For anyone who missed the missable “Food Glorious Food” on itv last night, there were some pretty awful things said by one of the judges, Stacie Stewart, with regards to gluten-free (and general allergy friendly) food, as well as some references by the program makers to gluten/dairy-free as being “food fads”.
You can watch the episode here: https://www.itv.com/itvplayer/food-glorious-food (Episode 4, starts at 15:45) or for those who can’t watch it outside the UK, here is the transcript of the offending parts:
Voiceover: Brighton’s always been a follower of fashion, and that includes the latest food fads
Guy with delicious looking cupcake: … it’s gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, soy-free…
Stacie: Oh so you mean flavour free!
Voiceover: And as Stacie gets stuck into the sweets, gluten-free cooking is starting to repeat on her
Stacie: Do you never fancy, just, risking a day on the toilet just having an amazing cupcake with loads of stuff in?
Guy: *nervous laugh* Sometimes…
Stacie: I would!
Stacie (to the camera): I don’t not like gluten-free but I think if something’s a dessert it’s gotta be unctuous and fabulous and you don’t sometimes get that with a gluten-free dairy-free wheat-free product
~
When I started writing this post, all that came out of my fingers were four letter words, and I try to keep this blog swear-free, mostly because if I start I think I would never stop. On reflection, I have tried to disentangle the specific things that annoyed me about this small segment of the show in the hopes of it reaching someone who shares Stacie’s ignorance.
“Food fads”
Every time you call gluten-free a fad, us coeliacs all die a little inside. Imagine being told one day that you have to change your diet drastically, and that you can’t eat bread, pizza, cakes, biscuits without causing serious damage to your small intestine and potentially cancer, osteoporosis, infertility, depression and nerve damage.
Then imagine people constantly make fun of you for being a faddy eater.
Just in case you still don’t get it: WE DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO LIVE LIKE THIS. We don’t want to be different, or special. We want to eat and enjoy food just like the rest of you.
“Flavour free”
Stacie, firstly, if you think gluten has a flavour, you’re seriously deluded, and clearly know very little about the ingredients that make up your food. The other allergens he mentions – dairy, nuts, soy – are also equally unlikely to contribute to flavour (excepting perhaps nuts, but a purely nut-free dessert would never get this sort of disdain). The issue with allergy friendly food is and always has been the texture, not the flavour.
Secondly, there are many ingredients full of flavour that he didn’t mention and could easily have used instead. Your obvious lack of imagination is comforting to me in a sense, as I won’t lose any sleep over missing out on your own cakes.
Here is a quick list I threw together in about 30 seconds of things that can give flavour to cupcakes:
- Coconut
- Bananas
- Cinnamon
- Dried fruit
- Chocolate
- Lemon/lime/citrus
- Strawberries
- Vanilla
- Coffee
Yeah, not that difficult, was it?
Do you never fancy, just, risking a day on the toilet just having an amazing cupcake with loads of stuff in?
This statement is ignorant on several levels, but I’ll try and break it down. It is not clear what allergies the guy in question is suffering from, but if it’s an allergy, rather than an intolerance/coeliac disease, it’s got nothing to do with toilets.
“Do you never fancy, just, risking a day in the hospital just having an amazing cupcake?”
Yeah, thought not.
Coeliac disease is never mentioned, but I doubt Stacie would really know the difference between coeliac disease and gluten intolerance. It seems she thinks that anyone who avoids certain foods is doing it so they don’t have a dicky tummy.
Well, let me tell you something, Stacie. I don’t avoid gluten because it gives me diarrhoea. Sure, that’s unpleasant, but if that was the only consequence of eating it maybe I WOULD risk it for a good cupcake. S**t happens, as they say.
However, splurging on a cupcake wouldn’t just result in a day on the toilet. There’s diarrhoea, and there’s screaming in pain, tears falling down my cheeks, boyfriend rubbing my back, while my body rejects the gluten in the cupcake in every possible way. Then there’s nausea, overwhelming nausea, worse than any hangover. By this time the fatigue will have hit and my boyfriend might have to carry me to bed.
In the morning, the flu-like autoimmune symptoms start and typically last for a few days, or even a week. Worth it for a cupcake?
“I thought it was gonna be like a boiled bullet”
She was eventually won over by a gluten-free Christmas pudding that another contestant presented.
Stacie: I thought it was gonna be like a boiled bullet, but it was the lightest thing ever!
This really goes to show the extent of her ignorance – if she thought gluten-free texture = boiled bullet she cannot have ever actually tasted gluten-free baking. Seriously. Gluten-free cakes are light, often crumbly (even I’ll admit that) but very rarely are they dense or heavy.
