General Chat

As I am sure you know,I have been a vegetarian for a very long time, longer than I care to admit to having been alive.In the seventies,we were awkward wierdos who might be lucky to get a cheese salad if we had the audacity to show our faces in a pub or restaurant.

I often thought I would have liked to have become vegan because I am just doing my best for ethical reasons in that I would not wan to be on the other end of it, so to speak, but veganism would have been just too difficult., there was not even Quorn available until the late eighties. The vegetarian pound didn't have much clout.

Sometime in the last few years, veganism became the fashion, no doubt powered by some cynical marketing force and the young have grasped the concept with fervour. Quite honestly, I don't think I can make that final opush and become vegan myself after all this time which has had one vegan FB group fall upon me like I am red in tooth and claw (yes, I had the fervour of youth at one time as well).

Now so many young have taken up the cause of veganism, manufacturers and caterers are falling over themselves to accommodate them and he food is horrible! I hope they are not adhering to the diet for health reasons because the one or two things I have tried have been full of artificial flavourings and colourings , often to disguise the taste of soya which I rarely used even when it was just about the only thing available because it tastes very nasty.

It would be good to think veganism was going to be the way forward for the world but I really don't hold out much hope. I am sure that many will ind a new banner to wave, as is the nature of youth, and the old tackle manufactured for their nourishment is not going to do very much to stop them changing their minds!

As you mentioned, Sharron, the stuff they put in vegan food is horrific!

I'm not sure how 'ethical' it is with all those additives, I mean, where do the additives come from, and how are they manufactured?

I once looked at Linda MCartney's Vegtarian range of pie and sausages and discovered they contained more fat than usual sausages!!
So they were in fact really unhealthy albeit meat free.
Yes Sharron, i dont eat meat, but i do eat fish. I am virtually dairy free too as allergic to cream , milk etc
When I have on the rare occasion(not recently) been to a restaurant, quite often a salad is all i can eat.
Why do they smother salmon in cream sauce, new pots in butter and other veg too? Really makes my blood boil. As for the vegan option as Maggie says, they are full of additives and the food is awful.

Cant even get a sandwich thesedays which is butter or mayo free!

Florene in the hebrides

I'm an omnivore, but, like you, Florence, I really dislike being served food smothered in 'stuff'. I like to taste something, then, if I want, add a sauce/butter etc to my liking!

I would rather have butter on a sandwich than marge.

must have butter on new jersey royal potatos, can eat a whole plate of them, yum

Just.....must....have butter! :-D

I'm quite amazed at how much easier it is to be lactose-intolerant now than it was when I first had the problem back in 2004. Restaurants, etc now know all about it, and will make small changes, like omitting the sauce. Of course, I'm sensible and don't ask for a menu item that has lots of cheese, or cream in it!

I still like my meat, and the people on the trains we take at Christmas have been really good at making adaptations for me ......... but I have ended up with a vegan meal on the train from Montreal to Halifax because the meals are provided pre-packed, and the caterers have provided some really weird "non-dairy" meal that proves to have dairy in it :-S

One lunch time all the train crew could provide was a huge plate of salad with raspberry vinaigrette, that they served in a small jug. Another time, all they could find was a vegan Korean stir fry that they found in their freezer and heated up for me. Luckily they also found a small half-empty bottle of soy sauce tucked away in the galley, because the stir-fry was tasteless!

Sometimes things run in the family.

My aunt was allergic to tomatoes and my sis when once examined for a particular purpose was told that tomatoes were doing her skin no good!

Something passed down methinks.

Number 2 grandaughter born in 2011 is dairy and soya intolerant. When she was younger it was difficult to find food she could eat, but Vegan foods have been a blessing, as long as they have no soya. You can get all sorts of alternatives now, and she does like some of them.

My daughter has Crohn's diease, and her daughter has celiac disease.
I found this - and similar reports interesting:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200512134512.htm

My OH has coeliac disease, Maggie, but over the years we have all become used to his dietary requirements now - even our grandchildren. His is full-blown so no oats, wheat, barley or rye for him.

The beauty of living now is that so many people have decided to reduce wheat in their diets for whatever reason, manufacturers have introduced more gluten-free food - although my OH still makes his own bread.

Your press release made interesting reading. Many years ago I read a lot about the disease in an effort not to poison my OH and, if my recall is right, it seemed that there was a higher percentage of coeliac disease per capita in Ireland and Australia which made me wonder somewhat whether the potato blight had anything to do with the prevalence of coeliac disease, knowing that a lot of Irish people had been transported or moved of their own accord to Oz. This feeling seemed to ring true because in my OH's case it came down the Irish line in his family as another family member suffered from it. (One of OH's own specialists spoke about the idea of it being hereditary to a degree and having our children tested - they were OK.)

When we lived in Oz years ago many more people were aware of it than there were here at the time. We found one fab bakery that cleaned thoroughly and sold only gluten-free stuff every Friday; alas it was burnt out in one of the dreadful bushfires years ago so we do not know whether it ever re-opened.

