To think gluten free prescriptions should come back?

[Mymapuddlington]

I think I probably am but with all the panic buying people are buying gluten free stuff. I’m diagnosed coeliac and it’s hard enough finding food that isn’t ridiculously expensive never mind when you go to the single shelf in the co op to see it empty. Maybe I’m just hungry?!

I get it Peaches, mine is a true wheat allergy with anaphylaxis so I have to be equally as cautious

I'm gutted that the warbuttons shop that a pp gave doesn't deliver to my area! Love their wraps on the rare occasions I can get them!

I avoid Gf products except for a treat due to the cost and also lack of particular nutritional value/ preservatives etc. I definitely empathise but surprised the nhs ever did pay for expensive food Prescriptions to be honest.
GF oats are useful and our fav treat is from Holland and Barrett who have this amazing bread you bake in the box it comes in and tastes divine and is really easy. But is £4 or so so definitely for treats!
Asda is fab for cheap Gf flour

Im gluten intolerant, after the last panic buy when all the GF flour and pasta got bought up. I vowed never to be in that position again, as selfish people don't care and buy it all up. I bought a couple of extra GF things and stored them. I really don't bother about the prescription as Ive never had it. I bake my own pancakes or scones, Dove Freeeee let you order online. They were a God send when I could not get GF food when it was all panic bought. All these people who say not to stockpile, well thats all very well. I think you need to be prepared and Im not saying doomsday prepping but we do need to eat. The media in this country have much to answer for, just today a certain newspaper had yet another hysterical story about shortages. They are the reason we cannot get GF food that we need. I learned my lesson the last time. This country is so damn selfish and I learned very quickly it's man mind thy self. Don't expect any help from any one, depend on yourself.

You have to pay for asthma inhalers?! I'm honestly shocked, didn't realise this.
@Leftphalange
Yep, £9.35 a time

I avoid Gf products except for a treat due to the cost and also lack of particular nutritional value/ preservatives etc. I definitely empathise but surprised the nhs ever did pay for expensive food Prescriptions to be honest.
Not even remotely the same. I'm not celiac but I know friends who are. "Trying to avoid gluten" is a totally different kettle of fish to "have two toasters to avoid contamination"

It’s a double-edged sword though… The increase of gluten insensitivity (medically diagnosed or not) has made people more aware of coeliac disease and has increased the variety and accessibility of GF products and (somewhat) decreased the pricing.

GF food is expensive . A cheap non GF loaf is less than a quid some places. A GF loaf is 3 times that. Coeliac disease affects a lot of people. That include people who are poor. The prescription food was to support compliance with the GF diet. It’s more expensive for the NHS to deal with the resultant health problems due to non compliance - lymphoma, osteoporosis etc.

For a comfortably off working woman like me, a £3.50 loaf is not a big deal. For my coeliac cousin (and coeliac nephew )who is a single parent on benefits, it’s a really big deal. All the suggestions about bread makers , millet flour etc.. when does she have time to bake bread???

There’s a dismissive tone to some posts on here. Gluten free is seen as some kind of lifestyle issue. It’s really not. Coeliac disease is horrible and a lifelong condition.

@DameFanny

I've stopped buying gf bread because it all tastes of sand and sadness. When I ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE NOW something bready I make a flat-ish bread - equal quantity by weight plain flour and yoghurt with a pinch of xanthum, spoon of soda bicarb, bit of olive oil. Dry fry in a hot pan about 2 minutes a side.

Also cheese soda bread, but I don't make that very often because it's not unlike a loaf of cheese scone and very hard to stop eating.

@DameFanny This sounds amazing- what yoghurt do you use? Do you think soya yoghurt would still be ok? I have issues with yeast and egg white too so ready made GF bread doesn’t work for me.

Dockofthebay I said I try to avoid GF products not that I try to avoid gluten - I can’t manage a trace of gluten. So do avoid this completely, I just use a wider range of things like different beans, lentils etc. I find it cheaper to make gf oat flour then simple pancakes for example than to buy juvela even though I like it

@PeachesPumpkin - please don't think I'm making light of coeliac disease. I'm not. I know two people who are having to navigate it and I know how ill mistakes make them. But by calling anyone without it a 'Muggle', you are mocking everyone else and that won't help people want to understand.

I want to gently point out that many of the challenges you are explaining do not apply only to people with coeliac disease.

A lot of what you said applies to me. I have ulcerative colitis and a heightened risk of bowel cancer. I have a mild allergy that wasn't pinpointed until I was in my 20s but had already damaged my digestive system. If I eat that allergen by mistake in any great quantity it can trigger a flare.

I can't have a 'cheat day' with at least 2 groups of my allergens because with 1 of them I would almost definitely die straight away and with the other group I'd be very unwell.

Try imagining what it is like to be Coeliac. So much of socialising is around food.

I can't eat out at many many restaurants so have missed out on social events organised by people who aren't close friends when they've been held somewhere that I can't go (for example my previous employers weekly staff lunch was at a Thai restaurant - a complete no go for me even just to sit and have a drink) and with my good friends I have to be the awkward one who they have to plan the restaurant around.