~
I know this is a bit of a mega-rant and I don’t like attacking people personally, but I’m not angry because her comments upset little old me. I’m angry that these ill-informed comments are being broadcast to a large amount of people who may have heard somewhere that gluten-free food is not very nice and then think, well this proves it! I’m angry at her implication that being able to eat “unctuous” cupcakes is more important than a healthy life. And I’m angry at the programme referring to my critically important diet as “a fad” that gives the general public license to keep laughing at us and dismissing our needs as not important.
Way to go girl, love this rant. I wanted to post the link to this on FGF facebook page then decided it was not my place to do it but maybe you would? The more of us who comment there the more likely there is to be a reaction from the powers that be 🙂
Please, go ahead and share it! 🙂
Way to go, girl!! With you all the way. With me it would ‘just’ be a day on the toilet, but I would rather give that a miss, I’ll stick to being gluten free, thanks!!
Yes, I think we’d all choose to avoid the dreaded toilet as much as possible! 🙂
Awesome blog post! I only usually post about nails and things on mine but I also couldn’t resist having a say about this issue, see mine here: http://kazzmetics.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/would-you-risk-it-for-chocolate-biscuit.html Well done to you 🙂 xo
Glad everyone’s getting in on the ranting! Good post btw
I don’t think I need a whole cupcake to spend a day on the toilet. I think one bite is enough to get me there. A whole cupcake? I don’t even want to know what would happen to me. But I probably would be dating and hugging my toilet for a couple of days. (not to mention the relationship with my bed)
Yeah. Not the best relationship you can have.
After a year of being glutenfree, I haven’t been glutend too much, but the one time I did get glutend by a little bit of soup (that was declaired as glutenfree, but seriously, It wasn’t) and it wasn’t nice. It was bad and I felt horrible. So to take the risk of eating a glutenfull cupcake? Yeah. I don’t think so.
And compairing glutenfull cupcakes to glutenfree one? I go for the glutenfree one. They are light, they are tasty and you can eat more then one without the feeling that you ate a rock. Wow. Glutenfree life sounds horrible, doesn’t it 😉
Yeah, after having dedicated a whole baking book to gluten-free cakes… I’ll side with gluten-free over gluten-full cakes. SO much lighter and tastier!
This is such a great article – you have summed up exactly how I feel. I don’t care about the stupid ignorant woman but the fact that she is able to broadcast this to a public who already have very little understanding of what having CD means is what has upset me. What has made me more angry is that I posted a comment on the Food Glorious Food FB page this morning along with a whole host of other angry people – those comments have been removed. I am about to post another one – they can’t make this disappear.
Agreed – I had no idea who this woman was but her message was edited and approved by ITV before going out!
Just been on the FGF fb page – lots of angry coeliacs on there! If I wasn’t so angry it would be quite amusing.
Well done girl! Great rant and to the point. Appalling research by ITV and lack of knowledge from Stacie Stewart. Let’s see if ITV have the humility to accept that they got it wrong and issue an apology.
I’d like to think they would offer an apology at the beginning of the next show, but I wouldn’t hold my breath 🙁
I haven’t been diagnosed yet (doc app tomorrow to start the ball rolling) but having cut gluten out of my diet now for about 5 weeks (I now feel like I’ve joined the human race on every level.. & as you say the toilet problems are the least disturbing feature of getting ‘glutened’, Though the colic like crippling pain & the burning soreness pushing into my diaphragm are to say the least pretty awful, sometimes making me feel like I’m having a heart attack!… then that is accompanied by mega heat rising in my body, palpitations & throbbing in my head neck & ears…. shortly followed by a debilitating & frightening migraine!!!!! ……… How can someone so ignorant of a seriousness of a medical disease be allowed to make such ignorant & damaging, flippant remarks on national tv?!?! Shame on her!!!
Good luck with your diagnosis process! (Although it doesn’t sound like there’s too much doubt as to what it is, the diagnosis can be a difficult time)
Unfortunately there is no intelligence test to go on TV! It’s important though, as so many people get their information from there. 🙁
Not a lot shocks me about the drivel on ITV lately but this is just a joke. The people who allowed this should be fired for downright dangerous misinformation. Who the hell is this Stacie Stewart?
Carol Vorderman made a fortune from real fad diets during the detox craze a few years ago, now she has the nerve to join in on this? Shame on ITV, shame on the presenters. Just a shame.
Agreed! Spreading misinformation like this is up there with “vitamin C cures cancer” – should not be allowed.
Well written, thank you for referring to allergies too, how ignorant can the producers and researchers be, one bite of a lovely cupcake would result in a trip to hospital for my son, followed by a severe rash, vomiting, flare up of eczema, crying in agony and waking every other hour for approx a week, worth the temptation, I think not, fad diet: I wish it was and he had the choice. Sadly coeliac’s and allergies are medical conditions that ultimately can kill people. Like you’ve pointed out people’s perceptions are difficult to change unless they have witnessed first hand the impact of coeliac’s and allergy sufferers without programmes in-situating its a fad!!
