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

[boomingrosemary2]

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?

dh - doctors won't prescribe things willy nilly just because it is free for the patient. The prescriptions are still paid for...out of the annual NHS budget.

Coeliacs often have serious vitamin and mineral deficiencies die to years of malabsorption. It can take years for the gut to heal. Many have bone scans, blood tests and iron injections regularly. This is a cost to the NHS. Are you suggesting they should pay for that too?

A lot of people are getting very upset that people with a serious autoimmune disease are getting help to support a GF lifestyle. It's. It just bread and flour, it is in so much stuff. The diet is pretty restrictive anyway so to have no pasta or bread at all makes it even harder.

Well some will some won't, as proved here by the people saying they could get biscuits and pizzas on the NHS.

Depends on your local PCT but it is not usual now to get biscuits or pizza bases now. Bread, pasta and sometimes crackers.

Then prescribe vitamins if what they need is expensive / specialised.

Bread and pasta are just shit really anyway. No such thing as essential carbohydrates.

Lagoonablue But the g/f bread and flour are readily available in supermarkets. It shouldn't be the responsibility of NHS Primary Care to provide food for its coeliac patients. All the other care and dietetic advice and support, yes.

www.coeliac.org.uk/document-library/378-gluten-free-foods-a-revised-prescribing-guide/

What a waste of money for the 1% that have CD.

They say the last sweet biscuit s should be prescribed in special circumstances but pizza should always be prescribed.

If anyone has a life threatening allergy they do get help though. They get a prescription for an epi pen or anti histamine.

Orsteoporosis and lymphoma can be a result of a non GF diet yes. Other consequences are weight loss, malnutrition, infertility, gastric pain, bowel problems, hair loss, anaemia.

If you are allergic to nuts for instance how do you suggest this is supported by prescription food? People seem upset that allergies don't get food on prescription but am struggling to see what food you can get instead. My son had a nut allergy. We just don't give him nuts. Nuts are not ubiquitous across a whole range of diet staples as wheat is.

Tbh I have said already that there should be a different way of helping coeliacs maintain a gluten free diet. The businesses who make and distribute the food must have huge profit margins. I do wonder though if GF food will be so widely available once the fad for it has died out.

As I have already mentioned up thread it is almost impossible to find bread that is soya free. I had to make bread for my soya and dairy allergic DS. Any kind of dairy and soya free yoghurt alternative was non existent back then. Now you can get coconut yoghurt at an exorbitant price.

Do I think there should be alternatives available on prescription? No. Neither do I think coeliacs need food on prescription anymore.

Re: cost of gluten free foods and profit margins.

In dhdjdbrjrkbr's link, the 2011 report says that gluten free substitutes can be three to four times the price of standard items.

I think the gluten free market has grown tremendously over the last few years. I would say a number of g/f substitutes I buy are nearer 50-100% more expensive, rather than 300-400%.

Whilst costs are coming down, items presumably continue to be more expensive due to economies of scale and products being more expensive to make without wheat. (G/f flour, for example, uses several different grains to replace wheat, so already a more complex recipe. There's also the issue of ensuring no cross contamination).

YABU - I am amazed.

I think people are misunderstanding - it isn't simply bread and pasta. Gluten is often in sauces, gravy, soup, cereal, sausages, burgers, some crisps, biscuits, crackers, etc. It is actually very hard to find a variety of foods without it, unless paying over the odds for specialised products. Our local bakery sells lovely gluten free breads and cakes, but the cost is unreal! It is literally 3 or 4 times the cost of their standard products.

I don't think you can compare it to intolerances or even diabetes - diabetics get their medications on prescription, they don't require specialist food - just a healthy diet like we should all be eating anyway. Intolerances generally are not as serious as coeliac.

When the NHS started giving foods on prescription, there were far fewer coeliacs diagnosed and no easily accessible products in the supermarket, perhaps it does need looked at again. Maybe it could even be subsidised and available for sale in chemists at a similar price to equivalent standard products? Where I live, prescriptions are free, and I do wonder if gluten free products should still be available then for no payment, and certainly my family members who are coeliac are able to get a wide range of foods, including the really nice brands of bread like genius.

