To ask if everyone who is 'gluten-free' has an actual allergy to it?

[Caribou58]

I'm not being disingenuous here. Time was when people suffering from coeliac disease were few and far between, but yet another acquaintance has declared themselves suddenly 'gluten-free' (when we were out as a group for dinner recently).

I wasn't near enough to ask her about it discreetly.

Has there been a sudden upsurge in allergies?

Dancing I feel you are a woman on the edge

1 in 100 people are likely to have coeliac in the UK
Not all of those are diagnosed.
Some are intolerant in that tests for coeliac are not positive, but they feel better if they avoid gluten.

Ds2 is coeliac and has a far larger range of gf food available partly because it's become more fashionable to go gf, so there's more available in shops and restaurants.

I don't think gluten is generally bad for you, or it wouldn't have taken my son requiring a biopsy (under general anaesthetic due to his age) to be diagnosed and then advised to avoid it for life.

I'm coeliac and so is my mum. Unfortunately the sheer number of people claiming they need a gf diet means many restaurants just don't take it seriously. I've been made ill a number of times as a result. Regardless of this, all requests for gf should be taken seriously. How do you judge who really needs or not? You can't, so it's best to take the requests for gf food as important as other food allergies.
On the plus side, there are far more products to buy in the shops due to its popularity.

I am gluten free.
I went to an allergy clinic after experiencing chronic fatigue and identifying something wasn't right.
The blood test was clear but followed a gf diet on medical advice. The results were so striking they diagnosed that i have gluten intolerance and i can no longer even have a trace (it isn't worth it - my quality of life is so much better now).
For me i think that gluten is present in our diet generally so much more these days (if you check packets you would be shocked) so we are consuming more, and also that we are more able to identify it. I have little doubt that 20yrs ago i would have just either suffered without knowing why or died at a young age.
I am pleased that people are gf as a fad as it has opened up so much more choices for me, but yeah, i too have ended up violently ill after eating out despite mentioning being gf as people must think i am being faddy. Unfortunately as the reactions start after i leave i guess they carry on ignoring us "faddy types" because they don't see or know the consequences

My SIL is like this. One week she's a vegetarian because she 'reacts' to meat, then she's 'allergic' to dairy, then eggs. She's been tested for everything under the sun and NOTHING has shown up so when she started the "Oh I think I'm coeliac" nonsense lately I gave her short shrift.

Mainly because a friend of mine IS coeliac ( was diagnosed a few years ago) and I saw what she went through. She went down to almost 6 stone, couldn't keep any food in because she was either vomiting or excreting it. One doctor accused her of being anorexic and lying about it. She was absolutely 100% convinced that she had bowel or stomach cancer and was terrified that she was dying. She was actually delighted when she found out that she's coeliac because compared to what she feared, being coeliac was something she can cope with.

I remember how sick she was and how scared we all were, so people (like my SIL) jumping on a bandwagon like that really irritate me.

Thing is Dancing I'd hoped you'd have learned by now - people have intolerances - most places are really good at dealing with intolerances. Gluten free bread is of course more expensive...so I can see how they need to add to the bill but most people would add that tick box on the form or they'd ask the question so last minute wouldn't be a problem - rather than expressing anger and resentment I'd have thought you'd have just just learned to suck it up and rose above it.
I expect no one to cater for me but I do expect that when I eat out and I am paying and I should get something tasty, it's not that hard - I have no problem with a restaurant who doesn't wish to cater for my needs - they just need to be upfront and honest and I'll happily spend my money elsewhere because there are plenty of fantastic restaurants who cater amazingly well for dietary needs - the restaurants who don't wish to, I'm sure will flourish with all the healthy people or will decide maybe they need to cater for demand...eventually.

know, I organise events for large and diverse groups of people which are frequently publicly funded.

We have to organise venues and catering to suit people with a variety of special access needs or assistance required and food requirements for people who will become seriously ill through a small bit of cross contamination (we actually have to treat all reported ‘allergies’ like this because we can’t risk assume the ‘genuine’ ones even though we’re often perfectly aware who they are. And in those situations it can severely bump up costs and limit spending in other areas which would be more beneficial to the group as a whole or allow more people to attend and benefit.

So, yes, it does irritate me a lot when I see good food which was specially sourced and prepared and costly (frequently to the taxpayer) going in the bin while Mrs ‘I am vegetarian with a milk and gluten intolerance’ is merrily eating a tuna sandwich with a standard latte and muffin right in front of me.

Particularly when sourcing dietary requirements might mean we’ve had to use a venue which is a bit less convenient for Mrs Blind getting from the station, so we have had to provide a staff member to help her, and it’s also meant Mrs Wheelchair user has had to go to the expense of a taxi from the same.

And especially because Mrs. Vegetarian, No milk, no gluten will probably be the first person to phone up whinging that we’re being environmentally unfriendly by not using the venue next to the station which declined to meet her exacting requirements.

You might think that it doesn’t have any effect beyond ticking a few boxes. But unless it’s a small internal meeting it usually has an impact.

