Let's Talk Intolerance - British Dietetic Association Conference

This week I was fortunate enough to attend the British Dietetic Association's evening lecture conference on intolerance in the human body, relating to food, nutrition and the digestive system. I was very interested to go along to the talk, because nutrition and dietetics are subjects that fascinate me from both a diabetes, and sporting performance point of view. Also because for the last 9 months I've been following a gluten-free diet after experiencing all of the symptoms associated with coeliac disease (but more on that in another blog).

The dietetic evening was held in the Holiday Inn hotel in Solihull Birmingham and was attended by over 100 dietitians and specialists. There were three keynote speeches on the night, delivered by figures from within the dietetic community and also a consultant from intensive care, who was there to talk about complications of patients with regards to nutrition after surgery. The first talk 'The Buck Stops Here' was given by Poonam Gulia a specialist gastroenterology dietitian. Her talk was very enlightening because she highlighted the differences between allergy and intolerance and helped give a greater understanding of the types of foods that can trigger these issues. Poonam touched on gluten intolerance and its relation to how difficult the symptoms of the condition can be to manage. She also mentioned the psychological effects of living with a food intolerance. That there needs to be a consideration amongst health professionals that there can be a lot of hope from a patient's perspective riding on a dietetics appointment. That although some dietetic issues can be difficult to diagnose, it's important for HCP' s to be active in helping to get to the route of the problem.

After the first talk we broke for dinner, I had high expectations from the BDA on what the meal would be and I wasn't disappointed. We had a healthy but delicious dinner of chicken in a tomato sauce, rice (gluten free option) and fresh steamed vegetables for main. Followed by the option of profiteroles or fruit (gluten free option) for dessert. The meal was nutritionally well balanced and tasted excellent. The second talk, delivered by Jill Johnson was about diet and the digestive system, so it was very interesting to find out about the path that food takes once it enters your mouth, the role of hormones in helping to enjoy and digest the food and also the different areas of digestion that can be affected by food intolerance. The final presentation of the conference was from Dr Sunny Kaul, a consultant in intensive care who spoke more about how to avoid complications with the help of the right nutrition after operations. It was a great event and helped me understand what happens in the body, with food intolerance, better.