I’d like to see a food programme dedicated to allergy-friendly food – that could go somewhere towards educating people (If any TV producers are reading, I’d be happy to present it 😉 ) Until then we’ll have to rely on the community kicking up a fuss when statements like these are made!
Sorry to hear about your son’s allergy, it’s one thing coping with it yourself, but another when a child is going through it! 🙁
On the plus side he knows know difference!! I think its harder for people who’ve had to change they’re diets, they know what they’re missing out on and the temptation is always there!! They’re should be a series dedicated to specialist diets for medical needs: allergies, coeliac’s, ketogenic etc!!
great blog! 🙂
Thank you 🙂
great blog, got all the points across really well.
Well said, I fully understand why you are so angry, I wonder if she will apologise to the people she has offended, probably not. At the end of the day she has shown her self up as being ignorant and stupid.
Us Coeliacs need more people like you to speak up for us.
Aw, thank you. Although judging from the FGF Facebook page, it seems like a lot of complaints have been made to Ofcom. We’ll see if anything happens…
Cracking blog! This really wound me up cause it gets said to me often enough ‘can you just risk it’ there isn’t much wheat/gluten in it you will be ok’ now myself I’ve not tested positive to being coeliac so some might say I could risk it but believe me they risk is not worth it diarrhoea sickness pain beyond belief lethargy emotions out of control. I may only have an intolerance but these symptoms have made my life a living hell to the point of avoiding going out. So no matter if its an allergy intolerance or coeliac disease most people who care for a life would not risk it for a cupcake. That would be like suggesting to a shellfish allergic friend it’s worth it just the once!
I wish for a week I could give this women a taste of the consequences and see how it made her feel! Sorry for any typos using a tiny phone to post this.
Wow! I cannot believe something like this would be aired on tv. I do not know who this person is exactly (as I’m on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean), but how could someone not do their research before spilling stupidity out of their mouth, being hurtful and insulting. Thanks for posting – it’s important to get the correct facts out there. 🙂
Very well said. Thank you for this.
Did you email the judge herself or sent an email to the producers? Maybe we should jam their inboxes with disgust towards their ignorance….
There were hundreds of comments on their Facebook page and many of those people complained to Ofcom. I honestly doubt they will care unless Ofcom gets involved, but I’m not sure on what grounds they do get involved in things like this.
Fantastic blog well done 🙂 us Coeliacs need people like you … thank you x
We certainly agree with a number of your comments. As you are all aware, a strict gluten-free diet is the only treatment for those with coeliac disease and we continually work hard to raise awareness of the condition. It is encouraging to see that so many people understand the necessity of a strict gluten-free diet and that there is widespread agreement on the issues and messaging around gluten-free. Our Awareness Week this year focuses on finding the half a million people in the UK who are living with coeliac disease but do not have a diagnosis. If you’d like to get involved in spreading the message, please visit http://www.coeliac.org.uk/gutfeeling.
Just had a look at Stacie’s website and she claims to make a gluten free cupcake herself! Well I wouldn’t trust it to be uncontaminated if the opinion she gave on the show is anything to go by
Wow – I wouldn’t touch it! If her view of gf baking is that bad, hers must taste awful!
Just seen this now – Stacie advertises this on her site:
http://www.staciestewart.co.uk/eat-naked
Seems a bit hypocritical of her. I avoid wheat like the plague because of what it does to my body, and I’m constantly criticised for being a picky eater. My food is neither bland or tasteless. It also infuriates me how conpanies needlessly add wheat flour to things like popcorn etc!
Actually just came across this sight Stacie Stewart is indeed very ignorant. Please don’t think that she is a good representative of the people of Sunderland, she isn’t and actually she knows nowt! She claims to be a gastronom Chef, she isn’t. She claims to own a bakery called the Beehive she doesn’t it actually doesn’t exist. She had a unit on a business park for only a few months. She didn’t even file any accounts to the inland rev! Her business was actually dissolved by the inland revenue! It really annoys me when she is forever in the Sunderland Echo, as this fantastic Chef, i am a qualified Chef, with a business. I put my self through college to learn and train in my trade. I object to her calling herself a Chef, She is NOT!
Also as a Chef you need to learn a fair bit about food allergies and intollerences in People, its important to be able to cater for these people to!
Ruth from Sunderland
A Real Chef Not A Mickey Mouse One
I totally agree. I was actually her only chef in the beehive bakery unit kitchen about 4 years ago now on and off for about 2 years. She never really made any of the cakes and bakes herself. It was all me. I used to love working there then one day the bakery had literally disappeared. Not an explanation from or apology from stacie ever. Absolutely would never trust her again. Ps I now am a supervisor for H&M and currently run my own successful cake business called Girls Bake, look me up Newcastle people 🙂