Food Intolerance Is All in Your Head

Published on Monday, September 24, 2007, by Traci Vogel / Edit Post

According to a recent survey, millions of Brits have a self-diagnosed food intolerance, and they blame celebrities:

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.

The article goes on to say that of the 12 million UK trendsetters who claim to be intolerant, less than a quarter have had their condition “formally diagnosed.” In other words, the headline implies, these people’s food intolerances may be imaginary.

The Daily Mail, with typical snarkiness, leaps on the story as an excuse to complain about picky eaters who accept invitations to dinner and then offer up a list of things they can’t eat. The horror!

This pooh-poohing of food intolerances recalls the “gluten intolerance is trendy” story the New York Times ran back in May, which included the quote, “A lot of alternative practitioners like chiropractors have picked up on it and are waving around magic silver balls, crystals and such, telling people they have gluten intolerance.”

Meanwhile, the real story is that many intolerances, including celiac, are seriously underdiagnosed. So why run a story about imaginary food intolerances? Turns out that Yorktest, the company that conducted the poll, sells food-allergy testing kits.

A spokesman for Yorktest says, ingenuously, “Food intolerances are on the increase, but it’s worrying to think that many sufferers have never actually been tested or diagnosed. There is a surprisingly diverse range of foods which people are now intolerant to.”

Yes, and it’s all Rachel Weisz’s fault!

ALLFood Media
POST A COMMENT |7 Comments

COMMENT

  • No, it's stupid and dangerous. Watching someone swell up and die might be your idea of "fun", but most of us can't stretch it that far - and for someone with a real nut allergy, that's exactly what can happen.

    My own lactose intolerance, while very mild, is a serious annoyance to me. I've always loved a nice glass of cold milk, but since around 1974 that's almost-instant diarrhea. Ha ha ha...

  • All the fashionistas and trend setters say it's much cooler these days to be intolerant and snarky about food allergies and such. Much hipper these days than being intolerant to food.

    Really, isn't it fun to feed gluten, nuts or mil to an allergic and intolerant person and enjoy the resulting gas, diarrhea or anaphalaxis throughout the dinner party?

  • You can blame the drug companies or their marketing campaigns. They give normal conditions like heart burn, poor circulation, impotence, etc, very scientific sounding "indications" such as acid reflux disease or restless leg syndrome or erectile disfunction. Then you add in the glossy television ads showing successful, attractive, happy people with the "indication" that even if you don't have it...+READ

    You can blame the drug companies or their marketing campaigns. They give normal conditions like heart burn, poor circulation, impotence, etc, very scientific sounding "indications" such as acid reflux disease or restless leg syndrome or erectile disfunction. Then you add in the glossy television ads showing successful, attractive, happy people with the "indication" that even if you don't have it you may want to. They should have never allowed drug companies to have TV commercials.-COLLAPSE

  • SInce moving to the UK I am amazed at all the commercials and ads for the pro-biotic drinks that are sold. What is that all about?!?! I think that industry has merely jumped on this food allergy/intolerance craze and is making a bundle of £££ now. If anywhere in the world, I'm sure many allergies go undiagnosed and untreated by the NHS - there's little preventative care about most ailments. Sad...+READ

    SInce moving to the UK I am amazed at all the commercials and ads for the pro-biotic drinks that are sold. What is that all about?!?! I think that industry has merely jumped on this food allergy/intolerance craze and is making a bundle of £££ now. If anywhere in the world, I'm sure many allergies go undiagnosed and untreated by the NHS - there's little preventative care about most ailments. Sad that someone could have a true intolerance and suffer for a lifetime.-COLLAPSE

  • Not so simple. Clinically, allergies--to food or anything else--are diagnosed when antibodies about the offending thing are present. There are lots of people walking around who aren't making antibodies to stuff, but the stuff isn't making them any less sick. Just sayin'.

  • Unless all of your ancestors were either Northern Europeans or Masai, or you're under the age of puberty, there's a much better than even chance you are lactose-intolerant, or at least sufficiently so to be unable to digest fluid milk. That's a plain fact. As for the other gluten, protein and nut allergies, yes, they really are on the increase. I would hazard the guess that it's exactly because...+READ

    Unless all of your ancestors were either Northern Europeans or Masai, or you're under the age of puberty, there's a much better than even chance you are lactose-intolerant, or at least sufficiently so to be unable to digest fluid milk. That's a plain fact. As for the other gluten, protein and nut allergies, yes, they really are on the increase. I would hazard the guess that it's exactly because we are now aware of the existence of these, so we're much likelier to diagnose them before the kid just mysteriously dies on us...so he/she lives to adulthood and has children. And so it goes.-COLLAPSE

  • Great. Another reason for chefs to assume that celiacs are just being a-holes in their house.