Nutrition advice - Beginners

PaulaMc

06/04/2003 at 18:30

I'm a new runner and need some advice - I read a lot about carb loading before races but I have an intolerance of wheat and dairy products and hate wheat-free bread and pasta (although I quite like rye bread). I'm also doing the Moonwalk on May 10 and so will need to stock up my reserves during the day, but what are the best things to eat? Should I just stick with jacket potatoes?

popsider

06/04/2003 at 18:36

Rice would be a good alternative.

Velociraptor

06/04/2003 at 20:10

Other grains like millet and quinoa and buckwheat are good, as is polenta. It you can eat rye bread then it's presumably not gluten intolerance, so a big bowl of porridge with soya milk and sugar is an option. And, of course, there's always sweeties and bananas.

Finn Mortensen

06/04/2003 at 21:50

There's a mixed grain wheat-free bread made by The Stamp Collection (has a pic of Terence Stamp on the packaging!) which is utterly delicious and far, far nicer than wheat bread any day, and absolutely nothing like that pale flat rice-based stuff that's usually marketed as wheatless bread. They have a website (I think it's www.thestampcollection.com, but I can't really remember--a search would find it). And then there's tortillas--proper corn-based ones, rice and corncakes, oatcakes, cereal . . .

Can you tolerate spelt flour? It's an old form of wheat, and I know some people who are generally wheat intolerant can eat spelt in moderation. It makes good bread, anyway!

And there's millions of things you can do with spuds, too . . . Nobody should ever have to eat baked potatoes more than once a fortnight. Yuk!!!!

And I forgot--whittards dark chocolate covered coffee beans. Eat loads. They're very good for you (cough, cough). Honest.

I'm hungry again!!!!!

fergalk

07/04/2003 at 10:41

Paula

I have the same issues with wheat and diary. The Terrence Stamp bread is great. Tesco do wheat free porridge, I eat rice crackers, loads of dried fruit. Tessco also do Bakers delight range which are wheat free..chery bakewells and chocolate cake amongst others. Village Bakery who have a web site at Melmerby do wheat free stuff and some based on spelt wheat ( personally cant cope with spelt wheat). Calvia soya spread and soya milk top up my calcium levels.

cheers

fergal k

Lanky limper

07/04/2003 at 12:38

Yep, can't agree more about the Terence Stamp range. I've been off wheat for about a 15 months now, and never felt better.
Village bakery do nice wheat free cakes, for a carbo boost on running/race days and Sainsbury's and Tesco now have limited ranges of alternatives.
The rice bread is god awful, but I use it to make up bread crumbs for cooking because the rye is too heavy.
For a running day I'd start with porridge, have a nice salad with protein for lunch, and then a cake and off I go. Try the different ranges of wheat free pastas - some are less cardboardy and squishy when they're cooked.

PaulaMc

14/04/2003 at 20:18

Thank you all so much for your advice. I've seen the Terence Stamp stuff so I'll give it a try - it's got to be better than the Sainsbury's own brand rubbish! A good idea about the breadcrumbs, though.

Snoozy Pup

14/04/2003 at 23:37

What about making your own wheat-free bread? There must be some good recipe books out there. A friend of mine who is a coeliac makes her own because she got fed up trying to find decent wheat-free bread. I've just starting making my own bread (no, not with a breadmaker, that's cheating!) and made a rye loaf yesterday that was wonderful. It doesn't take long to prepare and kneeding the dough is great for the arms too!

Helen Cook 3

13/02/2004 at 17:16

I am new to running and also wheat intolerant the info on here was excellent. i have a book called Lose Wheat Lose weight which has some really good recepies in it and it is available at all good book shops.

moosey

16/02/2004 at 11:20

Paula..... i have trouble with wheat and have happily (ish) run a marathon, my diet consisted of cornflakes + banana for breakfast, and now it's winter there's porridge oats (am not coeliac so oats are ok for me), lunch is generally jacket pot, or rice salad, for dinner I eat lots of rissotto, chilli with rice (or tacos), or general meat/ veg/ pots meals. Or sausage casserole with mash (loads of supermarkets do gluten free sausages). I'm sorry I don't know about dairy products though.
Basically as i increased training I increased portions, I shouldn't worry overly about carbo loading per se, just make sure you eat plenty in the week before. For extra snacks i ate peanuts and dried fruits, as well as rice cakes with cream cheese (won't help you i know)
On the marathon in my little bag i had some packets of jelly and fruit gums for extra energy. If you can fit a banana in that may be a good idea as it shouldn't bruise too much if walking (doesn't work well if running i find!)

Wicked Witch

16/02/2004 at 13:57

Many thanks for the info on here, its been very useful and its :
www.stamp-collection.co.uk (still can't do those hyper link thingys)I've tried some of the wheat free breads on offer at supermarkets and I'm not impressed, so I'll give this a try.

