How often have you heard people say that they are intolerant to wheat?
You may have even wondered this yourself.
Wheat may appear to be a very simple food however it actually contains a complex combination of nutrients and micronutrients. For most people, if they are intolerant to wheat it can either be attributed to either the fermentable carbohydrate (FODMAP) or the gluten in the wheat.
Despite what we have been led to believe, only about 1 in 100 people actually have an allergy or intolerance to the gluten (people with coeliac disease definitely do). However, about 1 in 4 of the adult population may have some intolerance to the undigested part of wheat that ends up in the bowel and is ‘fermented’ by gut bacteria. You can read more about different wheat-related conditions in our non coeliac wheat sensitivity blog.
So, if you know that you don’t tolerate wheat and also know that you don’t have coeliac disease but want to know for once and for all what it is in wheat that you can’t tolerate, the dietitian at Help Yourself Nutrition and Dietetics can support you through a ‘process of elimination’ to help you find out. We can provide you with recipes and supplements that will help distinguish which part of wheat is problematic. That way, you can then liberalise your diet to contain all foods except those that caused symptoms, meaning your food range will increase dramatically without an increase in symptoms.
You are welcome to book a video appointment so we can get started in helping you to work out if you are sensitive to gluten or FODMAPs, or neither or both.