Elucidating allergy/intolerance confusion….

01/12/2013 By 4 Comments

Last week we had a meeting with the lovely Ceres PR who will be working with us on promoting the FreeFrom Food Awards this year – and one of the things they asked us to outline for them in our briefing was areas of confusion in ‘freefrom’ and allergy/intolerance.

Not a problem, I thought, a couple of quick sentences – until I actually came to think about it. At which point I realised that the whole subject was fraught with confusion, both in terms of what freefrom/allergy/intolerance actually mean – and what they are called. So, for everyone’s benefit….

• ‘FreeFrom’ - a relatively loose term applied to any product (not only food) that is ‘free of’ whatever it is that you do not want to eat/put on your skin/use on your loo etc.

Those who are intolerant of gluten think it only applies to gluten-free foods, those who have a dairy problem think it only applies to dairy-free foods, those who have multiple allergies/ intolerances think that ‘freefrom foods’ will be free of all of their allergens and get quite upset when they are not!

‘FreeFrom’ is not a ‘marque’ and has no legal or regulatory status. There is no governing or policing body for freefrom.

However, the term has been widely adopted by the food industry as a ‘cover all’ term for ‘dietary’ foods that are gluten/wheat/dairy/nut etc free. It is also now starting to be used for foods that are free of other ingredients which are perceived to be unhealthy  (such as additives) and, by extension, even for ‘ethical’ foods – fair trade, organic, low food miles, animal friendly etc.

• Allergy  / intolerance

The medical definition of food allergy is an immediate immune system reaction sparked by the binding of an IgE antibody to a mast cell thereby causing a release of histamine.

The medical definition of  food intolerance is a delayed reaction to a food which does not involve the immune system, the symptoms of which are extremely varied and can be behavioural/psychological as well as physical.

These definitions tend only to be understood by the medical profession – and not by all of them!!

The average food intolerance sufferer thinks of him/herself as a food allergy sufferer which explains the huge divergence between the ‘official figures’ for food allergy (1-2% of the population) and the popular perception (30-40% of the population). Dietitians, in particular, get very exercised about this…..

• Cow’s milk allergy and lactose intolerance

1. Cow’s milk allergy is an immune response (see allergy above) to one or more proteins in cow’s milk – can be fatal.

2. Cow’s milk intolerance is a food intolerance (see intolerance above) to some or all the constituents (not necessarily proteins) in cow’s milk.

3. Lactose intolerance is not, strictly speaking, an intolerance at all but a deficiency of the enzyme lactase which digests the lactose sugar in milk. (In lactose intolerance the undigested lactose sugar ferments in the gut giving the typical digestive symptoms of lactose intolerance.)

Lactose intolerance has nothing to do with cow’s milk allergy and although it is possible to suffer from both, they are totally separate conditions.
Very few outside the medical profession understand the differences so the three terms are used indiscriminately.

• Coeliac disease, gluten sensitivity/intolerance, wheat allergy, wheat intolerance

1. Coeliac disease is an autoimmune condition in which the protein fraction, gliadin, found in wheat, barley and rye, causes the villi or fronds which line the small intestine to atrophy thereby preventing the sufferer absorbing nutrition from what they eat and preventing its proper digestion. It can have wide ranging symptoms many of which may be digestive, but need not be. It is thought to affect around  1 in 70 of the population although it is also thought to be heavily under-diagnosed.

2. Gluten sensitivity/intolerance. This is an intolerance (see above) to the gluten which is found in all grains. It is a ‘new’ intolerance in that its existence is only just coming to be recognised; it may, in some degree or other, be very common.

3. Wheat allergy – an allergy (see above) to one or several of the proteins in  wheat.

4. Wheat intolerance – an intolerance, see above, to one or several of the constituents (not necessarily proteins) of wheat. This appears to be most common in relation to highly processed, high-gluten flours and products made from them.

All four conditions are commonly confused.

• Dairy / eggs

Eggs are not a dairy product although many people think they are – I have never been able to get my head around why they should!!
Strictly speaking dairy products only refer to cow’s milk products although the term is often taken to refer to all animal milk products (goat, sheep, camel, mare, donkey etc etc)

• Butter

Strictly speaking ‘butter’ refers only to churned animal milk but it is used in common parlance in other contexts – cacao/cocoa butter, coconut butter, shea butter, nut butters etc – which have nothing to do with cow’s or animal milk. However, the terminology causes a great deal of confusion amongst those who think they might be dairy/milk/cow’s milk intolerant.

• ‘Milk’

The term should only refer to cow’s milk or at least to animal milks. However, for convenience it is also used in general parlance (not  in ingredients lists or on food labels) for almost any drink which is white(ish) and can be used for similar purposes as cow’s milk eg. soya milk, rice milk, coconut milk, oat milk, spelt milk etc

• Nut/peanut allergies

1. Peanuts are not tree nuts but legumes – eg fruits which grow and ripen in a pod – so being peanut allergic does not mean that you will be tree nut allergic or vice versa – although some people can be allergic to both.

2. Tree nuts include  walnut, almond, hazelnut, cashew, pistachio, and Brazil nuts of which cashews, Brazils and hazelnuts are usually thought to cause the most serious allergic reactions.

3. Although coconut are treenuts they are not usually considered to have a high allergy risk.

4. Seeds – pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds etc. These are not nuts and, although you can be allergic to any/all of them and you can have both a nut and a seed allergy, the fact that you are allergic to nuts does not mean you will be allergic to seeds and vice versa.

