Rice Krispies

 

I checked on my Krispies and find that they actually label them as containing barley.

That is new or at least since I last checked about two years ago.

Still as I said before they don’t affect me at all. But then I can drink old-fashioned bottled Guinness without affect too! (I don’t now, incidentally!) I may stop but not at present!

A dietitian said they would be OK for me, some years ago.

Marks and Spencer

 

Just had a butterflied leg of pork from Marks & Spencer for supper.

Basically, it is pork with olive oil, garlic and summer herb marinade. But obviously it is gluten-free as it uses cornflour instead of floue!

It was very nice.

As it’s new, does this mean that M & S are taking coeliacs seriously. I suppose like us, they need all the help they can get!

Gluten Free Barbecue Food

 

I’m not a barbecue person, but Musks and others have told me that gluten-free sausages don’t spit! So if you’re sunbathing at the same time, you won’t get burned. Except by the sun!

Someone once told me that liver barbecues well too!

Bites and Itches

 

Can’t say I’m often bitten. Except on holiday!

Studs tend to be very fly-free as certainly down here, they attract the most friendly method of getting rid of flies. Swallows! We probably have several hundred in our air force. (As an aside here, last year we went to a resort in Greece called Sani. All over the place, they placed platforms for the swallows’ nests. Result. No flies!)

I get itches and that tends to be something I’ve eaten. The Spicy TrueFree crackers do it for me, if I eat twenty or so. Shame kebab can do the same.

Statistics and Misdiagnosis

 

Statistics may well be one of the causes of all sorts of misdiagnosis.

Our granddaughter was born with a hernia in her diaphragm (CDH), which is a problem in about 1 in 3000 babies. Not quite sure on the statistic, mainly because she is absolutely fine now!

Now my GP of about 20 years experience has never known a CDH. Interestingly, she is very interested, as she wants to know more in case she has to counsel the parents.

But when you talk about 1 in 100,000 a GP is unlikely to ever see one and hence I think this often leads to all sorts of misdiagnosis. I don’t know what the solution is, but it does probably mean a lot more referrals to centres of excellence.

Now when we come to coeliac disease then we may well be talking about 1 in 100, so GPs should come across quite a few. But then there are still doctors who disbelieve all these faddy food allergies. I first came across a serious coeliac in about 1971, so I would have thought they’d accept reality by now!

But statistics should mean that GPs are aware of large numbers of coeliacs.

Can the large amount of Prozac and other anti-depressents being dispensed have anything to do with a large misdiagnosis of coeliacs?

After all giving up gluten isn’t so bad! Says he with a large glass of Tarrango to hand!

Critical Illness Cover

 

We recently changed our health insurance using a broker. I mentioned I was coeliac and this didn’t make any difference with the insurers we chose, but it did with some.

So shop around!

Incidentally, we ended up with Legal and General and they have been very very good, especially as immediately they took over the insurance at a much lower rate, my wife got breast cancer. Hopefully, all is well with her now!