Little M.iss Happy

17/07/2004 at 11:04

I'm a meat free, wheat intolerant born again runner in training for the Great North - my first half marathon. I'm struggling to eat the right things in the right quantities and finding it difficult to get advice. As I up the mileage to 15+ a week I find I get days when I'm absolutely starving hungry and nothing I eat seems to work which I'm sure is a sign of a lack of something in the diet. I'm also having trouble with long runs, I can manage 10k and have got my race time down to just under the hour but can't seem to get my head round running further, on my own, outside of the race environment. Any motivation tips? A couple of people I work with are also in training but their pace is too slow for me (not that I'm fast)to do my long run with so I'm on my own trying to work out routes from a map. Will give the Stamp Collection a try though as am desperate for some decent bread!

LarryStillUndefeated

17/07/2004 at 13:21

Waitrose do a german rye bread which is Ok.
I ran a marathon and trained being meat free, wheat and dairy free. I found I got enough food to keep me from being hungry and enegry levels were fine.
Try quorn products. They do cold meat substitutes and fillets, sausages, mince, and several other meals.
Soya milk is a good source of protein and calcium and is good with cereals or make rice pudding, porrige etc.
Snack a jacks, hoola hoops, quite a lot of crisps are ok. read the labels.
Also Cauldron foods make pate, suasages, burgers.

trinity1

17/07/2004 at 13:35

i've been using recipes from the 'carol vorderman summer detox' (co-written by Anita Bean, sports nutritionist) which are no wheat & no dairy, really nice & fill you up even when running.

They are really nice. WHS had it reduced from 10.99 to £5

i like oat cakes topped with 2 spoons tahini & 1 of honey (mixed together)

porridge made with 1/2 soya milk, 1/2 water, pinch of cinnamon and handful of raisins - brill (mix in a little flax seed oil before serving) keeps you filled up all morning.

Chickpeas are good to cook with too & curry really well

Quinoa has also been mentioned - it's great as an alternative to rice & really filling. Very tasty if you cook it in a veg stock

also - can you eat nuts? plain ones (not salted) fill you up with a handful for a snack.

Lidl do cheap mixed bags of them, and rye bread is only 49p a loaf there.

Little M.iss Happy

17/07/2004 at 14:00

Thanks. I just about lived off quorn before I went wheat free but then found that lots of the things I'd been eating had wheat in them - including Cauldron sausages. I've seen Quinoa and guess I'll have to pluck up the courage to try to do something with it. I used to love those no fat instant noodles and cous cous was alwys a good standby before the non-wheat thing. I guess Quinoa can't be too different from that? I don't like that really dark rye bread that you can get but I'm told that Lidl is good for sauces and things too so will have to make the effort to go - it's finding the time to do all of this extra shopping, cooking and training!

Maria Bishop

10/12/2007 at 21:10

I have recently been diagnosed as coeliac and am currently training for my 3rd London Marthon. I was really ill after my two previous marathons after carb loading on the one thing my body couldn't tolerate - gluten. Your help here has been great and I am learning each day regarding the foods I can eat to help me with my training. I now hope it will help me improve my stamina and running time by eating the foods my body can tolerate and not give me the symptoms and pain I have been getting over the past years.

PloddingOn pirate

pirate

12/12/2007 at 12:00

I am also wheat intolerant and find that eating a larger meal at lunch time serves me - I have a baked potato / chuck it in the microwave for a few minutes and munch on that with some chicken or something.

Also, Sainsbury's have a MASSIVE wheat free / gluten free range - although I can't stand any of the "breads", I eat corn crackers with a range of meats / baby potatoes and wheat free pasta (which tastes a little odd, but otherwise ok).

Rice is great as well, and I really enjoy the Free From Nuts and Fruits breakfast as well. Cut up a banana, chuck in some yoghurt and you are good to go!

Sunluvva

13/12/2007 at 13:21

I often have periods where i'm totally raw vegan. Just eating raw fruit, veg, nuts and seeds and i have more energy and can run faster and further when i eat like this. All fruit and veg is full of carbohydrate. A daily green smoothie made with pears, banana, spinach or other greens and hemp seeds (sprouted if you can or just soaked) and you'll be running like you've had a rocket put under you. Add sesame seeds for calcium, theres more calcium in a spoonful of sesame seeds than a pint of milk!

Pavey.

13/12/2007 at 15:26

Most of the quorn range contains wheat so do make sure you read the ingredients beforehand.

The best bread that I've found so far is the Rossiky Rye bread (you can get it in either Waitrose or Sainsbury). It doesn't contain wheat or yeast (it uses sprouted grains instead). It's not as dry and crumbly as a lot of the WF breads.

Brown rice has a higher GI level than most carbs. Usually after a long run I make myself a smoothie of a pint of soya milk, any flavoured soya yoghurt, a banana, handful of ice and any berries I've got - very filling.

DiamondGirl

02/08/2008 at 15:56

Hi,

I've recently been diagnosed with coeliacs and I'm looking for a really good energy bar that I can try, so many of them have oats in!

Can anyone recommend any?

Thanks.