Hope you are now somewhat wiser….  If not – for more information check out:

The articles on FreeFromFoodsMatter for more on ‘freefrom’
The articles on the food allergy/intolerance section of Foods Matter for more than you will ever want to know about food allergy/intolerance!
The articles in the cow’s milk allergy sections and the lactose intolerance section of FoodsMatter
Our CoeliacsMatter site for anything you want to know about coeliac disease, gluten sensitivity or wheat allergy.
The peanut/treenut section of FoodsMatter for related articles.

Filed Under: Allergies, Dairy-free, Food, FreeFrom Food, Gluten-free Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dairy disappointment

10/04/2012 By 3 Comments

From all the headlines over the last few weeks, dairy allergics could not be blamed for thinking that all their problems had been solved – if Australian A2 milk did not do it for them, then Daisy, the hypo-allergenic New Zealand cow certainly would… But, alas, beyond the hype, the real news is less encouraging.

Both stories have been covered in more depths on the FoodsMatter site. See Frances Dale on the A2 milk story here; I have covered the Daisy story here.  But to bring you up to speed, at speed….
The milk from A2 cows, which include Jerseys and Guernseys, does not include the A1 beta-casein protein that breaks down in the digestion into a protein fragment, BCM7/beta-casomorphin-7, that behaves like an opiate, and has been blamed for much cow’s milk allergy as well cardiovascular disease, type 1 diabetes and autism.
Daisy, the New Zealand cow, has been genetically modified not to produce beta-lactoglobulin, the protein in whey which is thought to be responsible for much cow’s milk allergy especially amongst babies and small children.

But the sad fact is that, even if available and on the market – and whatever about A2, there is no chance that Daisy’s milk would be on the market for years, if ever – neither milk would solve ‘the problem’ of cow’s milk allergy/sensitivity, as there really is no such thing as ‘cow’s milk allergy/sensitivity’.

What is, in fact, relatively common (especially, among babies and small children) are a whole range of different sensitivities (whether immediate, IgE mediated or delayed) to a number of different cow’s milk proteins and their components parts or ‘epitopes’. (There are over 30 proteins in cow’s milk and each one includes many ‘epitopes’ so the options are almost endless.) In other words, which protein or fraction of a protein you react to is entirely individual to you, your reactions may be caused by a series of different immune activities and those reactions may vary according to your age!

So although, given the numbers that we are talking about, there will be a significant number of people who do react to A1 milk, so would be fine with A2, and another signficant group who do react to beta-lactoglobulin (the protein that has been genetically engineered out of Daisy) so will be fine with Daisy’s milk, there will still be very signifcant groups who will not be fine with either.

Not only does this rather dent the ‘dairy allergy is no more’ headlines but it creates yet greater confusion in an area which is already horrendously confused. Very few cow’s milk allergy/sensitivity sufferers will really understand the science or have any kind of handle on which group they fall into, or whether the new milks will actually help them.  It also significantly raises the risk of serious allergic reactions amongst those who do suffer from IgE mediated allergies to a cow’s milk protein other than A1 but get carried away by the hype and end up by drinking, for example, A2 milk on the assumption that it is safe for them – which it most certainly will not be.

And that is totally ignoring the whole question of lactose intolerance on which neither milk would have any effect at all.

There is already massive confusion between lactose intolerance (an inability to digest the lactose sugar in milk because you do not make enough of the enzyme lactase needed to process it) and cow’s milk intolerance (a reaction to one or several of the proteins in milk).  Claims by A2 milk supporters that it may  improve lactose intolerance are nonsense – unless the supposed lactose intolerance symptoms have not been caused by lactose intolerance at all but by an intolerance to the A1 proteins in the milk, in which case, moving to A2 milk might indeed resolve the symptoms. But try explaining that to someone who understands nothing of the mechanics of either….

It is great that the research is going forward – and yes please, more, more….. but a sad fact of life that, in the understandable rush to publish results (which may help to raise money to fund more research), unrealistic hopes are raised which are more likely to hinder than to help the cause.

Filed Under: Allergies, Conventional Medicine, Dairy-free, Food Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

FreeFrom pizza feeding frenzy!!

10/04/2012 By Leave a Comment

 

It’s like Number 9 buses, really.  For years you wait (well, hours in the case of the Number 9 bus) – frustrated, annoyed, disillusioned, hopeless, near despair…. and then three of them appear, one after the other!

And so it is with freefrom pizzas! I could fill a book with the sad tales of those on gluten-free or lactose-free diets watching their non-free from friends munch through tasty Margheritas, spicy Americanos and even those much-to-be-regretted ones covered in bits of ham and pineapple chunks…..

And now, out of the blue, not only have we just hoovered up an extremely tasty Basilico’s (afraid that this is all that now remains….) covered in Lactofree cheese – unfurl the flags, all you lactose intolerants – but I have an offer of no less than five Pizza Hut gluten-free pizzas delivered hot to our door to celebrate the rollout in their restaurants next week and….. notification that  Domino’s will be launching the very first home delivery gluten-free pizza at the beginning of  November!!!!

Even more…. I see, tucked down at the bottom of the Coeliac UK news release, that Prezzo is now also offering gluten-free pizzas as part of its ‘classic stone-baked’ range, in all of its 173 restaurants across the UK.

If you have not all got there before us, we will be reporting on the Pizza Hut pizzas in our New products section as soon as we have tasted them, hi-ing ourselves of to a Prezzo restaurant in double quick time (a further report) and then tapping our fingers impatiently waiting for our Domino’s!

Meanwhile, if you too wish to enjoy a lactose-free Basilico’s – just check into their website here where you can order either a Margherita or a Buonissima, both made with Lactofree hard and soft cheese, and the latter ’topped with smoked chicken, wood roasted sweet red pepper, fresh rocket and cherry tomatoes with balsamic glaze’.

Enjoy!!!

Filed Under: Allergies, Dairy-free, Food, FreeFrom Food, Gluten-free Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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