One occasion it definitely does is when people who don’t require gluten free but ‘prefer’ it eat all the gluten free food leaving none for the people who actually have no choice but to eat it. So we’re left with no choice but to over order which frequently leads to even more waste and expense.

Unless we hire someone to control the gluten free portions going to the right people. Which is again an unnecessary expense to stop faddy eaters pinching it all.

Over multiple events across the year it all mounts up. And personally I would rather that money was spent on nurses and teachers or policemen and books and medicine or equipment and not on Sandra from Bedford’s paranoia that if she’s having a bit of a bloaty day she might want to avoid wheat.

No, not everyone has an allergy or disease, and there's been an uptick in those people due to clean eating writers declaring gluten "sandpaper for the gut" etc. There might also be people who find Chorleywood-process bread more indigestable and therefore think all gluten-containing products make them feel a bit poorly or bloated.

That said, if someone says they are gluten free I always respect that and cook them gluten free food. It's not difficult and I don't want to plonk flour in something and make someone with a genuine illness sick.

But then, of course, know, the sort of people that do this when they don’t need it are exactly the sort of people who are so selfish, dense and self absorbed that they think ‘oh I just tick a little box and it just appears with a tiny little expense’ because they’re incapable of realising that actually it has to be specially bought in, prepared and transported separately with a lot of care taken to keep it in the state that people with allergies actually need.

And of course they think they are the only special snowflake doing it and surely it won’t be any expense just getting a special bit of bread for them. Except the amount of people who have decided that they are a special snowflake is actually a large minority who are growing and put together cause a large unnecessary expense.

It’s actually that bad one NHS Trust will no longer allow their staff to book their own food using an online system and insist all special requests are sent via an admin person and are evidenced because using staff time like that is cheaper than all the special requests. They’ve dropped 70% since that was requested.

The same thing happens with school meals. You have to evidence special requirements at most schools these days. People with genuine requirements are frequently being forced to go to the trouble of evidencing purely because of people selfishly abusing the facility.

I'm intolerant to Gluten. I can eat it in small doses but things like pasta absolutely kill me off unless they are gluten free. Like PP I have eaten out and ask for gluten free and ended up quite poorly from what I assume is not gluten free pasta. I generally just avoid it now because it's not worth it when I get taken out by it.

A lot of my family and friends don't take it seriously because I am not diagnosed as ceoliac. My DP is supportive though and was actually the first one to make the link so that's what matters to me.

johnny, a lot of people in your position who are sensible will ring us up and say ‘I prefer to avoid gluten. I can tolerate a little bit but I’m not going to be eating things like pasta or bread heavy dishes. Is it going to be possible for me to avoid that? To which the answer is usually, yes, we’re going to have meat/fish/vegetable/potato/quinoa dishes available which should suit that. Fine. Everybody happy. They get what they want without actually forcing people to treat their intolerance at the same level as an allergy where separate preparation, storage and great care to avoid cross contamination is avoided.

And I love them for it.

I just feel a lot better eating in a normal way as mankind ate until we decided to damage ourselves with bread and carbs. However I would never impose how I eat or go on to other people about it. It's my choice and my way of eating and of course the natural normal way anyway. Nor would I criticise anyone eating junk food or being vegan or anything else.

Let us all ive and let live with tolerance and kindness rather than feel threatened by the choices of others which may be different from our own. What I can say is I have seen my GP once in 12 years. May just be down to luck though rather than eating in a normal way the foods we have always eaten rather than more recent junk.

It's not just clean-eating writers who say that. My Crohns consultant calls gluten "the straw that breaks the camel's back".

I just feel a lot better eating in a normal way as mankind ate until we decided to damage ourselves with bread and carbs

You do realise we’ve been eating grain since 20,000BC right? And that for the majority of history most humans have had a grain based diet?

Up until the last 50 or so years human life required intensive physical labour from all but a tiny elite so we required an energy rich diet as cheaply as possible which is generally a grain based one.

It’s our lifestyles which have changed. We are so sedentary in the West that our traditional grain based diet isn’t suitable anymore. It’s nothing to do with the food being wrong, it’s our lifestyles.

My Crohns consultant calls gluten "the straw that breaks the camel's back"

Yes, but he’s a Crohn’s consultant so he’s talking about people with a serious illness.

Yes, exactly Dancing. He reckons that even when it's not gluten itself that causes the damage, it's a very difficult to digest foodstuff for anyone with a damaged /sensitive gut.

@Dancingtothebeat okay that's good to know. I usually do explain to restaurants that I am not ceoliac so don't need to be treat as such, but do need dishes with low gluten content. I usually feel like I'm been a pain so glad that some people prefer this method.

My problem actually stems from I think because I say I'm not ceoliac they must give me normal pasta but will try and be clearer in the future.

DS2 has coeliac disease, so we eat GF at home. I’m delighted that GF options are more mainstream these days, but I could do without people questioning whether it’s a ‘real’ issue with gluten.

If someone just fancies eating GF, then they should just go ahead. Ideally they shouldn’t make a big fuss about being GF and then having bread or cake or whatever because ‘it looked so good’, but at least they’re creating demand for a GF option.

