The NHS Gets Gluten-Free Food Spectacularly Wrong
According to a report to be broadcast on Newsnight tonight, the NHS pays things like £17 a go for a gluten-free pizza base. If I remember correctly, that buys more than one gluten-free pizza with a topping from somewhere like Sainsburys. i don’t as I like to buy my pizzas made in a proper oven, by someone who knows what he is doing. The last time I ate a pizza was in Naples.
Apparently, the NHS spent £27 million on gluten-free prescriptions last year and say it helps people stick to their gluten free diet.
I don’t get anything on prescription. I used to until I went through the boring list available with a pharmacist and I decided that as I liked food with taste, I’d pass. For instance on the NHS approved list there are no chocolate biscuits. A couple occasionally would liven things up.
I’ve just returned from the shops and for my lunch today and tomorrow, I’ve bought some gluten-free rolls, some smoked salmon, an egg and potato salad and some melon. I could have bought the salad and fruit unprepared, but with my gammy hand, I’d prefer to let someone else do it.
It is much easier to buy it in the local supermarket, in this case Waitrose, than get the bread delivered by post.
At the moment, I’m not cooking, as my cooker has gone and the new one is not delivered until Monday, so a couple of days a week, I live on gluten-free ready meals from somewhere like M & S. But when I get cooking again, there are so many simple things to cook that are naturally gluten-free, like fish, meat, vegetables and fruit.
So in some ways the solution to the NHS’s £27million bill for gluten-free food, is to get everybody to eat healthily. We already have a pasty tax, so why not have a super-tax on burgers, unhealthy sandwiches and other foods, that cause obesity. I would be pleased, as every day, someone has dumped the old fast food packaging on my front patio, sometimes with the burger remains in it.
If people need help to cope with the expense of a gluten-free diet, then they should get the help directly, not with food parcels, where the administration is the major cost.
There also might be a virtuous circle here, in that if the NHS stopped prescribing gluten-free food, the supermarkets would feel it was a market worth developing.
One interesting development over the last couple of years, is the Marks & Spencer’s widower’s range of ready meals. They call it Fuller Longer and the range contains very few allergens, with perhaps a third of the dishes being gluten-free. Probably the most common allergen is fish! I can live with that!
With food like that who needs the hassle of collecting a prescription of a load of cardboard-flavoured rubbish.
The only problem is probably bread, but then all supermarkets and many other stores, these days have a selection of gluten-free bread and rolls.
Perhaps the £27 million would be better spent on education. Let’s face it, the most expensive gluten-free products are things like biscuits and cakes. I wasn’t a coeliac, when I lived with my mother, but some of the biscuits and cakes she used to make in those days, are well within the skills of the average eight-year-old. There is always the old staple of a chocolate rice crisp, made from Rice Krispies or a gluten-free equivalence. Kelloggs also have an interesting alternative here. Just search Google for chocolate rice crisp.
Let’s assume that in the UK, one in a hundred are coeliacs, which means every coeliac costs the country £43.50 a year for gluten-free food.
Not Getting Pregnant
It is reported today, that the Government is changing the IVF rules. But they should also change a few other things, based on my experience.
I have recently traced my family tree back to the 1820s. What is rare, is that in my father’s line, few of the women have given birth. My sister didn’t for a start.
Ten years ago, I was diagnosed as a coeliac, which showed itself in a severe lack of B12. I now moderate a list on the Internet for coeliacs and have come across several examples of female coeliacs, who have been unable to conceive, because of this lack of B12. A few were diagnosed early enough and after going on a gluten-free diet, they conceived and gave birth successfully.
Remember that coeliacs make up one in a hundred of the population. The incidence is higher in the Irish, Askenazi Jews, Italians and some from West Africa. Some have said that coeliac disease is linked genetically to sickle cell anaemia.
It’s Gibbon Time
I took a New Bus for London up to Piccadilly Circus this afternoon and it was surprisingly busy for a Sunday afternoon.
A Busy New Bus for London
When I got off, I used the rear staircase and I found that the vertical hand holds were alternated for my left and right hands. So I swung down the bus like a gibbon. I’m not sure, whether all buses are like that on the top deck. But if they are not, they should be! The slightly rough texture of the hand holds also gives a good grip for my gammy left hand.
Incidentally, note in the picture, how the handholds slant outwards. Does this effectively make the gangway wider? Or just appear so? I must take my tape measure with me to check!
After all, when you are rehabilitating from a stroke, like I am, isn’t it a bit cheaper to get free exercise in everything you do?
Haringey to Limit Junk Food
The Sunday Times reports today, that Haringey is to going to limit the number of junk food shops in poor areas of the borough. Here’s a flavour of their report.
Health officials in Haringey, north London, plan to curb the number of fried chicken, burger and pizza outlets in poor parts of the borough where men die, on average, nine years younger than those from its leafier areas. It proposes using planning powers to limit fast-food restaurants after finding there were up to six times more such outlets in poorer districts.
Let’s hope it all works out and spreads to the next borough to the south, Hackney. The Kingsland Road has little else, except loan and pound -shops.
A Bin of Wet Tissues a Day
It seems that every day, I throw away a bin-full of wet tissues, as my nose is running so much.
I’ve never had hay fever like this before! It just goes on and on!
Why Does Rebekah Brooks Remind Me of My Endoscopy?
I’ve had two endoscopies to check on my coeliac disease. Neither was any problem and both were done without any sedative at all, as the first doctor explained, this was better in a lot of ways. In both cases I was able to walk out the hospital and drive myself home.
Every time though, I see a picture of Mrs. Brooks, she reminds me of the doctor, who performed the second procedure. It’s the hair mainly, although both are probably about the same height and build. But that’s probably as far as it goes.
I certainly know, who I would prefer to perform an endoscopy.
Obesity
They’ve just given a forum on BBC Breakfast for a very large lady, who calls herself a Size Awareness Campaigner. She objects to being called obese and wants doctors to use other words.
I would just use fat!
After all because of their overeating, they are pushing the NHS down the toilet.
Why should I pay my taxes to fund other clear up the mess causes by the bad habits of others. And of course that includes smoking and excessive drinking!
That item would never have been shown, whilst the program was based in London.
Dustin Hoffman Saved My Life
This is the headline in a story in The Sun.
It concerns a man, who collapsed whilst jogging in Hyde Park and it was Dustin Hoffman, who called the ambulance.
All seems to be well now!
A Restaurant That Lives Up To Its Name
The Heart Attack Grill is in Las Vegas and it is living up to its name, as this story from Reuters show. Here’s an extract.
The female customer, a Las Vegas resident in her 40s, had been devouring a “double bypass burger,” puffing on cigarettes, and sipping a margarita when she collapsed Saturday night, the Grill’s owner told ABC News.
I won’t be visiting.
Seeing the Physio for my Vertigo
I went to see the physio today for my benign positional vertigo.
She examined me and then used an Epley manouver to move the crystals in my inner ear.
She also showed me something called a Brandt-Daroff exercise, that I can do myself.
Let’s hope it all goes well.
The Anonymous Widower 