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Veganism and Wheat Intolerance
By WLR Dietitian
Q: I’m a vegan but have also been told not to eat wheat due
to an intolerance. However, I’m finding it very hard to get the
right nutrients and find foods that I can eat that don’t contain
wheat or dairy. What do you recommend?
A: Unless you have been medically diagnosed with an intolerance
to wheat, I suggest you reintroduce it into your diet and see your
GP for advice and get a proper diagnosis from a qualified doctor.
All too often, people are told to avoid wheat without good reason
and this can have a serious impact on their intake of nutrients.
A vegan diet alone needs careful planning to ensure that you get
all the nutrients you need for good health – and adding further
restrictions to this can make it even more difficult. This is
especially the case if you’re also trying to avoid wheat, as many
wheat-containing products such as cereals, bread and pasta can make
an important contribution to intakes of vitamins and minerals in a
vegan diet.
In particular, you should ensure that you get a good intake of
iron from plant foods to prevent iron-deficiency anaemia. Many
breakfast cereals such as branflakes have iron added to them, making
them an important part of a vegan diet. Nuts, seeds, beans, lentils,
dried fruit and green leafy veg also contain some iron so you should
make sure you also eat plenty of these. To maximise the amount of
iron your body gets from these foods, combine them with vitamin-C
rich foods such as unsweetened orange juice, kiwi fruit, berries,
peppers and tomatoes.
As you don’t eat dairy foods, you also need to make sure you’re
getting enough bone-building calcium. Soya products that are
enriched with calcium can make an important contribution to intakes
of this mineral, but you should also eat other calcium-rich foods
such as white bread (white flour is fortified with calcium), green
leafy vegetables such as broccoli, nuts, seeds, beans, dried fruit
and oranges. However, bear in mind that the calcium in these foods
is less well absorbed and used by the body than the calcium in milk
and dairy products.
As a safeguard, you may wish to consider taking a daily
supplement that provides a range of vitamins and minerals. Make sure
it includes vitamin B12, as intakes of this nutrient are often low
in people who follow a vegan diet as this vitamin is predominantly
found in animal foods, although yeast spreads and fortified cereals
both contain vitamin B12.
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