Cllr. Gavin Ayling

Some people (paranoid people) are worried about the intelligence of Tesco’s clubcard system and its ability to know a lot about you. And, to be fair, it could know a lot about you. But you have a choice so I don’t really care that much, frankly.

I felt I had to say that, though, before I mocked the system that issues vouchers. To the best of my recollection I have never bought anything from Tesco that contains gluten; not on someone else’s behalf and certainly not for myself.

So it should come as little surprise that I received an ‘Extra Points’ voucher with my latest ClubCard statement for the Free From range. But I did find it amusing that right above that voucher, is another. For Weetabix.

You’re worried about Tesco’s data gathering? I’m not worried on that form!

Apparently the government is considering stopping providing gluten free food on prescription. No doubt this would be spun as ‘reform’ again.

The prohibitive cost of gluten free food would leave the vast majority of people suffering Coeliac Disease eating non-nutritious diets and threatening their own health and, so, future costs to the NHS (cancer, osteoperosis etc.)

A member of the Coeliac Disease Support Group has put up a petition on the largely-ignored Number 10 website and I ask that you sign and distribute this as widely as possible:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/coeliacs-disease/

More on coeliac disease can be found here: www.coeliac.org.uk

It’s Coeliac Awareness Week so tell any friends you have who have ‘Irritable Bowel Syndrome’ (note to the wise: that’s a description of symptoms not a description of cause) that they may have coeliac disease.

Tell them that they should demand a test from a doctor before cutting gluten from their diet. Tell them all!

At the moment I am reading The Ancestor’s Tale by Richard Dawkins.

It’s a really great book. He touches on milk intolerance and wheat intolerance quite early on. To summarise he suggests that humans did not originally evolve to eat the seeds of grass. The seeds of grass, unlike fruit, did not evolve to take advantage of passing through a digestive tract of a mammal. Grasses do not need animals to eat their seed in order for their seed to be distributed.

So, for humans to be able to eat grasses (oats, wheat, rice etc) we have evolved slightly. In Dawkins’ words we have been ‘domesticated’ by our circumstanes in the same way as dogs (apparently all descended from wolves) have been domesticated.

So those of you who are able to eat wheat are, in simple terms, more evolved than me. I am a throwback!

If you live locally or if you have coeliac disease, you’ll be delighted to learn about the new gluten free supermarket that has opened in Shoreham-by-Sea.

In Evershed Way just off of Dolphin Road, Johnsons have a shop stocking many gluten free products. Not only that but for those of you not in the area, they have an online store (with a very reasonable delivery charge).

So support this local business and benefit from a wider range of gluten free foods!

I have a few more restaurants to add to the list of restaurants in Brighton who are and are not able to cater for coeliacs:

Indian Summer, East Street lists whether items are gluten free on their menu visible from the roadside!
Wagamama continues to provide a gluten free menu.

But Lee Cottage on Queens Road didn’t know what wheat was and whether it would be in Soy Sauce — one to avoid then.

Coeliac disease is a recognised medical condition that requires treatment in the form of gluten free food. So how dare they?