Do Coeliacs Have A Sweet Tooth?
I am certainly coeliac and often, when I have a coffee or a hot chocolate, when I’m travelling, I will ask if the cafe has a gluten-free cake to go with it.
Increasingly, I am getting disappointed. But then chains that speciallised in gluten-free like Carluccios and Leon have had a hard time lately and the rise of Greggs, Gails and Pret, who don’t do gl;uten-free doesn’t help.
Usually, whilst I watch, the BBC ten o’clock news, I will have a mug of decaffeinated tea, in which I will dunk, three M & S gluten-free ginger snaps.
After I was diagnosed as a coeliac, my late wife, once said she thought I would eat more biscuits and cakes.
So what does Google AI think, when I ask it the question in the title of this post?
This was the answer I received.
Yes, many people with coeliac disease have a sweet tooth, and it is a common experience to experience intensified sugar cravings after starting a gluten-free diet.
Here is why this happens and how it is managed:
Intensified Cravings: After eliminating gluten, some coeliacs experience strong cravings for sugar, ice cream, and chocolate.
This can occur because the body is suddenly deprived of high-carb foods, or due to underlying imbalances in gut bacteria.
Nutrient Absorption: In the early stages of a gluten-free diet, the body may be absorbing nutrients better for the first time, which can trigger intense hunger and cravings.
Hidden Sugar in GF Foods: Many processed gluten-free products—like biscuits and cakes—contain more sugar to improve taste and texture, which can satisfy, but also encourage, a sweet tooth.
Gut Health Factors: Some individuals suspect that sugar cravings are linked to candida (yeast) overgrowth, which is sometimes associated with coeliac disease.
I suspect with me sometimes, it can be, just because I’m hungry due to low availability of gluten-free snacks.
This week, when I went to Blackpool North, I changed trains at Wigan North Western station, where I bought a delicious lemon tart in the coffee stall.
Note.
- The delicious lemon tart came in the aluminium tray it was baked in. Could this be for protection, as the tart was still in one piece, after some time in my brief case.
- My pictures don’t do the tart justice.
- The coffee stall is on the Northbound platform.
- The toilets are under the Southbound platform, but are some of the cleanest, I’ve found on UK railways.
- Wigan North Western station is fully step-free.
- Wigan North Western station could be ready for High Speed Two trains.
Wigan North Western and Wigan Wallgate stations are only a short walk apart, so it is a well used interchange to get to Northern parts of Merseyside and Greater Manchester, from London and the South.
The Odd Sugary Snack May Be Good For You (But Lay Off Sugary Drinks)
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in The Tunes.
I shall be discussing this research with my cardiologist. My relationship with him is as doctor/patient, researcher/lab-rat and just friends. I am also coeliac and very much feel that I need to take the odd sugary snack to keep my energy levels up. I also had a serious stroke at 64, thirteen years ago, due to atrial fibrillation.
Sweden and coeliac disease could be another complicating factor here, as Sweden went the wrong way to try to eliminate coeliac disease after WW2 and just created a lot more.
I found about this Swedish research in a peer-reviewed paper entitled Coeliac Disease: Can We Avert The Impending Epidemic In India? in the Indian Journal of Research Medicine.
A History Of Sugary Snacks And Drinks And Me
Growing up in London, after World War 2, I didn’t get much sugar, as it was rationed.
But I did put it in tea and coffee.
I never ate many cakes, except for some chocolate ones.
My habit of not eating cakes and proper puddings really annoyed my mother-in-law.
I was a sickly child and I didn’t really get better until I was found to be coeliac at 50.
I am fairly certain, that my consumption of sugary snacks has got more, as I’ve got older.
But because American drinks, sweets and snacks could use sugar made from wheat, I don’t touch any American sweetened products.
But I haven’t put on any weight, since I was fifty.
Thanks to the likes of Leon, Marks and Spencer and the cafe at Worksop station for excellent sugary gluten-free snacks to keep me going!
Silvertown Sugar Refinery
Dominating the space between the new railway line and the River Thames is the massive Tate and Lyle sugar refinery, although it is now owned by American Sugar Refining.
As the pictures show it also dominates the view from the south bank of the Thames.
The Anonymous Widower 