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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:
Babiecakes11 · 30/01/2015 18:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

WorraLiberty · 30/01/2015 18:03

Tbh I'm OK myself with baking, but what about people that don't have the skills or an oven? It does seem unfair that the NHS is not allowing them a little bit of cake.

Haha! Grin Grin

millionsofpeaches · 30/01/2015 18:05

It's not actually just about preventing further damage, the gut repairs itself when no gluten is present. I am well aware that the antibodies are still there. I think comparisons with nut allergies are slightly redundant as nut allergy can result in anaphylaxis which cd doesn't as you know.

Would you say that someone with diabetes who follows a strict diet is not treating their condition? I would say that they were. Semantics maybe?

SoupDragon · 30/01/2015 18:05

Welcome to MN, OP.

Two threads of a Goady Fucker nature.

Marynary · 30/01/2015 18:11

I'm not ignorant about coeliac disease at all-some people in my family have it. I just don't think that the NHS should provide food for people with it when nowadays it is easily available elsewhere. I do think that people on low incomes should receive money to cover the extra expenditure but everyone else should pay for their food.

Marynary · 30/01/2015 18:17

Would you say that someone with diabetes who follows a strict diet is not treating their condition? I would say that they were. Semantics maybe?

No I wouldn't say they were treating their condition.

Marynary · 30/01/2015 18:17

I wouldn't expect the NHS to provide the food for their strict diet either. Would you?

millionsofpeaches · 30/01/2015 18:25

Yes I would actually. Like I said we are arguing semantics I think.

I don't get bread on prescription myself as I'm lucky enough to be able to afford to buy the frankly extortionate gf bread from the supermarket, but I do think it should be available on prescription for people who would ordinarily get free prescriptions.

millionsofpeaches · 30/01/2015 18:26

Semantics re. the word treatment I mean.

OstentatiousBreastfeeder · 30/01/2015 18:39

Oh is this a wind up? I gave the OP flowers and sympathy and everything.

HicDraconis · 30/01/2015 18:47

But how many people do not eat any bread through choice?

Anyone who is following a low carb diet, for one (me). I don't have coeliac disease and I still don't eat bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, starchy veg, cake, etc etc, through choice. Saying bread is a staple when it clearly isn't - you can have a perfectly healthy diet without it - is daft.

Lean meat and fish, eggs, leafy green veg, salads, some dairy - delicious, healthy, and no gluten in sight.

I had no idea you could get gf stuff on prescription but I definitely think yabu to expect cake.

Looseleaf · 30/01/2015 18:48

This is an interesting debate.

I am a coeliac as is DD and when she was smaller (and fussy) I did wish we could have bread on prescription as remember growing up with my best friend who used to get boxes of bread sent to her, and we did struggle with the cost of lots of GF sandwiches for nursery plus the whole stress of such a major life change.

Now we've settled into the difficulties we face I really don't think this is a matter for NHS funds though as there are so many natural, better and cheaper alternatives (and I would know as can no longer eat rice or corn either which is hard!). We use loads of GF porridge oats, ground almonds, lentils, tapioca flour, beans etc, basically a varied interesting and usually more affordable diet (I make lemon drizzle cake with a great recipe using mashed potato as eg only use ground almonds in smaller quantities)

It took a long time for me to adapt and realise we didn't need GF bread nutritionally but now dd and I are eating better without the GF bread/ cakes; and GF pasta is hardly that more expensive than normal .
I am hugely sympathetic to everyone else with coeliac, and adapting like this takes time as I certainly started feeling bread was essential until costs forced me to realise it isn't.

Btw if we do buy GF bread I tend to freeze it and toast a couple of pieces at a time and thus it lasts!

millionsofpeaches · 30/01/2015 18:53

I'm not the op! I have also not suggested you should get cake on prescription and I don't honestly think the op was seriously suggesting that (tongue in cheek or just goady? Who knows?)
But a low carb diet is your choice Hic Coeliac disease is not my choice and I don't really think you can say that bread isn't a staple of the majority of people's diets just because you, and a minority of others, choose not to eat it.

I honestly never thought I would be called entitled because I think people with a dietarily controlled medical condition should get bread on prescription. Ah well, you live and learn. It seems I am entitled Smile

Viviennemary · 30/01/2015 18:54

I didn't know people got gluten free foods on prescription. I think that's already quite generous considering the dire straits the NHS is meant to be in.

HicDraconis · 30/01/2015 18:56

The question asked up thread was "how many people don't eat bread through choice?" And the answer is - millions choose not to. I didn't say CD was a choice, but eating bread most certainly is whether you have CD or not.

HicDraconis · 30/01/2015 18:59

And eating cake - which the original OP was about - is definitely a choice!

noblegiraffe · 30/01/2015 19:00

Is coeliac the same as gluten intolerant? My DN can't eat gluten but I've never heard him called coeliac?

millionsofpeaches · 30/01/2015 19:05

Ok I concede defeat! I suppose I had always thought of bread as a basic right. It is a choice to eat bread and I know I don't have to. I still feel that coeliac disease sufferers are much maligned ams misunderstood as previously mentioned by a number of people. I truly wish I could pop a pill (paid for by prescription Wink) and just eat a doughnut, but that isn't going to happen any time soon. And tbf the prescription thing is probably a throw back to when gf provision in the shops was abysmal, bread the texture of neoprene anyone? So maybe it is time to rethink the whole thing and maybe introduce vouchers for people on low incomes to assist with the cost of the extortionate bread and flour prices.

Stinkle · 30/01/2015 19:05

Nobelgiraffe. in a word, no. there's a bit more about it here

Marynary · 30/01/2015 19:08

I think that gluten free food on prescription goes back to the days when it was really expensive to buy and not readily available elsewhere. It is a lot cheaper now and available in many supermarkets. The NHS doesn't pay for food for other people with medical conditions that require a strict diet. I think that people on low incomes and perhaps children should receive help to cover the extra expenditure but it's time for other people with coeliac disease to buy their own food.

MtnBikeChick · 30/01/2015 19:14

Is this thread a wind up?! Seriously?!' Has OP missed the news over the last few weeks about A&Es at crisis point?! The NHS is not an endless pot of cash! A gluten free diet is easy to achieve on a budget - I have done it! Veg, fruit, meat, fish, rice, other grains, lentils, pulses, beans, and bake your own bread and treats! Seriously, read up on the NHS and better inform yourself about its history, role and economic viability before posting ludicrous things like this! What would you prefer - no doctor to treat you in A&E if you were in a serious accident or a bit of free (unhealthy) cake?

Ineedacleaningfairy · 30/01/2015 19:14

Surely all the money you save with the free bread and pasta would allow you to buy the occasional cake noatter how extortionate the pricing?

I don't think it's appropriate to compare the need for IVF and the need for glutin free cake/bread/pasta, I don't think living your life without a child and living your life without pasta, bread or cake is comparable.

noblegiraffe · 30/01/2015 19:16

Thanks stinkle. He must have gluten sensitivity then as he definitely has issues with it (he's only 4, it's not a faddy diet thing). Quite relieved he's not coeliac as that sounds bloody awful.

HeartShapedBox · 30/01/2015 19:17

yabu, my ds2 is milk protein intolerant and doesn't get milk-free food on prescription.

I can feed the other two dc for half the amount per week that his food costs.

plus there's the fact that that all the "free-from " ranges have hundreds of gluten free products and practically nothing else for other allergies/ intolerances.