From when I was about 18 I started getting regular heartburn and indigestion, sometimes crippling, the amount of Gaviscon and Rennie and the like I put down my throat was incredulous. By when I was nearing my 30th I was having really bad IBS, I felt tired by afternoon, I would be knackered going up the stairs, and generally felt rather poorly.

I went to the doctor and he said I should eat more brown bread, so I did, anyway this day, I had beans on toast for breakfast, had sandwiches for lunch and also a couple of sarnies mid-afternoon, boy did I feel ill, and the runs! So I thought, it must be something I'm eating, and realised I'd eaten a lot of bread that day, so I cut it out completely, within a couple of days I felt 10 times better, and for years stuck to a completely gluten free diet, then about 4 or 5 years ago, I started having tummy trouble again, and realised this time it was dairy, it had been a nice period of weather and had taken to eating ice cream, and also since my tummy was feeling dodgy had been topping up with that good Yoghurty stuff, bifidus whatever probiotic type thing, thinking it was helping, it certainly wasnt, it was part of the cause, so I cut out dairy, so at this time I had a very limited diet, no gluten and no dairy.

I have been tested, but the results didn't show anything, but I know if I eat too much dairy and wheat I will start feeling poorly, so I am now just following a low dairy and wheat diet, and if I overdo it, I take omeprazole.

Member of my family take omeprazole and the like on a daily basis, and eat whatever they like, I actually think that they tend to eat more dairy in the belief that it's good for them, when in fact it's quite possibly the cause of their problem.

Surely it's much better to eat a restricted diet than take pills to compensate for it on a daily basis.

After all taking milk products is unnatural, it's baby food, humans are the exception in eating another animals milk and as adults.

Anyone else had a similar experience?

I will quite often have to pop a rennie in the middle of the night to calm my stomach down. Not sure it's directly linked to gluten or diary products, rather just a poor diet in general perhaps. Although having said that, I had yoghurt for breakfast with sliced banana and i'm getting indigestion burps, so perhaps it is related!

Anyway, I would certainly suggest anyone who feels all is not right should start to keep a food diary. It's a good way of spotting where problems are coming from. Sometimes it's very easy to forget what we put in our mouths and how much of it. Like you, I can easily finish off half a small loaf in one day!

I think that there is generally a misconception that a poor diet causes indigestion and heartburn, ok, beer, wine and too much fat will aggravate the problem, but I find that dairy and wheat are the root cause, if I don't touch wheat and dairy, and drink lots and lots of wine, and eat bacon egg and chips and crisps and rice and spice, I dont get any problems.

Some people 'grow out' of the ability to digest dairy products. It's less common to do so in Northern Europe than other parts of the world.

Yes, as I understand, we naturally stop or slow down production of Lactase which digests the Lactose in milk as we get older, as we are 'weaned' in nature. So if you only produce a small amount of lactase, you might be perfectly ok with maybe half a pint of milk a day, but more than that can give you problems.

I don't know if it is less common in Northern Europe, it doesn't seem like it by the rows and rows of anti-bloating, and indigestion and the like on shelves in shops, I think it's more of a case that we put up with it by using a plethora of these products, but we blame it on poor diet without realising that wheat and especially wheat and breads in this country with it's poor protein content and dairy which no adult should eat in the first place is the real poor diet.

I actually get annoyed when they advertise how good yoghurty products are for you, they give you instant releif, but give you really bad digestion in the long run.

Not totally on topic with the thread but i though people may want a laugh


David Mitchell rants about milk & bread - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTn3eJG87IQ

I was recently diagnosed with a sensitivity to wheat and advised to cut my consumption right down. Within days of doing so I was amazed by how much better I felt. No more sick headache that I didn't realise I'd had for months until it was gone, much more energy, no more what I can only describe as constant, low-level diarrhoea (apologies). The improvement was incredible. Oh, and I'm losing weight, too, and what American's call 'wheat bloat'. Now when I do have wheat as a 'treat', I can see my stomach bloat before my very eyes and a headache will come on within an hour.

It is a bit of a nuisance having to source wheat- (and therefore normally gluten-) free foods, but there seem to be more of them available in the supermarkets on a daily basis. Hopefully this will help drive the cost of them down, as £2.99 for a loaf of very average sandwich bread that's half the size of a normal sandwich loaf makes a noticeable difference to your shopping bill.

My boyfriend was diagnosed about 6 months as a coeliac about 9 months ago and at first it was a massive battle for him to cut out the wheel but eventually he has learnt to live with it. I have started mostly eating gluten free as well as it is just so much easier than making double at dinner (and it would probably annoy him if I ate heaps of bread and cakes), he found this gluten free beer as well as knowing him he would rather get sick than miss out on a friday night beer