Lucie loves... Blogged // My two week Ilumi World gluten-free challenge
After spending a solid 2 weeks gorging myself on Greek bread, pizza and pitta I was more than ready to try an alternative.
Gluten appears to be in almost everything. From breakfast biscuits, elevenses bars and even my fruit and fibre cereal - all of the things you’d think would be free from it seem to have gluten lurking in their contents.
For the record, I do not have a diagnosed gluten allergy or celiac disease. But I do come from a family where the ladies seem to suffer from IBS - so it made sense, given the opportunity/challenge posed to me by the people at Ilumi world, to see whether cutting out gluten from my diet would stop me feeling too full, bloated or lethargic after eating. I was also interested in seeing whether it had any effect on my digestive system. I wasn’t doing it to actively lose weight, but wondered whether I’d see any difference over the two week period.
When the Ilumi World box was delivered to my office it was a real treat opening it up and seeing when dishes I had to choose from. I was genuinely impressed with the selection and quality of the meals.
My first gluten-free meal consisted of pea, pancetta and mint soup. It was like one of the fresh soups that you get in cartons as opposed to cans at the supermarket. The flavour was delicious and the texture was very good too. The cost of the Ilumi World products ranges from £1.00 for a pouch of rice and goes upto £3.75 for a casserole.
I was surprised to read that all of the Ilumi meals are actually milk, gluten and nut free and are conjured up in County Durham by a team of chefs and nutritionists.
Nutritionist Dr Jane Aylott said: “Gluten-free diets are not new, but people are now becoming more aware of the potential health benefits of lowering the gluten intake in your diet such as improvements in energy levels and digestion”.
The information on the packet lists all of the ingredients that go into each meal, knowing that they were all nutritionally well-balanced added to the feel-good factor I got trying them.
However, I did miss having bread to dunk into my soup…
I decided to buy a loaf of Gluten free bread, just to give it a go, from my local health shop. I couldn’t believe how much people with Gluten allergies were expected to have to pay for bread. This loaf - not purchased from Ilumi - cost me over £6 and tasted horrific. I did once manage to make it taste edible by creating my own version of eggy bread aka french toast, layering on sliced bananas and maple syrup to disguise the strange, spongey texture or yeasty taste. In the end, I eliminated bread from my diet and just ate the meals provided.
Some of the Ilumi meals/sauces I enjoyed:
Aromatic Thai Red Chicken Curry
Beef Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
Kerala Chicken Curry
Lamb Rogan Josh *
Pea, Pancetta & Mint Soup •
Shallot & Peppercorn Sauce *
Slow-Cooked Chicken Casserole *
Slow-Cooked Beef Casserole *
Slow-Cooked Lamb Casserole
Spanish Style Rice & Vegetables
Sweet Chilli Stir Fry Sauce
Tom Kha Gai (Thai Chicken Soup) *
Yellow Basmati Rice
* and some of the ones I really really enjoyed.
For the past year or so I’ve been shopping and cooking for one, which gets a bit boring after a while. The Ilumi dishes were a perfectly convenient, tasty and fuss-free way of eating. I’d definitely recommend the meals to anyone who might have a milk, nut or gluten allergy. Ilumi World also had a very good magazine section to the website full of top travel tips and latest health news.
After two weeks of dining gluten-free I was visibly less bloated and even looked a little bit trimmer around the waist. This might have been due to the fact I was trying to avoid eating desserts, bread or anything that might contain gluten but the dishes definitely made a contribution to it. I also didn’t suffer from the post-meal slump or tiredness that I usually get after stuffing my face at lunch time.
Do you have a food allergy? Let me know what tricks and recipes you’ve discovered to helping you enjoy your mealtimes without worrying about upsetting your allergies.
* Ilumi World kindly offered me a two week free trial of the gluten-free eating plan and I was happy to give it a go as I thought it would be an interesting and enjoyable experience to share on my blog.