Can your meal experience be any easier...?

Last year, a two page feature article in a national newspaper carried the following headline: "Are you allergic to bread?" The basis of the article was that one in three people has intolerance to wheat, which causes anything from bloating to depression.

In fact, the headline was both alarmist and misleading. Unfortunately, the article also contained several scientifically meaningless statements, contradictions, and factual errors suggesting that fermentation of foods in the gut is similar to "low grade poisoning," and that wheat is "very hard for our bodies to digest."

The suggestion that wheat intolerance affects 35% of the population was a gross overestimate, and there are no scientific studies to have shown the incidence to be anywhere near this high. The current estimate, based on a study conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food (now called DEFRA) for the total prevalence of all food allergies -including peanuts- in the United Kingdom is 1.4% of the adult population.

This is called Celiac Disease, and is the main form of wheat intolerance which is characterised by a specific physiological pathology whereby a “T cell” mediated delayed hypersensitivity is triggered by consumption of the wheat protein, gluten.

As a result of this, many food and beverage outlets have now taken added steps to aid those people who have intolerance to certain products, make their dining experience a little easier. If you are staying or intend on staying or dining at the Rembrandt Hotel and you have any dietary requirements, please let us know when you make your reservation and we will do our best to meet your needs and live up to our motto: Individual hotels for individual people.

Written by Marco Cardoso, Assistant F&B Manager at the Rembrandt Hotel