I just wanted to point out that food intolerances can make people " Michelin Men". If you look into food intolerances you will be surprised of the many different types of reactions people can have from eating a food that they are intollerant to, and not to mention diseases that are thought to be liked to food intollerance.

It seems like phobias are becoming quite common and they are probably caused by food additives, pollutants or chemicals (nutritional deficencies) themselves.

I have been told that if you are turned off by a food you probably don't like it for a reason and it is probably not a good idea to force yourself to eat it just to have good manners.

As for fads, I really could care less about them as long as I feel well that is all that matters to me. A little common sense goes a long way.

As for entertaining and eating at other peoples homes, it is stressful. I avoid it. It is a situation that is difficult to deal with at times.

Fiona, Oakville, Canada

Unfortunately society does not recognise the medical diagnosis. Worse, so called "Health Professionals" automatically assume that someone so diagnosed is a hypochondriac. This includes doctors, nurses etc.

Then again it is easier to declare a food "allergy" than to say "I cannot eat the disgusting vomit you have prepared, not only because it smells and looks vile but also because I have witnessed your lack of attention to basic hygiene".

PJW Holland, London,

what ARE you talking about Jane from Taunton? Do you really think that India Knight would be so inconsiderate and just plain stupid as to invite a Jewish friend over for a hog roast? No. I'm sure she's an excellent host. This article is about food fads and picky eaters with no good reason to be. This clearly excludes people with genuine allergies and religious diets to adhere to.

Chris, York, England

I ALWAYS ask my guests what foods they don't like/ must not have before cooking them a meal and I expect others to return the courtesy when cooking for me.But then I have friends of many different cultural backgrounds. Would India Knight be offended if a Muslim or Jewish guest refused to eat pork or shellfish, a Hindu a beef stew or a Mormon a coffee gateaux for example? They can hardly claim to be acting on the basis of a life threatening condition. Frankly I have no time for the likes of India Knight who whinge about their guests so called food fads. She sounds like the worst kind of controlling mother:eat it all up because I spent hours over a stove cooking it! The pleasure of a dinner party should come from guests genuinely enjoying their food, not from being forced to eat things they know will disagree with them or worse out of a misplaced sense of good manners.

Jane, Taunton, England

My daughter has a severe nut allergy. Unaware of the advice not to eat nuts, I ate them throughout my pregnancy and whilst breastfeeding. If only I could turn back the clock.........

I also get really cross with people who tell me they have an allergy when clearly, all they have is a mild intolerence to something. Maybe they should see someone having an anaphylaxtic reaction and they may change their mind.

Julia, Dorset, England

I am not sure whether the article defends or attacks. Having read as many books as I can about what is and what is not good for us, I have decided to throw them all up in the air and just eat sensibly...a ltitle of everything but I have never bought fizzy drinks for my children or sausages or junk food of any kind, neither to I possess a micro wave oven. Fresh food on a daily basis and plenty of fruit would seem to me the best policy. Women/Men need to get back in the kitchen and throw out all the the packets in the pantry and stock up on good old fresh food! It takes two minutes to prepare a quick fresh snack..you just have to shop more often and I swear by tiny local shops too...stay away from huge supermarkets. Termite in Brisbane is lucky....lives in organic paradise!

maddison, pontevedra, spain

I also have a brother who is, quite frankly, a hypochondriac.
Yes, like many, he is 'allergic' to cat dander and dust mites, but these cause a mild response that is actually in a fairly normal range.
An allergy test said he is NOT allergic to milk products, yet he continues to refuse offers of food that he thinks contain milk, purportedly because he has difficulty digesting it (despite having no problem drinking it while growing up).
My mother is annoyed - he never refuses her chocolate pudding, despite the fact that it contains milk, and never complains about problems afterwards.
I really wonder whether his poor food hygiene after leaving home has caused so many doses of food poisoning that the good flora have lost the upper hand in his gut. It really should be the first thing to do after a dose of food poisoning - leave off all milk products for a few days, then reintroduce slowly with fermented yoghurt products like 'Yakult'.

termite, Brisbane, Australia

I have a cousin diagnosed with a life-threatening allergy to crustaceans at the age of ten. She also has an enormous range of other food substance intolerances (carefully diagnosed by an allergist), and also suffers from severe migraines.

However, that is not the end of the story.

