16th December 2007 - The Independent reported that Special Diet and Allergy foods are one of the fastest growing trends in the food industry with supermarkets stating "sales of "free-from" foods skyrocketed to over 180m this year. " and "growing at 37 per cent a year."

They accredited Market research firm Mintel predicting that the free-from market will double to more than 350m by 2012.

There is a concern that numbers are growing so rapidly that the NHS will remove coeliac foods from their prescription list.

The article stated that in the UK, lactose-free products have taken the largest chunk of the at 48 per cent free-from market overtaking gluten-free, that more people are now substituting soya milk for cow's milk and that "niche markets, including nut or egg free, are growing the fastest, with sales up 43 per cent in the past year alone."

Although coeliac disease affects one in every 100 British people, nutritionists believe that millions of others have been misdiagnosed as suffering from a food intolerance.

They suggested that  one reason could be celebrities such as Billy Bob Thornton, Carol Vorderman, Rachel Weisz, Denise Lewis, Rachel Hunter citing food intolerances as a reason for restrictive diets, were setting a trend that ordinary people are following and buying expensive wheat-free, gluten-free and dairy-free alternatives to their normal brands.

But Muriel Simmons, chief executive of Allergy UK, hit back at insinuations that the public were dreaming up their own food illnesses or merely copying celebrities in opting to cut certain food groups out of their diets. "That suggestion is insulting to the general public," she said. "I get very cross when people say 'Isn't this just a condition in the mind?' "People don't dream up problems such as migraines and Irritable Bowel Syndrome. These conditions are not fun to have."  She also questioned why celebrities who have unlimited choice would deny themselves and limit their diet to free from varieties.

Read the full article here