I do find (some) people with food issues of convenience/to inconvenience others only quite annoying. My ex’s truly awful aunt is a prime example of this: ‘ooh, I’m allergic to X but I’ll just have a bit anyway’. Memorably she insisted on an egg free cake layer at a wedding due to her ‘allergies’ but decided to eat the normal cake because it ‘tasted better’. She is just attention seeking and if it wasn’t food, it’d be something else instead. So it isn’t really anything to do with dietary issues; the problem is that annoying people are really annoying.

barbarian, I think most people who are sensible who just think it it hard for them too digest/irritates them (or eggs/milk/whatever) fall into the category of ‘avoiders’ who do what I suggested above and ring ahead to check they’ll be able to avoid without going to the trouble of asking for a specially prepared meal without risk of cross contamination?

I actually have special dietary requirements myself because I have PCOS which is linked to insulin resistance and the development of diabetes so I avoid sugar except naturally occurring and highly processed carbs. I can almost always manage to do that without asking for special food and frequently just by looking at a menu or maybe calling ahead.

Occasionally I can’t and I might be a bit bloated that evening and need a few extra cups of coffee to combat sluggishness the next day. But I work around it, I do the best I can. Sometimes I pop to Boots for a protein pot instead of having the buffet.

What I don’t do is insist that my preferences are treated on the same level as allergies where extreme caution has to be exercised to make sure someone doesn’t end up ill or dead.

@Dancingtothebeat I think you are missing the point that there are lots of people who genuinely feel better without gluten (for example) but perhaps do not have the required medical evidence. My son genuinely does get an ear infection or throat infection after eating gluten. I know how utterly ridiculous that sounds and believe me, I have had plenty of people think I am unhinged. He does not have celiac disease and the evidence we have (Melisa.org test) is not sufficient for an NHS registered doctor to provide a certificate to state that he is allergic to gluten. However, I would not allow him to eat gluten.

There are plenty of naturally gluten free meals that caterers can provide rather than having to have them bought in specially. And yes, cross contaminiation is an issue, but there are ways of controlling this. Rice, potatoes, fruit, vegetables, meat, fish... There are simple and non costly solutions to the problem.

I have IBS, gluten seems to be one of the triggers for an episode, as does anything too oily/fatty, and too much milk.

This is only established from my own testing and noticing what causes me to bloat, have trapped wind etc. I probably come across as faddy, but I really suffer if I eat the wrong things, and am still in the process of figuring out what is bad and what is ok for me, so I really don't care what anyone else thinks.

Well I love it that more and more people are requesting gf food. Means its much more widely provided than previously and restaurants etc are more familiar with what is required to provide it safely.

Given how hard it is to get a diagnosis of gluten intolerance (took me 5 years of every invasive test known to medicine, I was advised to go gf 4 years before I had my second coeliacs diagnosis) I don't blame people for skipping this step at all.

There are plenty of naturally gluten free meals that caterers can provide rather than having to have them bought in specially. And yes, cross contaminiation is an issue, but there are ways of controlling this. Rice, potatoes, fruit, vegetables, meat, fish... There are simple and non costly solutions to the problem.

Not if you are requesting gluten free meals as a special requirement. As I have said, most people who eat gluten free can eat from the normal menu from dishes which are gluten free naturally and don’t actually require dishes which can be guaranteed uncontaminated. The likelihood is that your son could eat something a couple of breadcrumbs had got into without you ever being aware of it.

And the people who are most forcefully in favour of a free for all regarding allergy suitable food are generally the ones doing the damage the most damage to it’s availability in crucial places. Schools, hospitals - they’re all starting to restrict and request evidence. And as other posters have said a lot of suppliers are stopping taking things seriously leading to some people being ill.

You might feel happy because Zizzi or Strada offer you a gluten free meal. Less so if your kid is stuck in a hospital bed without access because it’s been restricted because of piss takers.

I can’t tell who on this thread is neurotic and who is sincere. But what I can tell you from experience is that in 2 years time around 70-90% of people currently claiming a sensitivity (or veganism, that’s another current fad) will be happily eating gluten and will have moved on to the next thing that they have decided to use as a placebo.

Currently my money is on sulphites and gelatin which seem to be cropping up more frequently.

Oh, or whatever the Daily Mail does a scare story on this month. If I see a story about gluten/sugar/milk/egg intolerances, sweetener dangers etc in the Daily Mail I can absolutely guarantee for the next few weeks there will be a spike in that ‘allergy’ being reported as a requirement.

People seem to think it's the answer to losing weight.. it's not.

I thoroughly believe there's way more people who have just decided to go 'gluten free' than actually have an intolerance or allergy to it.

Dancing I think we have about 1m years of history if you count our ancestors and I thought it was 10,000 years ago we settled down in one place, started mainlining carbs, became 4 inches shorter and all the rest. However as I said above tolerate and consideration for how others eat is surely the right way to go. I eat in what I regard as natural and healthy way and other people find other routes.