Once one 'has a handle' on the disease, the symptoms abate - as is obvious from my OH who is very active and rarely sits still, although now, at his age, he nods off for a short nap if he sits in front of the telly during the afternoon! I hasten to add that I don't think it is as a result of his coeliac disease as several of my friends do the same so it is likely an age thing.

My grandaughter (19) was diagnosed about 2 years ago.
If she, say, goes to a friends for Sunday lunch, she goes armed with a packet of gluten-free Yorkshire puds! :-D

Grandaughter has worked at a local pub since she was 14.

The owner has recently bought another pub, in the next village, and has insisted my grandaughter becomes a trainee manager (not her career choice, she wants to become a health worker, but as there's a pandemic on...)

These two pubs are rapidly increasing the amount of gluten free alternatives in their meals - I wonder why?? :-D :-D :-D :-D

Good for her, Maggie.

Luckily, my domestic science teacher taught us to use cornflour for gravy, sauces and thickener so it's something I have always done even though my dom sci only took up one year of my school years. (Some teachers have the knack of getting through immediately, don't they?)

With typical Sunday roast dinners it's always the yorkshire puds and gravy that cause problems, not forgetting the propensity for some food places to coat their roast potatoes in 'ordinary' flour for crispy outsides, if food workers are not coeliac aware. Coating them in rice flour would be better for my OH and other coeliacs. Even so, I parboil roasties first then scrape a fork along their tops before roasting them. Hasselback potatoes would be suitable too and my OH has cooked them that way.

For grandaughter who is soya intolerant, thickeners are often an issue as they use soya flour a lot. Also any food using fats, even when dairy free they often use soya oil. The 'free from' ranges have to be carefully scrutinised as they often have soya in where you might not expect any.
Chain restaurants are usually very good with their allergy books and are very careful with what they provide. Independant places less so, for instance frying oil often contains soya, and they can't guarantee that there is no cross contamination in the kitchen.

I must pass that press release onto OH.

JL don't you find that there are more and more oats being put into GF products - my OH also has the Oats problem. Daughter also turned out to be Coaliac but she is not sure if she has the Oats problem so avoids it just incase as the result for OH is devestating.

Fifty years ago my OH used to love Chinese food but, of course, it's the soy sauce that causes a coeliac problems. A couple of years ago I noticed that there was a gluten-free soy sauce on the supermarket shelves but have not yet bought any.

The free-from-gluten ranges are usually fine for coeliacs but we have had notification from the Coeliac Society in the past warning us when there has been cross-contamination - a rare occurrence but we always get notification.

It is in our nature now always to check the wording on the back of foodstuffs other than the free-from-gluten range because some foods which one would think would contain no gluten would occasionally be manufactured in a glutenised atmosphere.

Luckily, labelling has made things easier than it was a couple of decades ago.

Not so far, names. Some people have an intolerance to one thing, such as oats or soy, but my OH has full-blown coeliac and has to avoid oats, wheat, barley and rye so your daughter, also being coeliac will find that her system will not cope with oats, however, rice flour and cornflour will be fine for her.

If your daughter likes porridge, my OH is happy with gluten-free porridge.

Understandably, the NHS tried to crack down a few years ago on items people had prescriptions for as costs to the NHS were mounting and more items were available in shops. He has never had anything other than flour on prescription (to make his bread) and that is only because that particular brand is not available in stores but I can understand families where a young child is coeliac may want to put more on prescription because of costs.

Good luck to your daughter. She'll get used to shopping but as a coeliac she really should avoid oats, wheat, barley and rye - and do without soy sauce in anything! There's a helluva lot more on the shelves for her now than there was years ago!

I’ve used GF soy for ages. There used to be a Chinese supermarket that sold several types in town. I don’t know if it is still there but I now use the Tamari ones from the supermarkets.

I have to check all the ingredients on all confectionary, cakes and biscuits because of the oats. Many GF/free from items contain GF oats which OH can’t tolerate.

Edit just see we cross posted. Daughter has been coeliac for 20 years, OH a bit more. OH is one of the small group that cannot tolerate any oats whether GF or not. Can’t remember what the name is.

Both are at the same surgery and ALL GF prescriptions were stopped a few years ago.

I've just messaged you names but I can see I needn't have done so!

They did crack down on prescriptions because (I think) that there were too many people jumping on the bandwagon when it was a choice thing rather than a health thing. Obviously, with my OH only getting flour to make his bread, it did not really affect us and our doctor still prescribes that anyway, but the cost would definitely affect a family who had a coeliac child; it would have a real impact on the grocery bill.

It looks as though it is a case of which surgery you are registered at as far as prescriptions are concerned.

Have you heard of an initiative by some specialists (instigated several years ago) to introduce a little gluten (or whatever foodstuff one is allergic to, such as eggs or dairy) to the diet and slowly increasing it? We have not tried it but it would be interesting to hear from someone who has.