Jessica’s gluten-free kitchen

Some people are gluten-free for the fad, but not Jessica Galsworthy. As a lover of food and a baker, Galsworthy never wanted to be diagnosed with coeliac disease and learn that she was also allergic to dairy, potatoes, yeast, corn, sesame and oats. And on top of that, she had to cut out many foods to heal her stomach.

“My favourite past-time was about to become my biggest challenge, eating,” she said. But today, she has a very successful Instagram blog, jessicaskitchen_gf with 14k followers, an online blog and one-person gluten and dairy free bakery company, all because of her celiac diagnosis.

Her Instagram account isn’t verified with the blue tick yet, which is what Instagram puts next to an account to represent that it is an authentic public figure, celebrity or global brand account, according to Instagram. But it may as well be because of major gluten-free brands such as Genius Gluten Free has paid her to sponsor their products on her account. In the social media world, that’s when you know you’ve made it.

At 27-years-old, Galsworthy is running a successful social media account and following a strict diet, all while having to take a year off work as a banker in London because of her chronic fatigue syndrome.  

This requires her to live part-time with her parents in Essex and her boyfriend in London so she can see her doctor at home.

In 2007 she had chronic fatigue syndrome as well so she had to take two years off of school and take her GCSEs at home. But prior to her going to university, it went away. But it came back again after she was diagnosed with celiac disease and learned of all of her food allergies.

“I think the combination of the celiac stuff, the whole new diet and trying to maintain my job, my body was just like whoa, this is too much. And it kicked it back in again,” she said.

Two years ago she was on holiday with her boyfriend in Italy and she felt “awful,” she said. In the world’s capital of pizza and pasta, that’s all she was eating. She said she felt like she was “about to give birth” because her stomach was so “swollen” the entire trip and didn’t know why.

I asked her how she met her boyfriend and her cheeks matched the colour of her jumper and she told me the story with a smile from ear to ear.

“He was my first friend at uni, literally,” she said.

They shared a flat in student housing and were two of five roommates, however, the other three people were never there so they became very close. Ironically, their rooms were connected and their doors were the only two whose locks didn’t work.  

Eight years later, they have been together ever since.

Once back in the U.K., her boyfriend suggested she go back to her doctor. She did and described the symptoms of her protruding stomach and how sick she felt after eating food.

All of her life she has had stomach problems which the doctors said was irritable bowel syndrome. But the pain and discomfort she experienced the two weeks in Italy made her go back to the doctor’s to get reevaluated.

She had her blood drawn and a scan of her stomach. On her birthday, 5 September of 2017 she was diagnosed with celiac disease and learned of her other food allergies.

“I rang my mom and for some reason, I was crying when I told her I was celiac. I had no idea what it was. I googled it and it said I had to be gluten-free. When you first get diagnosed it feels like it’s the end of the world,” she said laughing and looking embarrassed.

For Galsworthy, only having coeliac disease would be a piece-of-cake, but for over a year she also had to cut out over 30 foods which she was allowed to bring back into her diet eventually once her stomach healed from all of the damage coeliac disease caused it.

“I could eat so little, honestly. It was barely anything. I could have butternut squash, pork, a bit of quinoa and a vegetable, but only if it was really well cooked, like peas.”

“I wasn’t allowed chicken, beef, rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, broccoli, corn and more. The list was huge. Honestly, it was ridiculous,” she said.

She was only allowed to reintroduce those foods back into her diet four months ago.

However, as well as wheat and gluten, she also learned she was allergic to dairy, potatoes, yeast, corn, sesame and oats, which she can never reintroduce into her diet.

But surprisingly, the hardest part of her food journey isn’t her restrictions.

“It's not even the food that I really want. It’s the convenience. It’s just running into Starbucks and grabbing something and not having to worry. It’s a pain in the ass but you do get used to it. I just hate the awkwardness of sorting out where to go to eat. Sometimes you just want to turn up and not worry about it and order anything, that’s the dream,” she said.

The best part about her recent food journey is the creation of her Instagram account. “I think that's the beauty of the account because it makes [eating] fun again,” she said.

She started the account because she didn't know anyone with celiac disease or know anything about it. She needed a place for gluten-free ideas and people she could connect to who were like her.

“I just had no idea where to even start, so I just started looking at people on Instagram and I was like, oh my god, I’m going to follow you all,” she said laughing. “I was following everyone on my personal account and then it was getting out of hand. My whole personal account was celiac food so I just thought I’m going to start a separate account.”

Her Instagram feed content - which are the photos posted on Instagram that are laid out in a grid - are photos of food that she has made with the recipe in the caption, a photo of a new gluten-free and dairy-free find at a supermarket, a photo of a gluten-free meal at a restaurant and quotes related to gluten-free life.

Her Instagram story content - which are photos and videos that vanish within 24 hours unless they are saved to a story highlight - is organised in the highlights as: Egg fried rice, #7 day reset, mains, breakfast, baking, eating out, Christmas and snacks.

Only a year after she created it, it has grown to 14k followers, and as if that number isn’t enough to validate her, her followers love her too.

@theartisanpie commented on a jam doughnut mug cake post: “Wow! I love this. Perfect for dinner parties too in funky little mugs!”

@Paleosunshinee commented on a chocolate hazelnut and cookie pie post: “Obsessed:)))”

@Glutenfree_gal commented on a chicken burger with a sweet potato roasted bun post: “This looks so good!! Definitely trying.”

Galsworthy is humble about her account’s success, but it’s clear from her followers that they love it. “I never planned to post anything but then started taking really awful photos of my own food and sharing it because everyone else was sharing with me. Then it’s just grown.”

“I think I’m on like 13k followers now. I don’t even know how that's happened,” she said.