Tuesday 26 April 2011

You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth

Afternoon my lovers!
And what a lovely sunny afternoon it is, not that I'd know since I don't leave the house for anything less than an emergency.
Yet again The Other Bowel Problems and related ball aches have struck me down and hindered the blogging process, I won't go into it all because your probably more fed up of hearing about my ruddy  Bowel Prob's than I am about having them. I basically started on two new tablets last week and one was torture, after a phone call to my consultant and after much pleading and crying (me not him) we (I) decided that I would stop taking said medication. Which is probably best for everyone involved since I was a living breathing nightmare for the short time I was on said tablets.
Anyway.
Did anyone hear about 'Gluten-Gate' aka the 'Demetre Disaster' aka The Royal Muck Up That was Antony Demetre Appearance On Saturday Kitchen?
The general gist as I understand it is Anthony Demetre chef extraordinaire (ahem) appeared on Saturday Kitchen (cooking show here in England for any over sea's folk) and took the opportunity to say that since he became Coeliac he 'eats pizza and pasta every 3 months' because otherwise his 'body rejects it'. Now I won't go into how misleading his comments are  or how irresponsible what he said was or how he failed to issue a satisfactory statement complete with apology because theres only so many ways I can express my anger and irritation without resorting to losing my rag and throwing some unsavoury language about the place.
But.
I will say this...(waves goodbye to dream of gluten-free baking show on the BBC)
The BBC had a responsibility to issue a statement and a apology to the viewers of Saturday Kitchen and also the Coeliac community due to the sensitive nature of the comments made regarding a serious disease and the misleading comments that were made about lifestyle regarding said disease.
Gluten Free Guerrilla's emailed the BBC on three occasions only to receive wishy washy responses and NO formal apology (the BBC also failed to issue any apology on the show despite complaints and outrage)
What made the situation even more frustrating was that Demetre's comments suggested that many Coeliac's could probably get away with the odd bit of gluten here and there such as he does, as he's 'one of the lucky ones' dontcha know! That statement is maddeningly confusing for coeliacs, especially those newly diagnosed, but also totally misleading for everyone else. Imagine turning up to your friends house for dinner and discovering they'd ordered pizza with the works because 'Anthony Demetre said it would be OK to have a sneaky bit of gluten every now and then' (my words not his). It's hard enough trying to impress upon people how serious the condition is without someone totally down playing what can be a very debilitating illness.
Obviously he's a chef not a doctor but people in the public eye have a responsibility to the general public to be careful about not making misleading or false statements such as the ones made on Saturday Kitchen and the BBC should have made an immediate apology and clarified the comments as false.
Anyway. I've said my piece, and made a complaint to Ofcom and the BBC. If you want to hear more on the story visit Gluten Free Guerrillas where you can see Demetre's agents statement and also the emails from the BBC to the Guerrilla's.
Did everyone have a good Easter? My mum and I spent 40 fraught minutes in the town on Good Friday shopping for things for her and my dads trip to Rome in May. The rest of the weekend was spent sorting and tidying and trying to sleep off the after effects of the poison, sorry, tablets.

Pretty sparkly egg from my Mama

Spring flowers

Gluten-Free Cupcake from The Swallow Bakery
My super cute and super bonkers cat Poppy asleep on top of the microwave
Pretty birthday wrap in a cheapo sainsburys frame, cute no?
Easter card
I haven't done much baking or cooking lately or though I have a few bake dated recipes which I'm
popping up soon. 
Today's recipe is from Delicious. If you don't read Delicious you have to get your hands on a copy, I love it. That and Sainsbury's food magazine are my favourites and I always find lots of ideas and the recipes don't often need much tweaking to make them gluten-free. 
I know I promised a give away before Christmas and I haven't forgotten, I'm going to do it when I get to 100 followers, that will give me time to accumulate a few lovely bits and bobs for the prize. 
My dad is doing a sponsored walk on the 12th of June in aid of Children's Hospices UK and Breast Cancer Campaign, it's a bit of a trek-a good 20 miles from Teddington Lock to the London Eye . 
I'm dead proud of him because it's not been long since his heart scare thing and him then being diagnosed with Angina so he's doing really well bless him. If you would be interested in sponsoring him email me at thekatieboobaker@hotmail.co.uk.

4 comments:

  1. I can see why your angry, he basically suggested that a lot of sufferers are just "putting it on a little". You can totally imagine people going "oh I know someone with that and she NEVER eats glutton she's clearly just being over dramatic if this guy says you can eat it sometimes." Bit irresponsible of the BBC not to issue an apology over something serious when they will fire people over saying something stupid on a comedy show.

    Your easter looks amazing :)

    xxx

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  2. you have it completly right, people think that coeliacs are just putting it on or being over dramtic and this tool has just made it so much worse, and its like well he's a chef he MUST know what he's on about, soooo annoying!
    all that had to do was put their hands up and say sorry (as did he) but now they're only going to give an apology under protest which sort of defeats the object a bit. they're really alientating their coeliac audience, but i guess dems the breaks, its no skin of their nose!
    x

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  3. wow, i hadn't heard about the BBC thing. That's disgusting.. especially as long term complications can be as serious as cancer. That's really not on. big thumbs down to the BBC. That cupcake looks so yum! i am off to check out the website now! xx

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  4. its awful isn't it,its all very well him saying that he hasn't many outward symptoms from eating gluten he has no idea of the internal problems he's causing, and to more or less say that some coeliacs could get away with eating gluten if they have less of a reaction is totally iresponsible.
    the swallow bakery is so cute, its all pink and lovely!thanks for your comment lizzy :)
    x

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