Ever feel the world is out to get you? Here are my top six situations where being gluten-free is a living nightmare… 1. Train stations: Wall-to-wall pastry temptation. Croissants, cookies, burgers, baguettes, cookies. You name it, I can’t eat it. Oh well, there’s always an apricot Eat Natural bar from WH Smiths. (Exception to this […]
For the first few years of my life, my darling (and long-suffering) mother struggled daily to ease the pain from a new rash or food allergy that had appeared overnight. After endless trips to the doctors and some horrible scratch patch tests, it was announced that I was allergic to eggs, nuts, kernels, milk, tomatoes, […]
How clean are my hands? How clean are my hands? It’s a question I ask myself 100 times a day. Now, I am fortunate enough not to suffer from OCD or a food allergy or intolerance, yet dinner with my family involves me washing my hands more times than any normal man does in a day […]
Like the vast majority of women, I wish there were less of me. My thinnest days are half a lifetime ago, when I danced around in high heels and fluffy bras on a diet of Smirnoff Ice and house music. I’m neither fat nor thin, just gently wobbling in the middle somewhere. Still, when I […]
Having a child with a food allergy means you have to be on your toes at all times. I mean, I had no idea that the creamy white fondant in the middle of a Creme Egg actually contains egg! My daughter, who has a severe egg allergy, found out the hard way. After I gave her […]
You would think that after being diagnosed with coeliac disease then discovering I had lactose intolerance that my poor, delicate stomach would have sorted itself out. Alas, no, it blimmin hadn’t. (Anyone who knows me knows I don’t have luck on my side.) I was still scoring pain on the toilet as 10 out of […]
Bodies are weird. All that blood pumping around, miles of intestine, bile, brain and hairy bits. Even the whole pregnancy business is like something out of a sci-fi film. I mean, growing arms, legs and a penis inside you? It doesn’t seem natural. So I live in awe of doctors who have dedicated their lives […]
Dirty burgers from questionable sources, late-night pizza dripping with cheese, sticky toffee pudding swimming in custard. For 27 years I stuffed my face with the lot. Then a doctor dropped the coeliac bomb. And my diet changed overnight. Imagine Ronald McDonald waking in Gwyneth Paltrow’s body. Or if Hannibal Lecter was put on a raw […]
It took 22 gut-wrenching years until I was finally diagnosed with coeliac disease. And knowing any children I would have had a one in 10 chance of being coeliac too, I was on high alert with my baby girl. I didn’t want Megan to have to endure years of horror and being told it was […]
Remember when ordering food was easy? Now, it can take me three or four awkward conversations with staff before I can be fed. Sometimes, I have to educate staff and alter their menu completely. Sometimes I am brave and just go for it straight away “Hi. I am a ridiculously awkward person to feed, unfortunately. […]
Usually people get stressed-out by using the toilets at a festival or getting covered in mud. Last year at Glastonbudget – a tribute band festival in Leicester – they were the least of my worries. Friends thought my husband and I were mad for taking our two-year-old along to a festival and camping. And even […]
As a coeliac, there’s a real fear factor when eating at other people’s houses. I try to do a lot of it myself when I’m there and take along my trusted friends and saviours (toaster bags, gluten-free bread and cereal, Lactofree butter, cheese and milk) everywhere I go. I am not risking not being able […]