Now, in her mid-forties, she can actually eat a small amount of a range of these foods without a big problem. She knows that her health is closely linked with her stress levels.

So I wish that people wouldn't go into a state of "I'm allergic/intolerant and that's the end of it for the rest of my life". For many (most), a carefully-monitored programme of desensetising allows people to eat a small quantity of foods to which they were previously intolerant (even to those with severe peanut allergies).

Isn't it better to deal with it if you can, rather than risk accidentally coming into contact with a trace of the 'prohibited' substance and needing to use an Epipen?

termite, Brisbane, Australia

Actually, Azura Skye, we have evolved a little.
For one, societies that have produced alcoholic drinks for millennia have a higher proportion of the population who produce the enzyme that breaks alcohol down. Very few Europeans have a problem breaking down alcohol. The aborigines of Australia generally do not produce this enzyme, and this has caused enormous problems, as once drunk, they can stay drunk for days.
Also, with regards to milk, we again have evolved. Humans can digest milk into adulthood. It has taken many generations, but yes we can digest lactose long past babyhood. Oh, and cows digest mostly grass, they actually shouldn't eat too much grain (or ground-up bone).

By the way, I don't understand your use of "mal adapted". Mal means bad, yet your context appears to imply "partially" or "poorly"; not quite the same thing.

As for being impolite at dinner, may I suggest that you refuse the invitation if you're that fussy.

termite, Brisbane, Australia

We stop producting the milk digesting enzyme at the age of four - so we are all pretty much intolerant to milk, but have mal adapted so it seems we can cope alright with it.

Also, we have mal adapted to wheat. We don't pour out the right enzymes to eat grain - like when you see a cow in a field and the drool is pouring out of its mouth - the perfect machine for eating grain.
Us? We play games to see how many crackers we can put in our mouths. Our mouths are dry - we don't produce grain digesting enzymes.

10,000 years since agriculture started,
we have not evolved.

If you are impolite at dinner, it is because the meal served does not serve you well.

Azura Skye, Wales,

The article was certainly interesting & I agree that self diagnosed food intolerances are now so trendy they are "the new black". However, the observation that “our mothers’ generation smoked and drank their way through pregnancy with no extra folic acid and no adverse effects whatsoever...." Is so ignorant it’s just plain dangerous. The studies demonstrating the damage to unborn babies caused by maternal smoking (low birth weight, growth retardation, prematurity) and drinking (foetal alcohol syndrome, low IQ, prematurity) are undeniable. Ms Knight demonstrates exactly the kind of uneducated and ignorant pronouncements that she finds so "tiresome' in others.

Cate, Melbourne, Australia

Cate, Melbourne , Australia

I have a (medically diagnosed) candida condition. If I eat sugary or yeasty foods, I generally get a prolonged and painful urinary infection. One of these went to my kidneys and had me in hospital for a week - I nearly died. Imaginary?

At the very least I get painful skin rashes, and I don't want these either

So it makes sense to inform my hostess that I don't eat sugar or yeast. Why should I endure weeks of illness just for the sake of being "polite"?

Alys, Colchester, UK

One of the pleasures I enjoy is food, but I will not eat anything, I eat only what I like. Therefore, when I invite friends over for dinner, I discuss the menu with them and any allergies or intolerances they may have, take these into account and adjust the menu accordingly so that they can enjoy themselves. I expect the same in return. I do not compromise to eat what I don't like except I am on the point of death and Thank God, that has not happened yet. If a host / hostess cannot be bothered to make enquiries, then I can feel free to eat or not eat the food!

Rosaline, Bromley, UK

My stepdaughter, who is now in her late 30's, has been a vegan since she was about 12 because meat began to make her ill when she ate it. When I married her father 14 years ago I grew tired of catering to her because everyone had to cater to her and such a big deal was made of her "condition". A few years ago when I had her for Christmas dinner I put chicken stock in the turkey dressing and she wolfed it down and had no problem. Needless to say, if I had mentioned the chicken stock she may have had to go to the hospital. After that, when she's in town we go to the buffet restaurant where she can pick her own food, not knowing what's going on in the kitchen.

Ila Richardson, Medford, Oregon, USA

I enjoyed your article,I believe it needed saying. As a GP I see people with serious genuine allergies from time to time, more frequently these days people requesting specialist tests to establish what they are intolerant to. I think we expect to be feeling 100% however we treat our bodies and minds, failure to feel tip-top requires a diagnosis. Sensible advice like balanced diet, more time off, fresh air, exercise and using ones credit card less are more difficult to digest.