How about a dairy allergy? It is difficult to avoid dairy without buying Free From foods yet there is nope scription food for them. (I think babies can get formula).

Thankfully I am only intolerant to wheat/gluten - I feel far better if I don't eat it but it's not a problem if I do. If the children are having pasta, I have the pasta sauce with a jacket potato instead. If you cook from scratch, it's fairly easy to avoid gluten. I have only had to make small adjustments to a meal whe coeliac friends have visited.

When I was growing up, I don't think we ate much processed food at all - the only pasta was tinned spaghetti and everything else was made from scratch and therefore rarely included any kind of wheat/gluten as an ingredient. The only exception being baked goods. Even the baked goods were generally homemade so, had GF flour been available then, they could have been made GF.

I don't think our growing reliance on ready made foods/sauces etc has done us any favours.

MissDuke - but no one needs to purchase ready prepared foods. You can make your own without any gluten in them. I have food allergies and intolerances, as does DD, and I cook from scratch. I, too, would be paying a fortune if I purchased ready-made products that were gluten-free, nut-free, dairy-free, mustard-free, egg-free, soya-free. It's hard! So I don't buy them. As well as being expensive, the alternatives (I call them fake foods) are stuffed full of rubbish.

No one 'needs' crisps or ready made sausages and burgers.

Gluten is often in sauces, gravy, soup, cereal, sausages, burgers, some crisps, biscuits, crackers, etc

Yes, and it's also in lots of places you wouldn't necessarily expect to find it. When DD was first diagnosed it was a massive learning curve, it had never occurred to me that vinegar, hot chocolate, simple stuff like that was a no-no

I do cook everything from scratch (including bread, cakes, etc), but in my cupboard I have a box of cocoa powder which "may contain traces of gluten", and various other bits and bobs with the same disclaimer.

Things like GF suet is more expensive, when the only difference is the use of corn flour rather than normal wheat flour.

DD does get a free prescription for bread (we don't use it), but she's 13, other adult coeliacs I know have to pay the normal prescription price

Things like GF suet is more expensive, when the only difference is the use of corn flour rather than normal wheat flour.

That may be the only ingredient that is different but they will probably have to use a separate production line for much smaller supply, resulting in higher costs.

Yes, gluten can pop up in all sorts of places. So like any other 'special' diet, it's a question of information and education - finding out the pitfalls, the alternatives, adapting recipes. Regarding bread, one of the items available on prescription. Whilst g/f bread is one of the more expensive substitutes, there's no reason to substitute all the wheat based bread previously consumed - people eat far too much wheat and wheat based products. There are other gluten free grains/carbs available.

Cardamom, I didn't say any of those foods are essential, but I was trying to make the point that gluten isn't just in bread and pasta like other posts appear to infer. It is in lots of things. Of course it is possible to not buy and pre-prepared foods - but in real life, the majority of us do buy some.

A friend has PKU and gets foods on prescription, it isn't just coeliac foods.

I remember going through my cupboards when DD was first diagnosed and finding that "main contain traces" disclaimer on just about everything in there. Tinned tomatoes, sweet corn, kidney beans, etc, etc.

It's not just a case of cooking from scratch, or making stuff that doesn't contain gluten, when those basic ingredients "May contain traces" of gluten due to the processing/packaging. The ones that don't have the disclaimer, are inevitably the more expensive ones

It's a million times better now though

I very rarely buy anything ready made, but DD is 13, she wants to go to the cinema with her friends, she wants to go to McDonalds, going round to friends, etc, so I do have a couple of ready made items stashed, so if she's invited round a friends for dinner she cane take something with her

Stinkle you (or DD) probably know already, but you can take your own bread/rice cakes to Mucky Ds and get them to make a big mac or whatever with no bread

it's messy but it's handy. Used to get a lot of blank looks asking for it but staff much more clued up now

I'm actually a bit that I know this

Is there a new post on this? Can only find this