Many 'imagine' Food Intolerance

[ENF]

How this for some dangerous misinformation, confusion, and (at the bottom) reactionary responses?

BBC NEWS

Tuesday, 18 September 2007

Many 'imagine' food intolerance

Millions of people in the UK have self-diagnosed a food intolerance and may be avoiding key foods as a result, a poll by a testing firm suggests.

Less than a quarter of the 12m people who claim to be food intolerant have had their condition formally diagnosed.

While many of the nine million who also claim to be intolerant may well be so, it is suggested they may just be fussy.

Nearly 40% of the 1,500 people polled by Yorktest thought it trendy to be intolerant and many blamed celebrities.

Actress Rachel Weisz for instance has a well-publicised wheat intolerance, TV presenter Carol Vorderman a gluten one, and Rod Stewart's former wife, Rachel Hunter, a lactose intolerance.

Vague symptoms

The range of foods people declared themselves intolerant of was diverse, but grapefruit and sushi were declared by those polled to be key culprits.

You may be cutting out something you don't need to which might be putting your nutritional health and your longer term health at risk

Tanya Haffner

Nutritionist

Food intolerances are not as severe as food allergies, which in severe cases can prevent people from breathing properly.

But symptoms can nonetheless be uncomfortable, ranging from a stuffy nose to aching joints and nausea.

However the wide variety of complaints which people pin on food intolerances could be related to a number of other conditions.

Nutritionist Tanya Haffner said it was important to seek the advice of a qualified medical practitioner.

"You may be cutting out something you don't need to which might be putting your nutritional health and your longer term health at risk," she says.

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This is one website's response to the story:

All you bonkers people who say you're like "allergic to wheat" and gluten and dairy or whatever? 75% of you are LIARS who have never asked a doctor about your so-called allergy, says a new U.K. survey. So stop coming over with your tempeh and your rice flour already, because I'm going to stuff a piece of bread slathered in butter down your throat.

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[mommyagain]

Sure we haven't been formally diagnosed... because we can't find doctors willing to make the correct diagnosis! If they stopped handing out a "diagnosis" of IBS and saying "everyone get diarrhea/constipation, just deal with it", maybe we'd stop making this stuff up! And I love how food intolerances are not as severe as food allergies... no, I won't go into anaphylactic(sp?) shock if I have a piece of bread, but I do have a much higher risk of colon cancer and other (possibly fatal) health problems.

GRRRR... I HATE STUPID PEOPLE!!!!!!!

[Ridgewalker]

Ok, that article really enraged me. How incredibly thoughtless, how incredibly irresponsible, to write these things.

-Sarah

[christicrete]

Ok, that article really enraged me. How incredibly thoughtless, how incredibly irresponsible, to write these things.

-Sarah

[christicrete]

oops, it has been a while since I posted

Both my daughter and I have been on a gluten-free diet for over 2 years now and feel so much better. Maybe those jack @$$&$ should actually talk to someone with the "over reactions" and get facts from the right sources. I know some docs are great, mine is ignorant as well as these people.

Sorry to rant, but I am so tired of people thinking that I am over reacting. I am sure they would all over react if something they ate made their toilet water bloody!

Christi

[ENF]

I don't know if this is a typo, sarcasm, a double negative, a British type of wording that is unfamiliar to an American reader, or something else in her writing style that I am not getting:

You may be cutting out something you don't need to which might be putting your nutritional health and your longer term health at risk

Tanya Haffner

Nutritionist

How can you put yourself at risk by eliminating something you don't need?

[CarlaB]

It was poorly written ... it should have said, "you don't need to cut out" ... then it makes sense.

[darlindeb25]

We "liars" should flood that paper with emails! What a horrible article to print!

[hathor]

Oh, another "it is imaginary unless a medical professional agrees you are feeling what you are feeling" article.

Words fail me.

[burdee]

GRRRRRRRR!!!!!! (My first reaction.)

My second reaction: The only ones suffering from our abstinence from foods which cause painful symptoms are people trying to profit from the food industries we avoid. There are enough kinds of foods and supplements available to provide adequate nutrition even for those of us with celiac disease AND multiple food allergies. Besides how much nutrition will we absorb from all of the 'nutritional' foods which cause reactions which damage our intestinal villi???? If we can't properly digest those 'nutritional' foods, we certainly can't benefit from the nutrition.

BURDEE

[Juliebove]

Well... I know I am allergic to dairy, eggs and almonds. An allergy test confirmed it. I know I am NOT allergic to fresh pineapple or oranges, but I also know they give me blisters in my mouth if I eat them. So I don't eat them. I also know if I eat very much garlic I get nasty stomach pains. So I don't eat that. I don't think I'm suffering too much.

Never ate sushi. Doesn't apple to me at all. And yes, I am a fussy eater. But I make sure to eat a balanced diet, as best I can.

[Ridgewalker]

I googled this article and found it on the BBC News website:

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If you go to this page, scroll down and they have a form where you can submit a comment

about this article. It just basically asks for your name, where you are from, and asks:

" Have you self-diagnosed a food intolerance? What led you to do so? Has it worked for you?

Or are you now concerned that you may be missing out on key foods?"

I'm going to send comments right now and wanted you all to know about this opportunity!

-Sarah