Belinda Crosbie , Littlehampton, West Sussex

I think many of you miss the point altogether. The writer acknowledges that there are real and even fatal reactions to some foods in SOME people. Lighten up and see the truth of the POINT of the article, which is wrongly self diagnosed allergies and the fact the some additives that are PROVEN to have long term effects, these same people will ingest with no qualms at all.

MacGregor, Anywhere,

as someone who has serious allergies and a son who has been hospitalized with his I find your article a bit of a put down. For the few fakers out there, I am sure there are as many with genuine allergies. Just because I dont keel over when I ingest soy doesnt mean I wont suffer later. Hives arent fun!

Also it was completely insane that you drew a line equating food allergies with drinking while your pregnant. How completely irresponsible. I have fostered Fetal alcohol syndrome kids and I tell you their parents decision to drink etc. during their pregnancy was devastating for those children and for the society that will have to care for them.

SHAME ON YOU

Kelly, wpg, canada

I love food, especially Thai and Indian which often contain nuts. But I am severely allergic to most nuts - yes they would actually kill me - and I have a violent vomiting reaction to Quorn as relatively recently discovered. I also carry an Epipen.

I just don't eat nuts or Quorn! I have been trained to check for nuts when eating out in restaurants since I was old enough to eat out. It can be embarrassing, especially when people think you're faking/being fussy/awkward. But all my good friends understand to check their ingredients before I eat at their house without thinking I'm putting them out.

Please note Frankland - none of my family have nut allergies, so they haven't necessarily passed on their unfortunate faulty genes to me. Nor was I molly-coddled - my mum used to cite that same Northen saying to me when I was young, and I've probably eaten more than a peck of dirt in my life. It isn't simply genetic predisposition, it is enviromental too. 1/3 of humans have this atopic gene.

Emma, Cardiff, South Glamorgan, UK

Jesus wept. Between the "there are virtually no allergies" dogmatists (based on what evidence?), the "we ate all kinds of crap and it never did us any harm" ultra-traditionalists (erm, we also did hard manual work, we don't that any more) and the "stop denying my food allergy" neurotics (no-one is denying food allergies, except Anne and her fellow fanatics), sane, calm, detached, common-sense people who neither dismiss science nor jump onto the latest bandwagon seem to be a vanishing species. Everyone has their own philosophical or pseudo-scientific sect. Expressing moderate or balanced opinions is immediately met by a stream of fanatical invective. THIS, it seems to me is the most serious modern disease, which appears to have spread to the UK from the United States.

One more reason for me never to return to the UK.

David Pritchard, Madrid, Spain

How noticeable it is that all the namby pamby guff seems to emanate from the Yank side of the pond where people need personal trainers, therapists, counsellors, shrinks, special diets, food supplements and plastic gloves on food handlers. No wonder so many are ill and obese and neurotic. As my Gran would have said "They need a good slap and a cold bath". The hard truth is that one really does need to eat 'a peck of dirt' or the immune system will not work. If we get any more coddled we will die out when the next serious epidemic hits us. Of course, all of us will get ill from time to time and some will die: people with serious allergies obviously do exist and in a natural state they would die before being old enough to reproduce. Perhaps that is why in a modern society there are now more of them? Long term this may cause the end of humanity through 'care'! Now that would be ironic wouldn't it?

Frankland Macdonald Wood, Sansepolcro 52037, Italy

Food intolerances are there, as well as food allergies. But so are unpolite people who are demonstrating their self-centeredness through aggravating their hosts. I don't like milk and actually do have an lactose intolerance problem, however if a host adds milk to my tea, I drink it and it wont kill me. But I have seen diabetics make me fall over maslef in trying to accomodate their diet needs, hoarding heaps of sugar rich sweets in their cupboards, "only for guests" of course. (I know of the ups and downs in blood sugar level and the need to avoid boold sugar to get too low and take it seriously, but "Mars" and "Snickers" bars XXL??)

Much more serious is the food additive point of view. I've seen kids who were treated with Ritalin, gobble up giant-size jawbreakers after school instead of a proper lunch. And I stopped wondering why so many kids were showing behavioural problems.