I do manage to eat at friends' houses as they are so so careful and go to great lengths not to cross-contaminate (and they don't cook with my allergens at all the day that I'm coming there). Before I eat at a friend's house for the first time I have to send them my list of allergens. It's excruciatingly embarrassing. It's a list of around 30 food items.

I can't even be in the same room as some of my allergens so have had to walk out of parties the minute I've arrived if bowls of nuts are out.

And back to where this thread started, buying a loaf of bread. Well, there is one loaf of sliced bread that I can buy in a shop. It's made by a non-uk producer and can only be found in some branches of Waitrose. I'm pretty sure that I'd find it easier to get hold of a gluten free loaf than a loaf that doesn't contain stuff I can't eat.

I've got used to dealing with all this but yes, it's wearing and a bit pants.

I'm trying to explain that lots of people are dealing with medical issues that impact their daily life. There is no medical condition top trumps.

@DockOTheBay

You have to pay for asthma inhalers?! I'm honestly shocked, didn't realise this. *@Leftphalange* Yep, £9.35 a time

If you get 1 month or more it's cheaper to pay for the annual certificate.

There is no medical condition top trumps.

Which is ironic as that's exactly what you seem to be doing

OP I agree that its frustrating when the shops sell out, I don't think being back on prescription is necessarily the right way forward, but there should be a way to order to guarantee a loaf if needed. I wonder if any reasonably priced online companies will take note of the demand!

Which is ironic as that's exactly what you seem to be doing confused

I was trying to point out the similarities between the health and social challenges pointed out by Peaches and my non-coeliac experience. I think they're strikingly similar.

The only thing that makes it easier for me with my allergies Vs coeliac disease is that nut allergies are now taken extremely seriously by the vast majority of people and caterers, but this wasn't the case 20 years ago.

As coeliac disease is becoming more prevalent/diagnosed and the more people get to know about it, it will hopefully become easier to navigate and less risky to eat out and easier to eat at friends' houses if more people are aware of it.

Literally every shop now sells gluten free. You shouldn't get prescription for food. It is ridiculous.

Try free cycle or facebook for a free or cheap bread maker as loads of people have them lurking in cupboards

It’s not necessarily cheaper to make gf bread. The flour is expensive.

@MrsTulipTattsyrup

Would you be able to invest in a bread maker, and make your own bread with gluten free flour? We make all our bread at home and it’s so easy - half a minute to weigh out the ingredients and then it does all the work for you. I feel awful that you can’t have toast whenever you fancy some.

This might at least give you one thing you could always rely on having available. Tesco sells Doves Farm gluten free beard flour, for instance, and easy packet yeast is cheap.

We had to do this at the beginning of the first lock down because we couldn’t get soya free bread.

With the amount of alternative carbs available (potatoes, rice, gluten-free cereals etc) I don’t think it’s cost effective for the NHS to provide prescriptions for gluten-free items. They should provide advice about alternatives and maybe some links of where to order gluten free bread and flour etc.

But with the NHS so drastically under funded I think they have to stick to prescribing essentials, like medicines, not extras that you can buy yourself (or order online).

Otherwise they’d need to issue prescriptions of groceries to suit other allergies and intolerances too, like dairy free?

I can understand them prescribing when gluten free products were so hard to come by, but now most supermarkets stock a wide range of foods without gluten.

I also have coeliacs - and I don't think they should be on prescription

If you want to make your own bread, I love a recipe in the book "How to make anything gluten free" by Becky Excell. The crusty white sandwich loaf is the closest I have found to normal bread and there are some other great recipes in it too. I probably only make bread about once a month as I usually find other things to eat but sometimes I really just want a sandwich or some toast.

Where in the country are you? I eat gluten free and I’m a floating shopper between Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Waitrose, and all of them had fully stocked gluten free sections

This just sounds like another of those threads where people are annoyed that some other people choose gluten free as a lifestyle, forgetting that it’s because it is a lifestyle choice for many that enables so much choice in the supermarket now.

My husband has coeliac disease and was diagnosed years ago. He initially got the food on prescription as this a long time ago was when there wasn’t much in the shops. The food was rubbish and he soon stopped bothering with it. I don’t think it should be brought back in.

As the demand is there, the market has provided much better quality and variety of gluten free food than was available on the NHS prescription. We stick to quite a simple diet at home and neither of us want to watch much carb type stuff anyway. Initially my husband brought a bread maker but used it once or twice and then realised he didn’t really want to eat lots of bread every day anyway. It’s quite easy to eat gluten free at home without buying specific “gluten free” foods. Eating out is the problem. My husband isn’t very good at telling the restaurant in advance or asking for a gluten free menu/options.

21:55Dddccc

Nope unfortunately gf food is available in every supermarket, number one thing that should be free on prescription is asthma inhalers

I agree, it's a life long condition. I also have a hazy recollection of some UK Government saying these would be made free on prescription. But that may have been wishful thinking.