11 years ago in November my brother and I were diagnosed with Coeliac Disease, after my Mum previously being diagnosed some years before.
As a 17 year old being told you have to completely change your life is so hard
The blow was softened by the fact that my brother and I had our Mum there who had already been living as Gluten Free for a good few years.
When we were diagnosed there was barely anything out there in the shops, if you wanted bread it had to be homemade, which would only be fresh for two days, or you had to get it on prescription and to be honest that was barely edible.
So it has been nice to see supermarkets, restaurants and take aways finally catering for people with specific dietary requirements.
Now for the technical bit, when someone has Coeliac Disease they can't eat gluten, why I hear you ask, because in the small intestine there is something called villi, villi are like little hairs that absorb the nutrients from our food, when you have Coeliac Disease gluten knocks these villi off so then the nutrients aren't absorbed which can lead to all sorts of problems.
So you can imagine how much it enrages me when people make comments, post blogs and stories and stupid little pictures saying that gluten free is a lifestyle choice and people are being picky. UTTER CRAP!!!!!
For some people gluten can be as dangerous as nuts to a nut allergy sufferer, they can't even cut bread on a bread board used to cut regular bread.
Imagine doing your shopping and having to check the ingredients of every packet, imagine going out for tea and being so unsure about how the chips, sauce or gravy is cooked that you end up with steak and a jacket potato every time.
People who don't have Coeliac Disease have no idea how lucky they are to be able to eat anything they want, to be able to pay 80p for a loaf, anyone know how much an average gluten free loaf cost?? £2.50!!!! And sometimes that loaf is the size of a small hovis loaf.
Sometimes I get people looking at me like I'm stupid because I'm asking about the ingredients used in dishes and 9 times out of 10 they don't know what gluten free is. People seriously need educating, especially when working in the catering trade.
Now for a nice part, a little while ago my brother offered to treat the family to a Domino's, who do a gluten free base. So we put the order through online and waited for our yummy tea to arrive. About 5 mins after the order was placed he got a phone call from our local Domino's, the lovely man on the phone explained that the meatballs my brother had chosen for his pizza contained gluten and what alternative would he like!!! To be quite honest I was gobsmacked at first, not only are they clued up enough to know which of their ingredients contain gluten they had the sense to phone my brother and bring it to his attention. Well done Domino's!!!!
So if you work in the catering industry, in a supermarket or even in customer care, do a little homework and educate yourself so at least we don't feel like we are the stupid ones.
Love and Hugs
Cheryl xxx
