Choose natural foods for top health

MILEY CYRUS steers clear of lactose and gluten. Zooey Deschanel has cut out eggs, dairy and wheat. Tennis star Serena Williams can’t eat peanuts.

So, for 10 points, which one has the food allergy? The answer, of course is that we should know better than to trust the kind of dietary tidbits that are bandied about in the press.

And yet, they have played a role in fuelling a growing awareness about food allergies and intolerances.

A mere decade ago, it was nearly impossible to get gluten-free food in supermarkets. Now that market is worth €34m in Ireland.

Orla Donohue at Bord Bia’s food and beverage division says gluten-free is one of the largest segments in the ‘free-from’ category and it’s likely to grow even more — by up to 35% in the next five years.

A lot of extra sales are coming from wheat ‘avoiders’ rather than those diagnosed with coeliac disease, according to research by British trade group, Gluten-Free Solutions.

A growing segment of the market, the group found, is opting to go gluten-free as a lifestyle choice; in part influenced by celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston and Novac Djokovic who said how going gluten-free has made a big difference to their lives.

However, many of those who avoid gluten don’t have a very clear idea of what it is. (A clip from the Jimmy Kimmel show on YouTube gives a hilarious insight into the celeb-driven anti-gluten trend in Los Angeles).

And yet, real food allergies — and intolerances — are on the increase.

Consultant dietician Aveen Bannon says there is a definite increase in the number of people complaining of allergies.

However, she says, some of those people may not have allergies at all.

“There is great confusion between allergies and intolerances,” she tells Feelgood.

An allergy is an immune response to a particular food and it can cause a very severe reaction. That will usually happen very quickly — within two minutes to two hours, according to the World Health Organisation.

A food sensitivity or intolerance, however, is generally caused by a sugar in food, for example lactose in milk, and it tends to lead to stomach upset. The symptoms can take much longer to manifest.

“Intolerances are not life threatening whereas allergies can be. Intolerances can also occur as a result of irritable bowel syndrome,” Bannon explains.

According to the Irish Food Allergy Network, five to six per cent of young children in Ireland suffer from allergies.

The most common allergies are to milk, egg, peanut, nuts and fish, and most children will grow out of those allergies by the time they reach age three or four.

In the general population, an estimated one to two per cent of older children and adults have allergies while an estimated one per cent of the population has coeliac disease, though that figure is growing.

So why then is there such an explosion in demand for products that exclude gluten and dairy in particular?

Gary Kealy, who runs Fresh Start Foods ( www.fsf.ie ) with his brother Daniel, believes the way modern food is processed is largely to blame. Both brothers struggled with undiagnosed food intolerances growing up and suffered from low energy and poor concentration.

Gary had an issue with pasteurised dairy as a child and, when in his mid 20s blood tests confirmed he was intolerant of wheat and yeast, too.

He says our bodies are unable to digest the over-processed convenience foods — often loaded with gluten, pasteurised dairy products, wheat, sugar, trans fats, etc — that form so large a part of the modern diet.

“They can cause inflammation, weight imbalances and affect the body’s ability to regulate hormones and heal itself. These things affect performance and mood, cause disease and speed up the ageing process,” he says.

The Kealy brothers are now on a mission to seek out the best producers and the best natural products to help people become, as they put it, “better versions of themselves”.

They offer fitness and nutrition advice and run a health food company and juice bar in Dublin.

A final note on the celebs: Serena is the one with the food allergy; the others have food intolerances. But don’t judge for yourself. If you think you have a food issue, get expert medical and nutritional advice.