As someone who is not allergic to gluten as such but has a bad reaction to wheat, what alternatives are readily available in Bulgaria? Can I buy oatmeal, rye flour, rice flour? Here in the UK I don't have to bake unless I want to because oatcakes, Ryvita, rice cakes and pumpernickel (rye sourdough breads) are sold quite widely, though I have to choose organic oatcakes to get them without added wheat flour.

On holiday in Turkey I simply took some supplies with me. I got an English speaking Turk to write on a post card for me in Turkish "
I cannot eat wheat, I have brought a replacement"
and took it plus a mini pack of oatcakes with me when we ate out. Obviously I can't take long term supplies as they'd go stale, so what will I find to eat in place of bread?

(Oh how I love bread, but it doesn't love me!)

i haven't paid too much attention but i like ryevita and buy it in billa supermarket and i think ive seen rice cakes but im not a hundred percent sure. the supermarkets do seem to be getting more and more european foods so hopefully you'll be ok.

I know you can get oatmeal here in Metro, also rice cakes in several supermarkets but not sure of the other items.

Thankyou both, I won't starve then!

I have the same problem,but have managed to get oatmeal,so you should be fine! The hardest thing is telling the friendly locals,you can't eat the Bulgarian staple diet of 3 loaves of bread with a meal!

beautifulangel wrote:

ii like ryevita and buy it in billa supermarket and i think ive seen rice cakes but im not a hundred percent sure

I've seen both RyVita (and dozens of other similar products) and rice cakes at the Billa in Sliven.

You can also find stuff in Kaulfland

This is an old thread, but since I have celiac disease (can't eat gluten) it's an important topic for me.

As a side note rye is not gluten free, it actually has quite a lot of gluten, and people on a gluten free diet cannot eat it. (Some can't eat oats either.)

I will be moving to Sofia in a couple of months, and was wondering what type of flour is available? Any non-gluten flour in shops? Rice, corn?

You could try some of these shops below. Gluten intolerance is called Tsyoliakriya
Inke Tinka (Sun Moon shop) - Yuri Venelin Street 1, Sofia

Be Fit (here and here) - Jerusalem Boulevard 6, Sofia and Shipchenski passage 18 (in the shopping center Galaxy, Level 1)

Shop for spice "
Allspice"
- Ivan Asen II Str 9, Sofia

Bio Shop Zoe - Aksakov 22 Sofia

Casavino - Yanko Sakazov 42 Sofia Doiran 10A, Sofia Shipchenski passage 43 Sofia Blvd Malinov 91 Sofia Kozyak 21A, Sofia, Ivan Vazov Str 43, Varna

Diet Shop - Street Shishman 20, Sofia

My Organic Market - Street Parchevich 48 Sofia

Balev Bio Market - Tzarigradsko shosse 115 Sofia (The Mall)

Biomagia - Journalist Square 1, Sofia Yanko Sakazov 50, Sofia and Doiran 10A, Sofia

Cilandroo - 22 St Ivan Rilski, Sofia and the Central Market Hall, Sofia

Shop - Drugstore - Tri ushi 5, Sofia

GrandFoods - shop for Italian goods and food - Saborna 11, Sofia


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You can get it in all health food shops and some supermarkets but try these to

Balev Bio
81B Bulgaria blv, fl.7 ,
Sofia ,
Bulgaria ,
1404
tel. +359 2 818 2003
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Thanks! Really appreciate it!

There are many things people are allergic to and in my case it is onions, can't eat the wretched things, always have to ask restaurants to make sure there is none in my food. Won't go into graphic details of what effect it has on me, suffice it to say you don't want to be anywhere near me when the effects start up.

Onions have sulphur in don't they? Sulphur foods can apparently cause problems for people with undetected mercury poisoning from dental amalgems. Along with a host of other disorders that may appear years after the fillings were done, as mercury leaches out slowly and lodges in organs and tissues. Eating sulphur foods can release it into the bloodstream again where it then travels to new sites causing more havoc. There are ways to safely detox from it but mercury is very poisonous so care must be taken.

Sorry this is off topic but a lot of allergy problems can be triggered by mercury amalgem fillings and clear up when they are removed, but again it has to be done by a dentist experienced in this who has the equipment to prevent you inhaling (or swallowing) the mercury vapour as they are drilling it out. I don't know about gluten allergy, I know some people are Coelliacs from birth (hope I spelled that right) but with any allergy that appears over time, it's always worth checking whether you had this condition before the fillings.

Thanks for that info Fruitlover. Sorry to go off topic, but I am just wondering if mercury could be part of the problem with my hero's recent ill-health. The doctor did mention 'no onions' but we thought that it was because of the gastric bleed and not permanently. We eat them in most meals cooked or uncooked so maybe I should still stop using them???

We do need sulphur: other foods have it too, like eggs for instance, but it's worth cutting onions right out for a time to see if it helps. Hard when you are used to having it in most things because onion is a flavour enhancer (llike salt) but you can get used to not having it in a little while. Then if the health improves stay off them - if it seems not to, resume slowly and see if there's a reaction?