) I don't know about the prick tests, I would NEVER have that done.

Anyway, the blood test came back, that I was VERY allergic to wheat -- off the charts, so to speak ! (I had anaphylactic reaction a week earlier which landed me in the Emergency room, near death) . So in my case, the blood test was very definitive for wheat allergy. He said I had the highest numbers he had ever seen in all his years of practice.

It was also an extremely EXSPENSIVE test, as I recall. My insurance paid most.

GOod luck-----

[Ursa Major]

I am living almost exclusively on vegetables and meat, the only fruit I can tolerate is peeled pears, and the occasional peeled golden delicious apple, a banana once a week. I've been living like that for two and a half years now, and it is fine.

Just make sure to get enough fat. And I mean saturated fat, it is actually essential to life. Non-hydrogenated coconut oil is an extremely healthy saturated fat.

In your personal care products you need to look for things like barley extract, oat bran, hydrolyzed wheat protein and wheat germ oil. Sometimes they put the Latin names, which I don't recall. Somebody else might give you a list, or you may need to look them up.

Have you eliminated dairy and soy from your diet yet? They can be a huge problem. And rice is NOT as hypoallergenic as most people believe, and neither are potatoes. Rice, potatoes and eggs give me nearly the same symptoms as gluten. As do beans, which are actually hard to digest.