Europeanview, Munich, Germany

Interesting development: I heard a woman on the radio the other day saying that XYZ% of the UK population suffer from 'allergy'. Not 'an allergy' or 'allergies' but 'allergy'. This removal of any kind of article equates 'allergy' with 'cancer', 'heart disease' and 'diabetes', pathologising it and making it seem more serious.

Yes, there are people who are seriously allergic to certain foodstuffs, and this is a major medical problem. But can't the rest of us simply explain "I don't eat -----", without making themselves sound like martyrs for the fact?

Tim Footman, Bangkok, Thailand

Please don't lump all these issues together. There is very limited evidence that eating peanuts in pregnancy increases peanut allergies, but there is very good evidence that taking folic acid in pregnancy reduces the incidence of spina bifida and other neural tube defects. It is absolutely not true to say that taking folic acid in pregnancy has no impact - medical professionals will remember how much more common spina bifida used to be and the dramatic reduction in the past few decades - partly from better general nutrition but also from antenatal supplementation.

Rachel, notts,

I had terrible dairy allergy (milk would burn my mouth) when I was only 20 years old. When I ate an egg, I felt like dying. I didn't eat diary for years, with terrible side effects, missing B12, etc, as I didn't know anything about vitamins etc.
Then I read an article about a dentist who had wheat allergy and removed her metal fillings and solved her allergy.
With great difficulty I went and removed my 9 metal fillings, yes I had 9 of them! Metal fillings contain MERCURY the most toxic natural element on earth! From mercury vapour that came out when drilling them out I couldn't see well for a week. Finally after 1 month, I was CURED. Since then I eat and eat as much diary as I want, all kinds of cheeses and yogurts and drink milk as water sometimes :D Nowadays I eat less so I don't gain weight :)
Anyway, that's the stupidity of humanity and doctors. To put Mercury and Led in people's mouths!! Mercury causes much more than allergies! Friends got cured too after replacing fillings.

Michael Kresh, Guildford, UK

Before pregnant women were told to take folic acid, there were very many neural tube defects in children, e.g. spina bifida. So don't write off everything when you're discussing those people who don't really have allergies or intolerances. Plenty do, but some just like attention/to be different.

Helen Angus, Toronto, Canada

Hooray for India Knight!

James, Melbourne, Australia

Maybe those who say they are allergic actually are.

At the age of 65 I have been finally been found to be gluten intolerant (Coeliac disease) and am having an test for possible osteoporosis this week. This is after 45 years of complaining of stomach upsets, boils, skin rashes etc., but nobody thought of testing for it until I got diarrhea (spelling)? for weeks on end and it was found that I was severely anaemic. My doctor tested for it as a possible cause.

I doesn't manifest itself immediately like other allergies or intolerances and is not easily diagnosed.

I had been diagnosed with psoriasis and depression, which latter finally got me retired early.

I didn't know or remember what it was to be "normal" until I went a couple of weeks on a strict diet. I found that even free running salt and coffee vending machine coffee contained Gluten.

My parents had two of the most common surnames in the uk and it is inheritable so there might be a lot more of us about!

MC, Edinburgh, uk

Lets just remember that this article was written to sell newspapers by inflaming people. If Ms Knight was serious about getting her point across she would have done the scholarly thing, done some actual research into the subject and cited references.

Emily, Portsmouth, Hants

Linda in Lisburn, NI: It sounds like you might have coeliac disease if you are getting extreme symptoms like instant stomach cramps and 'the runs' after eating wheaty products. Don't assume it's just a bad reaction or the way you're made up - if you get your symptoms checked out by a GP and take a blood test / biopsy of the gut you could find out what is at the back of this. Coeliac disease can be v. serious if it's not diagnosed in time and can cause severe anaemia, skin disorders, ulcers and maybe even cancer if it is undiagnosed for decades.
I would get checked by a GP just in case. I don't know about NI but Ireland has one of the highest incidences of coeliac disease in the world so I wouldn't underestimate your chances of having this disease.

MB, Edinburgh,

I completely agree that when people say "I'm allergic" just because they've decided they don't want to eat it, that it can be annoying - however there are those of us that struggle by.

When I eat any citrus fruit or drink the juice of a citrus fruit I will spend the next few hours on the toilet - possibly even the rest of the night.

When I have milk I'll run out of the room vomiting and when I eat wheat I get stomach cramps and feel bloated.

