Sunday 2 November 2008

The 'wacky' food festival- a gluten free morning

Yesterday I went to the annual Gluten Free food festival in Grays in Essex. 

And no, this was not because as one of my friends put it "I'm a wacky vegetarian" (He didn't even get the right type of diet)- but because my mum suffers from coeliacs disease and she feels that t is important to 'patronise' these things even if you don't want to go to highlight the cause.

And she's right.

Of course it was a pain to have to go, but if we, and other people didn't, perhaps companies would stop making so much gluten free food. There isn't enough of it as it is, so you have to take every opportunity to raise awareness, even if you'd rather be in bed.

Indeed, me and my mum both complained that a certain company no longer made gluten free cherry beer, (who on earth would want to drink that??) because one man we met was upset about it and wanted them to produce it again.

But it was a good thing to do, because the company said they would re look into making it.

Who or what is a coeliac??

My mum. haha.

A coeliac is some one with an intolerance to gluten. Gluten is found in flour so basically in simple terms, a coeliac is some one who is allergic to all things with flour in them
  • bread
  • pasta
  • cakes
  • biscuits
  • cereals
  • pastry
  • sauces thickened with flour
  • lost of fried food (batter)
and lost of things you wouldn't expect. Around 1 in 100 people suffer from this disease but so few people understand it.

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