Crohns Disease Only --- Gluten Free Bread

[5thwheeleroldma]

Wife has UC, later rediagnosed as UC + Crohns. Been through all the medications, now on the last ditch medication (asacol quit working, now on humira) before intestine surgery begins. Medication working somewhat, but she still feels bloated, achey, fatigued, etc.

Somewhat in desperation I am having her try gluten free diet as some said that helped them. After about 5 days gluten free (as near as we know how), she does feel remarkably better. Maybe a fluke, other things have been.

My question, is it better to just buy the frozen loafs of Udi's or try to bake your own. The Udi's is not bad, but certainly nothing like our normal grocery store sandwich bread. If gluten free does pan out long term, I will buy some kind of bread machine. I have tried baking bread the normal way with mixed results --- and GF is much more difficult.

[Scottiemom]

Also I forgot to mention that "Amish Wedding" brand of egg noodles taste exactly like regular noodles. You can cook them in broth or in casseroles. They stay firm and don't break down.

Dale

[Scottiemom]

Sorry about that double post. Seemed to freeze up and gave me an error message so I hit resend.

[Scottiemom]

I have a gluten free bread machine. You can use a regular one, but the GF machine has 2 paddles which is supposed to make better GF bread due to the mixing. I haven't yet made a loaf I would eat, but I'm still working on it. I'm going to try the King Arthur flours and see how that works. So far, I have used GF mixes and haven't been happy with them.

Looks like you are in Texas. The H.E.B. stores carry their own brand of GF spaghetti. It is corn spaghetti and better than any others I have tried. Tastes like wheat spaghetti. And, same price as the regular spaghetti.

Do you have Aldi's nearby? I have tried their brand of GF bread and find it better than Udi's or any others I have found. They also have some other GF products in their store at a fraction of the price of even Walmart.

I'm not celiac, but gluten intolerant and found by cutting out the gluten I really did feel better. So I try to avoid it when I can.

Good luck and hope your wife gets to feeling better.

Dale

[Scottiemom]

I have a gluten free bread machine. You can use a regular one, but the GF machine has 2 paddles which is supposed to make better GF bread due to the mixing. I haven't yet made a loaf I would eat, but I'm still working on it. I'm going to try the King Arthur flours and see how that works. So far, I have used GF mixes and haven't been happy with them.

Looks like you are in Texas. The H.E.B. stores carry their own brand of GF spaghetti. It is corn spaghetti and better than any others I have tried. Tastes like wheat spaghetti. And, same price as the regular spaghetti.

Do you have Aldi's nearby? I have tried their brand of GF bread and find it better than Udi's or any others I have found. They also have some other GF products in their store at a fraction of the price of even Walmart.

I'm not celiac, but gluten intolerant and found by cutting out the gluten I really did feel better. So I try to avoid it when I can.

Good luck and hope your wife gets to feeling better.

Dale

[dcason]

I am one of those folks that believe food is medicine (or poison) and do not believe the fluke thing. I have been gluten free for 3 years but don't mess with bread because anything less than an artisan loaf would be a big disappointment so I cannot help you there.

Before she event thinks about surgery or major meds, keeping gluten out of her diet 100% is a good start. AND it is in everything as you probably already figured out. It also takes MONTHS to clear your body and MONTHS for your body to heal from it...it is not quick. For her sake give it time and make it 100%. There may be other things that are also giving her problems (and they can be all sorts of non gi symptoms) like the big ones including dairy, processed foods (which are probably already removed due to gluten issues) soy...to name a few.

An integrated functional medicine practitioner may be the way to go BUT her diet will be majorly "adjusted" and that is not easy for most people but we are what we eat. Today's flour is not the flour of our parents or grandparents due to hybridization, etc.

One thing that is on my list to eventually try is Einkorn (kind of an ancient wild wheat) but I am personally not messing with that until years down the road.

Best of luck and I sincerely think that surgery/hd meds should be the last resort.

[ReneeG]

We keep Udi's and Franz Gluten Free in our fridge. The reason is that I like Udi's as toast or on grilled cheese, where as DH likes Franz for everything. We are on a gluten free diet purely for health. Gluten contributes to inflammation which can lead to other issues. We are also on a no sugar food plan and we've got some great recipes that you would swear are flour and sugar brownies or cake. When you find something good, you'll never go back. We also like Brazi Bites - found at Costco or Whole Foods. They are gluten free tiny parmesan cheese rolls that are delicious with butter.

[wca01]

If you want to make gluten free bread, King Arthur has the flour and many recipes for all sorts of gluten free things.

Just look them up on the internet -- http://www.kingarthurflour.com/

Good Luck!
Wil

[hapiour]

My daughter is GF due to Hashimoto Thyroiditis. It has helped her tremendously!! She likes the Rudi's bread somewhat...the one thing we found is you need to toast it for sandwiches and such. It does make a difference. I also bought a cookbook called "Gluten Free on a Shoestring".. you can get it through Amazon. It has the best homemade bread recipe and its very easy to make. We have found that Ronzoni GF pasta is as close to "regular" pasta as you can get. The trick to GF pasta is to have your water boiling and add salt...then once you add the pasta and it starts to boil again...time it for 10 minutes...no longer or it will get mushy. If you are using it in casseroles then only boil for 3-5 min as it will continue to cook in the casserole. Bob's Red Mill has a good "all purpose" GF flour that you can use "cup for cup" as regular flour. You will need to add xanthum gum or guar gum to the recipe. Better Batter is also good to use it already has the xanthum gum in it so one less step. Hope this helps!!

[pconroy328]

A couple of our personal favorites include: Tinkyada rice pasta, Kinnikinnick pancake and waffle mix. For baking, we use Debys Gluten Free flour pretty much exclusively.

Never like Udi's bread but we do use their Pizza crusts for DIY Pizza.

[5thwheeleroldma]

Great suggestions; Udis is all we have found so far. Maybe go to Dallas and see if we can get some of the others. Thanks all.

[RVcrazy]

Udi's was the worst tasting of the store bought gf breads. Try others!

[naturist]

My gluten-intolerant daughter gave us a book for Christmas titled "500 Quinoa Recipes" that claims all of them are gluten free. The section on breads is quite extensive.

In researching how to make gluten free breads a year or so ago, I came upon the recommendation to use only bread machines that have a shortened or gluten-free cycle. By coincidence, our bread machine had just such a cycle, an 80 minute "quick bake" cycle, and it helped a lot. So just a tip, if you choose to go the route of baking your own with a machine, be sure to get one with such a baking cycle.

[stallsmi]

Check Paleo Diet websites for recipes. Paleo is gluten free and use primarily almond and coconut flours. Almond flour pancakes are especially good. Plus, we have a Paleo bakery nearby that has some great gluten free breads, buns, etc.

[oldmattb]

If you really crave sweet bread, like most American-style breads are, you might try Ezekiel Cinnamon Raisin. It is not wheat-free, though the grains are sprouted, consuming the gluten.

Great for sandwiches.

Matt B