I'm fairly certain most of this is my own fault for throwing so much of the above and so many other crap foods at my system over the years but it doesn't change the fact that the problem exists.

There are other allergies as well - I can't go near dogs or cats (I have to cross the road if one gets close) as I'll at best not be able to breath properly, have my throat itch like mad, have a nasty running nose and itchy ears and eyes for a few days - at best have to go into hospital because I can't breath.

Ryan, Jersey, Channel Islands

I have recently discovered i have wheat intolerance. This is linked to extremely long hayfever seasons as i am very allergic to Silver Birch Pollen which starts in April. For the last 8 years this has meant i have had a bad cold, sinustitus and chest infections for the next 4 months.
My dad is lactose intolerant, and within 20 minutes of eating any dairy produce he is vomiting, sweating and on the toilet for the next 24 hours. My mum has asthma and has a wheatgerm allergy.
when i cut out wheat within 2 days i felt i had impoved energy, the running nose stopped and i haven't had a headache since either - which was a daily occurence just after lunch. It is now clear that i am wheat intolerant and if i re-introduce it all the symptoms come back - and in a sealed office it cannot be pollen.
It has made the world of difference - diagnosed by a GP or not. Humans have evolved to know what is good for them and what is not. That is why we survived, and it is not a weakness to adapt our diet

Barry Chapman, Bournemouth, dorset

I found this article delightful. For those with real allergies and severe intolerance the fashionable self diagnosisi is literally a pain. You are the unwelcome guest , or you get served a meal you cannot eat. I hate those who use it as an excuse for being overweight ,or exploit their food fads, for putting me in this position.

Like Ms Knight I I mainly eat a little of what is put in front of me. When it comes to wheat, I make sure I have stocked up on Loperamide, just as I would on hangover remedies.

But what really annoys me is that all these fusspots make it so difficult when you have a serious problem. I can't be in the same room as even mildly stale or oily fish. Everyone thinks its a fad till I bolt vomiting from their dining room. And I'm not squeamish, I'll catch, kill, clean and cook, the wretched things.

There is also a gender issue. If you are a female it is assumed you are veggie. Rare steak, chips and salad for me is the safe bet.

Moira, Farnborough, Hants

People tend to buy what other people sell. Many people are engaged in selling the idea of food intolerances and allergies as it is good for the business of health food shops, alternative therapists and so on. We buy this idea because we are naturally concerned about our health and unwilling to take simple but onerous steps like eating less (or more), exercising, etc.

This is reinforced by the fact that we all naturally feel better or less well from time to time. If we stop eating Food X and this coincides with a period when we naturally feel fitter, we wrongly conclude that we were intolerant of Food X.

I am moderately allergic to cats, household dust and peanuts. I know this because cats and household dust make me sneeze, and peanuts make me sick. There's nothing complicated about that and it is quite easy to avoid all three if you are only moderatey allergic. I certainly don't want to make a lifestyle out of being allergic, or put money into the pockets of quacks.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

Thank you India for suggesting that the physical problems I experience when eating wheat are either my attempt to be fashionable or indicate that I must be a fatty. I know it's not an deadly allergy, and I know I won't die after politely eating one of the buns that a recently married colleague offered round the office this morning. I do know that I will suffer from stomach cramps and bloatedness for the next few hours, and spend a lot of the afternoon running to the loo. But hey, at least I didn't offend!

Linda, Lisburn, NI

There's nothing more frustrating to a person with a real illness than a person who fakes an illness and claims allergy / intolerance where there is none. It undermines the case for people with real, medically recognised conditions that are treated through dietary control e.g. coeliac disease, Crohn's disease.
Whenever I eat out I absolutely dread informing the wait staff or hosts that I'm coeliac as it inevitably leads to patronising smiles and smirks. I've had comments ranging from "watching your figure, are you?" to "Is it the Atkins diet?". If only! I'm actually very thin because of coeliac disease and was underweight for years as a symptom of the disease.

Nothing is more guaranteed to raise my hackles than some silly woman on a diet pretending to have my illness. I have a membership card of Coeliac UK, a support group for those with the disease. All people who claim to have food intolerances should carry similar, certified cards or else eat what is put in front of them.

