Yesterday I attended a free from food fair hosted in York . This annual food
fair is quite well known on the gluten free circuit but this was the first year
I had been to it myself.
It was wonderful to explore all the delights on offer,
knowing they were suitable for me. I was with a non coeliac who was quite
amazed that people were queuing to get in before the event actually opened. I
tried to explain the sheer delight and excitement at being able to enter a room
and know you could eat everything on offer without having to ask multiple
questions first.
There were some of the usual suspects in the gluten free
world – Genius, Dietary Specials, Warburtons to name a few as well as some new
ones, which are always great to discover. Most were giving away free tasters
which is always nice as it means you get to try before you buy.
Delicious Alchemy (love the name) are new to the food show
scene. They have been around for a few years but have recently launched a whole
range of gluten and dairy free baking mixes, cereals and breads. I love the
colourful packaging and the products taste just as delicious as the gluten equivalents
I remember. They were giving out samples of some super fudgy brownie made from
one of the baking mixes, really intensely chocolaty.
I also had a lovely chat to the people of Hayloft Foods who
had a range of fresh soups and chutneys. I bought a jar of the apple & beetroot chutney. It was such a gorgeous colour with real large chunks of apple
and beetroot. I loved the beetroot addition; you don’t see enough beetroot
things in my opinion.
Fairly Scrumptious were a stall selling a delicious array of
cupcakes and slices, which did indeed look fairly scrumptious – wonder how many
times they’ve heard that before!?
Al-Ameen was another stand selling honey and bee pollen
granules. Honey has many health related properties and I’ve heard of bee pollen
but never seen it before. From the sound of it it’s a superfood full of all
sorts of B vitamins. I loved its golden colour.
The weather was horrible outside so it was the perfect day
to stay safely undercover at the show and enjoy sampling some of the delicious
gluten free delights on offer. Anyone else go? It was also the perfect event to
attend before the start of Coeliac Awareness Week which runs from 12th
– 18th May.
1 in 100 people in the UK are currently diagnosed with
coeliac disease (myself included). It is a condition where the person’s immune
system detects gluten – the protein found in wheat, rye and barley, as being harmful
to the body, which caused the body to react and produce antibodies to fight
what it determines to be a poison. This in turn damages the gut of the person
with coeliac disease which leads to all sorts of symptoms and other related
health issues. There is no cure and the only treatment is a lifelong and strict
following of a gluten free diet.
It’s not as simple as just cutting out bread as gluten is
used in all sorts of things you may not even realise – soups, sauces, seasonings,
sausages, flavourings on crisps, salad dressings, pasta, cous cous, beer,
sweeteners on breakfast cereals and bars of chocolate etc. It can appear in the
most unlikely of places. Even on things such as bags of prepared salad! There
is also the risk of cross contamination to consider meaning you can’t share
packs of butter, jam, mayonnaise, toasters, bread boards etc as only
tiny amounts of gluten are needed to make a person with coeliac disease
ill. So dunking your butter knife into a jar that’s previously been used to make
a gluten containing sandwich is a no-no. I know ‘going gluten free’ is starting
to be seen as a bit of a fad diet, which is disappointing, as for people like
myself who really are coeliac, it is a serious, lifelong and often complicated
condition that is not helped by people not taking it seriously or saying they
are gluten free and then happily tucking into the office birthday cake!
During coeliac awareness week, as you sit down to a meal, maybe
stop and think about the food you are about it eat. Would it be safe for a
coeliac to eat? What would you eat instead if you couldn’t have what you were
about it eat? How would it affect your everyday life? Which of your favourite
foods would now be off the menu? Would you trust your local restaurant to
understand and not feed you something containing gluten?
3 comments:
I have no idea how to use bee pollen granules but they just sound lovely - the sort of thing the animals would eat in a Beatrix Potter story!
You're right! Free From food fairs are so exciting when you are gluten free. You can gorge on lots of new products without worry! The York one looks a good size....... But I have never seen bee pollen granules!
This must have been such a treat for you Katie. I used to buy bee pollen quite regularly and always included it with my muesli or had it sprinkled on porridge, but the shop I used to get it closed a couple of years ago an I've not had any since.
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