Monthly Archives: April 2006

Focus on food

My coeliac daughter is going away for a residential trip with school next week – not her first time away from home, so she’ll be fine. One of the other mums asked if we’d packed yet, and I realised I’d been so focused on getting the food right I hadn’t really thought about the rest of the things she’d need yet – the stuff all the other parents were worried about.

We’re sending most of her food with her, because its easier, and I’ll know what she’s eating. I’ve gone through the planned menus with the teacher, and – sure enough – most of the food will be inappropriate for her. Last summer she went away with Active Training and Education, and they did a fantastic job at catering for her gluten free diet, even down to making gluten free pastry so she could have similar food to the others. Gluten free pastry is something I hardly ever make at home … since she went away and discovered pastry, I’ve bought some readymade (yes, I know, very expensive) from Lifestyle, which works well.

Gluten free not taste free, please

Some interesting comments on the gluten free message board today about the need that some people have for both gluten free and nut free food (for instance). I can quite see that if you have health reasons for both, you would need to eat food that was free from both.

On the other hand, it is sometimes true that food that is both gluten free and dairy free is also free from taste, which is frustrating if you only need to be free from gluten, not dairy as well.

I suppose it just confirms what we’ve said for the last nine years – since my daughter was diagnosed coeliac – that food prepared from scratch is likelier to be healthier and ultimately better for you. If only we had time to cook from scratch every day …