MB, Edinburgh,

Several people seem to have taken this article the wrong way. India does acknowledge allergies/intolerances as being 'real'.
For some it is definitely 'trendy' to have an allergy, which puts those people who are 'real' in a worse position because people think they're making it up!
I have intolerances, which I stupidly ignored for years because I didn't want to make a fuss, and felt constantly sick. Antibiotics - bah! Gut healing helps and can be a cure for some..
More education is required and for people to take responsibility for their health, rather than going to the doctor to get a miracle cure, which can often end up causing something else.
For those "parents [who don't] angst over additives", its lovely to think that educating them would solve the problem, but the reality is in a lot of cases people just care more about there being too many mouths to feed and not enough money in the bank - and who gives a toss about additives.
Ban these nasty substances!
We can but hope..

Terri, Auckland,

Trust me, Bob, it's not just women.

starling, Lancaster,

I couldn't agree more.
I have come across people who wear their food allergy/intolerance badge with great pride, quite the opposite for the poor souls who suffer the true condition, they tend to battle through and find ways to deal with the problem without making a meal of it.
The latest trend I have noticed is claiming food allergies for their pets!
By the way I find uncooked tomatoes make me feel sick, however I simply say I don't like them because, as this topic usually comes up when food is being consumed it seems the most appropriate way to deal with it.

sally moore, cranbrook, canada

If I eat wheat I get severe heartburn and a few days later my skin breaks out in eczema. This is known as an intolerance. If I'm invited to dinner I don't make a fuss but I will mention if questioned about my dietary preferences. I know a few people with similar intolerances and I don't believe for one minute they would make it up simply to feel special, this is a ludicrous claim. I suggest that if it pains you so much receiving dietary requirements from dinner guests refrain from inviting them, I'm sure if they knew your attitude with regards this subject they wouldn't want your hospitality anyway. There are more people declaring intolerances because we are all much more aware of the correlation between what we eat and how we feel. Our core diet fifty years ago didn't contain anywhere near the amount wheat that it does today. Have you nothing better to write about other than complaining of those unfortunate enough to have to monitor everything that they consume?

Caroline England, Wirral, Merseyside

Food intolerances are a manifestation of too much western style consumer affluence.

If you were hungry enough, like many starving Africans are every day, you would eat the damn lot - just to stay alive

Martin, Brighton, England

It would be great if all the reactions that people get were as simple as you say but the fact is some food makes some people really sick. My daughter was so ill for 8 years with me taking her to hospital to help. She was looking anorexic and I was treated as a crazy mother....just because no bacteria would show up on tests. Finally I took her to a naturapath and although it seem crazy to make her stop eating certain food when she already looked starving she persevered and finds that wheat makes her so ill within 10 minutes of eating some, knowingly or not. It has taken the last 2 years to get some balance with her eating and thankfully there is so much more on the market available now. She would kill for an apple pie and the ease of buying from any store and every now and then she gives in only to be throwing up on the drive home and two days off work. Not worth it, not playing games as she says why would anyone want to have this hassle.

W. Malmborg, Brisbane, Queensland/Australia

Thankyou, thankyou India. I've been waiting for years for someone authoratively to write something blowing a hole through this tiresome modern condition. I have a friend who spends most of her free time being tested for imaginary food intolerances (and makes life thoroughly difficult and boring for other people) and its just a bit exercise in avoiding the issue that she needs to learn to eat less. It's the painful consequence of what happens when vulnerable people are exploited by modern witch doctors. It's potentially damaging for the people themselves, but more importantly, boy is it boring and self-indulgent. I sincerely hope this shames a few people with "wheat intolerance" or any other glorified eating disorders into realising how spoiled they sound and snapping out of this .

jessica, London, U.K.

As someone who lives with very "real" food allergies (soy, peanut, shellfish), I agree with some aspects of India's column. I loathe people saying they are "allergic" when what they mean is that bread or red peppers give them indigestion.
But India goes on to lump those with real allergies and intolerances together with the self-diagnosing whiners. "No wonder every other person seems to have a bizarre, phobic, unnatural relationship with food," she writes, and criticizes those mention dietary requirements to hosts.
For those of us who must strictly avoid allergens, there is no choice but to mention. And most hosts really would rather you tell them in advance than keel over at the table. To that uninformed writer from Scotland, no, the quite real rise of allergies doesn't make us a "sickly" society. I'm fitter than most of my contemporaries – I just can't eat certain foods that are poison to my immune system.

