‘Know Your Risk’ – the Royal College of Pathologists runs a campaign at the Chelsea Flower Show to raise awareness of allergies to wheat, apples and carrots, according to FreshInfo.
At the Chelsea Flower Show? The Royal College of Pathologists? What’s more, they won one of the highly prestigious RHS Gold Medals for the exhibit.
What’s going on? The Chelsea Flower Show is a very upmarket gardening show. Pathologists study the causes of disease and death. Relationship: the bad effects some edible plants can have on your body.
Unusual as the combination of the Chelsea Flower Show and pathology might seem, apparently the RCP estimate that 3-6% of Britons are unable to tolerate one of these three: wheat, apples and carrots. Coeliac UK estimates that 1% have coeliac disease, which means that allergies to apples and carrots must be surprisingly high.
Coeliac disease is best known – though experience tells me it isn’t all that well known, and isn’t usually described as an allergy (though I will admit, it does make it easier to explain to people if you say ‘allergy’).
Oral Allergy Syndrome can be precipitated by apples (and a long list of other foods). This is more like an allergy: itching or swelling of the tongue, lips, mouth or throat, and sounds very unpleasant. It isn’t an allergy to the food, but a syndrome that develops in hay fever sufferers – the immune system mistakes the food proteins for the pollen proteins, and causes an allergic reaction. Apples are a cause, but also almonds, cherries, hazelnuts, peaches, plums and walnuts.
Symptoms of carrot allergies range from mild, through abdominal pain, diarrhoea and vomiting (sound familiar?) to life-threatening anaphylaxsis. Not at all good.
So – round of applause, please, for the RCP for raising awareness. Coincidentally, this would have been immediately after Coeliac Awareness Week 2007.
I wonder whether it would have been possible to eat gluten free at the Chelsea Flower Show?
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