Nutrition And Vitamins

[MrMark]

Once a person has eliminated wheat/gluten from their diet, they have just made that fewer vitamins available in their diet. As wheat contains (at a minimum) thiamine, niacin, iron, zinc riboflavin and other trace minerals, what can we do to make sure we get all required vitamins and minerals? Is there one food type (fruit, vegetable or meat) that has about the same vitamin content as wheat?

Also, I guess we are getting kicked while we are down. I have read that Celiac often makes absorbing fat soluble vitamins very difficult. What can we do to get the most of the fat soluble vitamins? All suggestions welcome!

Thanks Mark

[hayley3]

I take sublingual vitamins D and K and B12. I take a bioactive B complex. I haven't found an A that's sublingual.

I also take a powdered multivitamin but I don't know how much I'm absorbing but I take it anyway.

They tested my B vitamins and I was okay, but I was deficient in vitamin D. They didn't check my A levels and I wish they had.

Millet and other grains have the same type of vitamins that are in wheat.

[MyMississippi]

Cutting wheat and gluten out of your diet is not detremental to your health. In fact, it can be very healthy, even if you don't have celiac. Most of the wheat products consumed by Americans is in the form of white bread and junk food like cakes, cookies, etc. which are devoid of any real nutritional value anyway. Even though they taste GOOD and are great COMFORT foods.

You can get a boatload of vitamins and good nutrition from all the other zillion foods out there. Fresh green veggies should top the list, then there's fresh fruit, nuts, seeds, lean meat, fish, etc. Your body won't even MISS THE WHEAT--------

Your M.D. should be able to suggest the appropriate vitamin supplements for you.

HAPPY EATING !

[Mango04]

Eat a variety of whole, unprocessed foods (fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, legumes, gluten-free grains, meats, healthy fats etc.) and you will be getting significantly more nutrients than the average person who subsists on packaged, processed wheat-based foods.

[ravenwoodglass]

The one supplement most celiacs really need in the first few months is sublingual B12, a for sure gluten-free one. Your digestive system needs to heal before you can properly store and utilize it again and the sublingual form will bypass the digestive system and go straight to the blood and brain. Other than that a good diet of naturally gluten free foods, as others mentioned, will give you all the nutrients you need. If you feel better doing it get a good gluten-free multiple to take once a day in addition to the B12, it can't hurt.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

The food pyramid is WRONG--wheat is just not the huge nutrition source we are led to believe, and most of the wheat in the typical Western diet is, as mentioned above, white bread and white pasta, which contain none of the nutrition of whole wheat. And the nutrition that wheat products do have is mostly because it is "enriched," or sprayed with vitamins anyway!

You could eat whatever you were eating for nutrition before you went gluten-free. Hopefully, that includes fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs,fish, poultry, and beef. Add brown rice, potatoes, gluten-free pastas (for enjoyment more than for nutrition)(and gluten-free breads containing flaxseed meal), and what else do you need?

[tarnalberry]

yep, there's really not much that you can't get from a well balanced non-gluten diet that you get from wheat. in fact, wheat is not the best source of almost every vitamin/mineral that people site it being high in, but the grains that are better tend to be a bit more esoteric (such as amaranth and quinoa).

the only thing that you may want to supplement is folic acid (of which the RDA is , unless you have a diet rich in natural, varied sources such as lentils (350mcg/cup), beans (200-300mcg/cup), enriched white rice (~200mcg/cup), broccoli (~160mcg/cup), dark leafy greens (~100-200mc/cup), or orange juice (~100mcg/cup). The reason for this is that most americans don't eat these foods often, and grains (wheat and rice, and most commercial breads and cereals) are fortified with a form of folate (folic acid) to make sure people have enough. if celiacs don't eat foods naturally high in it, and just switch their grain products to ones not fortified, they can have deficiencies.