Gwen Smith, Toronto, Canada

I agree with India that some people invent allegies jsut for the sake of it.
I have worked in restaurants for many years and every now and them we have the odd guest that is allergic to a particular item. That's fine. But very often we have people who can order pasta for a starter but the can't eat potatoes with the main course because they are "alergic" or people who are allergic to green peppers but not to red ones or allegic to seafood but then order something with prawns.
I just would like to say to that people that there is nothing wrong with saying that you don't like somethin or that you prefer to eat something else but inventing medical conditions is unfair to all that people that really suffer from allergies or intolerance which funnyly enough the hardly ever manke a fuss about it.

Susana , London,

So, if wheat and glutenous foods make me fat, that means that I am in no way intolerant to it? Hmm. When I tell someone I'd rather not eat something, they ask why. Why? Because I don't eat bread, pasta, sugar, etc. They make me gain weight, no matter how small of a portion I eat. They generally understand and when they don't, they get "I have polycystic ovarian syndrome.. cysts on my ovaries? Well, the only way most women with this condition can lose weight is by cutting out these foods" and when I'm out at a restaurant and someone says "Can't you just eat around it" when it is usually a waitress or waiter, I have to say "No, I'm allergic/intolerant" because if I don't say that, they will still bring out the food that I'm not going to be eating and I might eat it when I don't mean to. Like at a Mexican place and they put rice in the soup, then I have to send the soup back and it would make even more of a fuss. What would you rather hear?

LeeAnn, Culpeper, Virginia

My only intolerance is to gluten-free bread. What is that stuff? It was like talcum powder mixed with sponge, without the flavour.

Rachel, London,

I used to try and be tolerant of these people, until an experience I had about a year ago. I am severely allergic to mushrooms, and mentioned it to a fairly new friend before going to dinner at her house. The put them in the sauce anyway, assuming that I was exaggerating/lying for whatever reason. I ended up in hospital for two nights.

So not only are these people rude and attention seeking, but make life much more difficult for genuine allergy sufferers.

And Bob Grant: plenty of men do this too, so you can get off your high-horse and stop feeling quite so superior.

Anna, London,

The author was referring to a child with BOTH allergies AND intolerances, so it is reasonable he has an epi-pen Kim.

A, Sydney,

How I and several of my friends wish food allergy and intolerances were all rooted in the minds of our children and that with sufficient love and perhaps head-shrinking and therapy we wouldn't need to carry epipens, antihistamine and spend hours doing extra/special food shopping and cooking. Perhaps she believes mental illness is caused by demons too and that cancers are the result of unclean living.

Please read the "Allergy Bible" by Jane Gamlin and Prof Joseph Brostoff. They clearly outline that many of these problems are related to problems with the immune system, just like hay fever and anapylaxsis to bee stings. Then help us get the care our children need without begging or being told we are neurotic. If the medical profession as a whole was better informed this would be less contentious.

H Rome, Maidenhead, Berkshire

It's not "people" who behave in this vain, attention-seeking and self-indulgent way India. It's women.

Bob Grant, Leicester,

And by the way, EpiPens are used for allergies, not food intolerances. You use an EpiPen when you go into anaphylactic shock, which happens as a result of an allergy not an intolerance.

Kim, London,

I would not be surprised if this trend has found its way in America, though I'm not certain. People can be really funny.

The only person I know who has told me of his food allergy (gluten) is actually deathly allergic. When his wife grocery shops she has to seriously look at the labels (it's amazing what all has wheat in it! (He actually becomes deathly ill--and I mean DEATHLY). He's had the condition for 30 years.

I can't imagine why anyone would fake such a problem! It is a miserable life. He certainly would trade the condition for nearly anything!

Kyrux, Dallas, USA

"As I never tire of pointing out to pregnant friends who are longing for the odd glass of wine, our mothers’ generation smoked and drank their way through pregnancy with no extra folic acid and no adverse effects whatsoever". Er, do you have a source for this? One, that perhaps contradicts the evidence showing that smoking in pregnancy increases the risk of SIDS and ectopic pregnancy as well as other conditions? Or is it just assertion for the sake of it? After all, you're writing for a major national newspaper - why bother to check the facts?

Kim, London,

I agree with you. The Yanks who have replied are clearly examples of the nonsense you described. I doubt if I would speak again to somebody who brought their own food to a meal at my house.

