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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

there should be more help for people that need gluten free foods

229 replies

boomingrosemary2 · 30/01/2015 13:12

I have celiac disease so I can't have bread, cakes or pasta. The cost of the free from foods is sometimes 500% more! I get a free prescription for bread and pasta but sometimes I fancy a cake or something. Just looked at some small cakes, similar size but the normal one was 50p the free from was 2.49!

Aibu to think we should get more help with these?

OP posts:
Lagoonablue · 30/01/2015 17:11

Actually bread is a staple in diets and is prescribed in recognition of Coeliac Disease being an actual disease, an autoimmune condition with serious consequences for people who have it.

If you get the staples on prescription, how is that different to getting tablets or other medication? If you pay for prescriptions there is still a cost, it's not free.

GF food is bloody expensive and not everyone is able to have the time or ability to bake their own bread.

I suspect the OP is just fed up with the very restrictive diet she is on. Most GF stuff is grim, home made slightly better but the flour isn't brilliant.

Lagoonablue · 30/01/2015 17:13

By the way the bread IS expensive to buy. £2.99 for a small loaf compared to around 90p for normal bread. Plus there are only so many jacket potatoes a person can eat!

GraysAnalogy · 30/01/2015 17:14

We don't need bread and pasta to live or to make our lives liveable, free from pain or prejudice.

We don't need bread and pasta to prevent us from becoming depressed or suffering mental ill health.

So it shouldn't be available on the NHS. Because there are literally thousands of different foods we can eat. And if we simply must have bread and pasta we can pay a bit extra and get it. Which I do.

InanimateCarbonRod · 30/01/2015 17:15

Make almond flour cakes. They're easy and delish.

GraysAnalogy · 30/01/2015 17:16

Make almond flour cakes. They're easy and delish

They're lovely.

momb · 30/01/2015 17:19

I'm not coeliac but am wheat intolerant (it's not gluten as I can eat oats and barleyfine) but...I have lovely cakes made from ground almonds or coconut or meringue.
I feel sorrier for the eggs and dairy people tbh. Milk is in so much so hard to avoid!

Caronaim · 30/01/2015 17:28

I can't believe someone is seriously suggesting it is up to the NHS to provide cake for people? Go without, or save up for a treat, or bake your own - cake is an unhealthy luxury, the NHS most certainly should not be providing

expatinscotland · 30/01/2015 17:30

YABU. No one needs to eat bread or pasta, either.

fakenamefornow · 30/01/2015 17:32

So OP do you go to the GP with a shopping list? Surly the cost of paying for the prescription (£7.10?) is more than the cost of buying the stuff in the supermarket?

Agree with the person up thread, there are thousands of other foods you could eat, the NHS should not be providing this.

I think you have every right to be pissed off that you have celiac disease and that if you want certain food you have to pay more. I really do sympathies with you on that but the NHS if to treat illness and promote health, not provide treats you'd quite like.

millionsofpeaches · 30/01/2015 17:34

Damn just spent ages writing a reply and lost it, grrr.

I did not say having cake is a human right so you must have misread that sparechange

Agree with Lagoonablue bread is a staple in many (most) cultures. I substitute rice for pasta and eat potatoes instead of bread when it is convenient or appropriate. But how many people do not eat any bread through choice? People who are slating the coeliac sufferers should try involuntarily giving up something which is key in their diets and see how that goes.

Is it really any different from having a prescription for medication?

Alisvolatpropiis · 30/01/2015 17:36

Yabvu

Lagoonablue · 30/01/2015 17:45

The NHS is to treat illness.......exactly and prescribing GF foods is exactly that.

The prescription may cost £7 or whatever but still works out cheaper as one script is for a few loaves, packets of pasta.

Marynary · 30/01/2015 17:49

The NHS is to treat illness.......exactly and prescribing GF foods is exactly that.

The NHS is not treating illness by giving gluten free food though.

millionsofpeaches · 30/01/2015 17:50

It's an interesting debate really. I had never considered having bread prescribed as being entitled. Food for thought, excuse the pun.

millionsofpeaches · 30/01/2015 17:51

Marynary of course the nhs is treating illness by giving gf foods. There is no other treatment for coeliac disease.

Lagoonablue · 30/01/2015 17:54

[[A Department of Health spokesman said: "A limited range of basic gluten-free food products are available on the NHS to help patients with coeliac disease to stick to a gluten-free diet.
"This will prevent them from developing more serious illnesses, which can not only affect their quality of life but be much more costly for the NHS."]]

For serious disease read cancer, osteoporosis..... Coeliac disease is no picnic.

Lagoonablue · 30/01/2015 17:55

Link won't work but NHS POV is there.

Stinkle · 30/01/2015 17:56

he NHS is not treating illness by giving gluten free food though.

How do you define "treating illness"

Is it treating illness with (for example) IVF?

If no one needs gluten free food, do they need IVF?

kitchensinkmum · 30/01/2015 17:59

A lot of ignorance on here about coeliac disease. It's very serious and eating gluten containing foods can have catastrophic effects on health. Lots of People can not bake or cook their own GF bread. The NHS gives to who ever needs . It's not means tested . Plenty of NHS money is wasted on far less deserving causes.
Gf food on prescription cost far less than some of the medications that would be needed to sort out the damage done by a coeliac eating gluten . Mumsnetters need to have more empathy in my very humble opinion. And get their facts straight too . I'm not coeliac BTW

Marynary · 30/01/2015 18:00

Marynary of course the nhs is treating illness by giving gf foods. There is no other treatment for coeliac disease.

There is no treatment for coeliac disease full stop. By avoiding gluten you can prevent more damage to the small intestine but the antibodies to gluten are still there. You would say that nut free food is a treatment for nut allergy would you?

Marynary · 30/01/2015 18:00

would

Marynary · 30/01/2015 18:01

would wouldn't

MillyMollyMandy78 · 30/01/2015 18:01

I work in a doctors surgery and deal with prescriptions every day. The advice from Coeliac UK charity actually supports this and advises that cakes and biscuits are not available on prescription. This is because coeliac uk and the nhs support a healthy diet and this foods do not constitute a healthy diet. Obviously everyone can eat cakes in moderation, but you would then have to buy or make your own. You can grt gluten free flour mixes on pescription, which would support making your own cakes, biscuits etc. that would work out much cheaper, and it is not that difficult to make basic biscuits.

kitchensinkmum · 30/01/2015 18:01

Exactly STINKLE ! Thousands of GF precipitions for the price of one IVF treatment. It's for who ever needs it.

Theas18 · 30/01/2015 18:01

There are now strict criteria for gluten free prescriptions. Basically if it's not part of a healthy diet you buy it and some ccgs are very strict.

You dont " need" pizzas cakes or biscuits to live. You don't even " need" them as treats. Eat other treats like dried fruit, mangoes etc and you'll be gluten free healthy and no more spendy that everyone else.

The NHS can't afford in any way for you to eat crap - either now interms is buying you a cake, or later when you have he complications of a poor diet. Sorry.

And the cap on amounts is because people were feeding the whole family gluten free pasta or sticking it on eBay / car boots - yes really ;(