Read 25 times since Tuesday, December 20, 2011
It can be both a shock and a relief to discover you suffer from wheat intolerance. A shock because it means you may have to change your diet significantly, and a relief because you know exactly why you have been in discomfort for so long.
Firstly, however, you need to establish that wheat intolerance is responsible for your problems. The symptoms of this type of food intolerance are wide ranging, and whilst you may recognise some, you won't suffer from others at all. Common signs include a bloated stomach, chest pains, mood swings, joint pain, and nausea. Wheat intolerance can also manifest itself through skin irritation, tiredness and diarrhea. For this reason, it's important to consider professional food intolerance testing so that you can be sure of an accurate diagnosis.
Once you know that wheat intolerance is at the root of your problem, you can begin to take steps to make your life easier so that you can concentrate on achieving good health and getting on with your life. Managing a food intolerance like this is easiest if you have help along the way. Your food intolerance testing process should offer support and guidance for dietary changes and recognising the ways in which wheat reacts negatively with your system.
A condition like wheat intolerance is very similar to an allergy, and is usually treated as such. Foods containing wheat are either removed completely from your diet or significantly cut, depending on the extent of your reaction to them. This means that you need to re-think the way you eat.
Wheat is present in a large number of our everyday foods including breads, pasta, cake, biscuits, cereal and more. Unlike gluten intolerance, however, which covers a much larger range of grains, changes to the diet for wheat intolerance can be still made without too much disruption. Today's supermarkets stock ever-increasing ranges of wheat, gluten, nut and other allergen-free products, so you should be able to substitute good quality products for the foods you need to cut out. It will seem strange at first, but it takes less time than you think to get used to new products and to be aware of checking what's in the food you are eating in restaurants, cafes or with friends.
Now that wheat intolerance is more successfully diagnosed, there are lots of resources around to help you make the changes you need to manage your diet for your long-term health and wellbeing. Taking the time to understand the issues and to work out a sensible and manageable plan for your diet will help you to make wheat intolerance a small part of your life rather than taking it over. Dr. Gillian Hart is a Scientific Director for YorkTest Laboratories who specialise in food intolerance testing to help identify causes for wheat intolerance symptoms and migraine symptoms. For more information visit YorkTest.com or call 0800 074 6185.
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