Mr Omnivore, Spleen, Flatland

Ah well, we in developed countries have the luxury of being fussy about food. A starving child in Darfur or Zimbabwe does not. In Solzhenitsyn's classic "Ivan Denisovich" Ivan is over the moon when he gets his hands on some pig fat. When I asked my students why Ivan was so glad to be able to eat what to us is next thing to poison (even though our great-grandparents were grateful for a plateful of bread-and-dripping), only one student knew the answer: when the temperature is -40 degrees, a spoonful of pig fat makes all the difference between freezing to death and staying alive for one more day.

JF, Canterbury, Kent

I thought the article made it clear that genuine allergy/intolerant people were not the subject, rather the kind of trendy bandwagon-jumpers that that populate these once Great Isles.

Perhaps an article written in The Times is unlikely to apply to one person in Washington and another in California? Especially when in their self-righteous indignation and knee-jerk defence they completely miss the point??

One wonders how many lower-income families are forced to consume additives simply because they are unable to afford free-range organic mushrooms from Waitrose?

Jarrad Wilkes, Gloucester, England,

And what price all the nonsense about 'politically correct' food for schoolchildren? When we were at school in the 50s and 60s, we lived on huge school dinners with pies and mounds of greasy chips and gravies (yum!) then two or more helpings of sugar-rich pudding smothered in sweet custard. That was before we started on our between-meals sweets and fizzy drinks. There would have been a riot if dinner had been a lettuce leaf and half an apple. Yet we were were all perfectly healthy (as I still am in my 60s), also skinny as rakes. So spare me the likes of Jamie Oliver, please, and bring on the sausage and chips.

Andrew May, Wimbledon, UK

Some people amaze me

The author
"understand that allergies (where the reaction is dramatic and occasionally life-threatening) and intolerances (where the reaction is unpleasant but less extreme) do actually exist;"

The first commentor
"You have dismissed all of us with real food intolerances. I would like very much to eat most of the foods that make me sick."

Need I say more?

Dominic, Manchester, UK

Suggest you read "Food Allergies and Food Intolerance" by Bristoff and Gamlin.

You have dismissed all of us with real food intolerances. I would like very much to eat most of the foods that make me sick.

Last time I was feeling better I ate tomatoes. I love tomatoes. Fresh, cooked, in sauce, just about any way good organic tomatoes can be bought except green. I slowly started to feel poisoned. So much for being cocky, I can't detoxify any of the Solanines. No potatoes, peppers, etc.

There are many other foods that simply make me ill. I find the sort of diet given in the Old Testament, traditional Kosher, or Islam really help. The foods listed as forbidden really are a little bit toxic and if I don't eat them I do better.

Of course there are phobic people. But to reject every claim because some crazies make it shows you have your blinders on.

I don't believe I have any allergies to foods.

John Kincaid, Seattle, WA, USA

"We are fortunate to know so much about the food we eat and about the chemicals we should avoid. All that’s left is to tuck in like a normal person and have a little of everything in moderation."

Agreed. So do you rescind your ludicrous suggestion of nannying bans? If not, please provide details of how removing responsibility from individuals will make our society more savvy and healthy.

Ana Madrid, London,

Sorry, there are virtually no allergies.

But there are many psychosomatic/ psychogenic problems, that people develop due to the stress in their lives or perhaps depression or psychiatric problems, and until they change their lifestyle or deal with their problems by counselling or similar their 'allergy' will continue.

The human race would have died out long ago if we really were the frail illness-ridden obsessives that we are nowadays.

Anne, Dumfries, Scotland

Sorry, but food intolerance is real and more people happen to be finding that out thanks to improved testing. You can't decide that everyone who claims they have a problem with wheat is self-diagnosed. Almost half of the Western world make antibodies to wheat, and guess what? They feel better off of wheat. They have less gas, diarrhea, arthritis, headaches, eczema, etc. So they aren't going to die if they have wheat, but since when do you allow someone else to negatively impact your quality of life? You don't let someone hit you, that would hurt. Well, ingesting wheat doesn't feel too good for a lot of people, either. BTW, there are a lot of very polite people out there who try to navigate the wheat-filled world. They are the ones who bring a dish to share or eat before they come and inform the hostess. They are saints to sit through dinners they can't even eat.

Alix, Palo Alto, California