Vanessa Feltz is facing criticism from This Morning viewers who have accused her of making “irresponsible” remarks about coeliac disease.
Coeliac disease is a condition where your immune system attacks your own tissues when you eat gluten and means the body can’t properly absorb nutrients from food.
Some of those affected can experience severe and long-term complications from the condition, which others have milder symptoms.During Monday’s instalment, the show’s resident agony aunt was offering advice to viewers about their festive season dilemmas when a caller named Alison rang in about “being forced to have a gluten-free Christmas” by her mother-in-law.
The caller complained that her mother-in-law was only catering to one guest’s dietary requirements and wouldn’t allow her to bring her own food despite her child being a “fussy eater”.
In response to the caller’s woes, Feltz said: “When Alison said, ‘Can we bring our own food then? Can we bring food in a snack box?’ She said, ‘No.’
“So she’s treating coeliac disease as if it’s a kind of fatal, potentially fatal peanut allergy and that they can’t have anything with gluten in the house, which is completely unreasonable.”
She then advised: “That is not reasonable Alison at all. The thing is though, if you say to her, ‘Look, he can have gluten-free, we don't have to, it’s not catching,’ What will she say? How will she respond?”
The caller replied: “She’ll tell me that I’m ignorant to the facts and tell me to read up on it.”
Feltz responded: “But you’re not and she's wrong, I mean she’s just unequivocally wrong about that. Completely wrong.”
While Vanessa told Alison she was “100 per cent right” about the situation, she advised that she is “pretty much going to have to go with it” to keep the peace on the day.
“Have a snack on the way there, bring something to eat in the car on the way home, don’t stay too long, but don’t fall out with your mother-in-law over a bit of gluten, that’s what I think. Or the lack of gluten,” Feltz suggested.
However, This Morning host Josie Gibson explained that some people with coeliac disease need to be wary of cross-contamination of gluten.
To which Feltz answered: “But they don’t have to have any cross-contamination, especially if they bring their own food from home and her 15-year-old has what he actually likes which he brings in the snack box, would be perfectly fine.
“But I just think is it worth falling out with her, digging your heels in, making a big mountain out of it when it’s only one day, pretty much one meal?”
However viewers, some of whom have the condition, said Feltz was giving out “bad advice” and urged her to apologise.
One wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Oh dear – ITV [and] This Morning seem to be falling into the modern trend of being contrary to the sharing of misinformation.
“Since when did Vanessa Feltz become qualified to give medical advice?”
“Please can Vanessa give a massive apology to the hundreds of thousands of coeliacs in the UK?” another shared.
A third added: “This false reporting is not only annoying but downright dangerous. Please can you have [gluten free chef] Becky Excell on your show, who will show you how delicious [gluten free] food can be.”
“This is what happens when you have ill-informed and ignorant presenters like Vanessa Feltz spreading misinformation. She needs to be held accountable for her dangerous words!” another remarked.
The Standard has reached out to Vanessa Feltz and This Morning for comment.
