Allergy Insight is edited and written by me, Alex Gazzola, a journalist and author with over 20 years’ experience. I specialise in food intolerance, food allergy, coeliac disease, gut disorders and skin allergies.
The site started life as the Food Allergy and Intolerance Ink blog, an outlet for my views and analysis of current issues of relevance in food hypersensitivity — for instance, research, initiatives, campaigns — and on the representation of intolerances, allergies and coeliac disease in the media.
The blog lives on, and is a core part of this site, but Allergy Insight has expanded to include listings of ‘free from’ foods and other useful resources, which are regularly updated.
About me
I have written for dozens of magazines and newspapers, in the UK and overseas, including The Guardian, The Daily Mail, Reader’s Digest and The Irish Times. For links to some articles, click here.
I am the author of five books, including Coeliac Disease: What you need to know, which was shortlisted in the Guild of Health Writers’ “Best Health Book” Award. My latest is The Metal Allergy Guide, aimed particularly at those with nickel, cobalt or chromium allergy.
I also offer editing, tutoring, consultancy and critiquing services — and am the author of four non-fiction writing guides.
I am the co-founder and co-ordinator of the Free From Skincare Awards, which is now in its eleventh year.
I edit the website MI Free, dedicated to isothiazolinone allergies, and am the author of Living with Methylisothiazolinone Allergy.
To see other projects in which I’ve been involved, see my main website.
I welcome enquiries to write articles, marketing material and web content, and to advise on projects related to the subjects in which I specialise. Fees negotiable.
You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram.
Media / PR / Advertising
I welcome press releases on any area of food sensitivity, gut disorders or allergy in a wider sense, including free from food.
I may consider sponsored posts, but only in areas strictly relevant to the blog’s theme, with full and immediate disclosure. Opinion-based articles will never be subject to copy approval, so please do not request it. I generally do not review food products or food service providers, although am always interested to hear of new ‘free from’ launches and innovation.
Box ad slots are available in the right hand column. Enquiries welcome from appropriate brands.
Some ads, affiliate links and automated / responsive ads are included on the site — the latter may reflect users’ browsing history and may not always be for products I would ordinarily endorse. I am a member of the Amazon Associates Affiliate programme and I earn a small commission from any sales generated through this site, at no additional cost to readers. I am also a member of the Awin, Viglink and Share A Sale affiliate programmes, which work in a similar way. See below for details.
Affiliates Disclosure
This site is a member of the Amazon affiliate scheme. A small fee is generate towards the running costs of the site when visitors purchase a product through an affiliate link, with no additional costs to them. A few other links on this site are affiliated to other programs of which Allergy Insight is a member, including Awin, Google Adsense, Share A Sale and Viglink, each of which may use temporary cookies.
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The Allergy Insight website may contain adverts, sponsored and affiliate links on some pages from the above and others. These are typically served through our advertising partners — as well as Amazon Affiliates, these may include Google Adsense, and others. We use trusted advertising partners who each have high standards of user privacy and security. However we do not control the actual adverts seen / displayed by our partners. Our partners may collect data and use cookies for personalisation and measurement. Where ad preferences are requested as ‘non-personalised’ cookies may still be used for frequency capping, aggregated ad reporting and to combat fraud and abuse.
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Allergy Insight uses advertising partners in these ways to help generate an income from the website, which allows us to continue our work and provide you with the best overall experience and valued information.
If you have any concerns about this we suggest you do not click on any adverts or product links found throughout the website.
Contact
You can contact me via the E Mail Alex icon on my website.
History of the Blog
I was originally driven to start the previous incarnation of this site in early 2010 after receiving a press release from the University of Portsmouth regarding their Wheat Hypersensitivity Report, written by Dr Heather Mackenzie and Dr Carina Venter from the School of Health Sciences.
In my view, the Wheat Hypersensitivity Report gave inappropriate prominence and value to old research from the early 90s. This research, published in the Lancet in 1994, held that 20% of the population believed themselves to be allergic or intolerant to one or more foods, but that only 2% of the population could be reliably diagnosed as such.
The Report failed to mention that the original researchers considered their 2% figure an underestimate, or that less than 1% of the population reported a wheat sensitivity.
The press release led with the same, old data, omitting its 1994 provenance and presenting it as news. Having used this ‘news’ to claim a widespread exaggerated self-diagnosis of food intolerance and food allergy in Britain today, it then suggested the public was particularly ignorant when it came to wheat hypersensitivity – despite the Report making clear that even the experts do not know the true prevalence of reactions to wheat, and neglecting to take into account the public’s tendency to confuse and conflate allergy and intolerance.
A number of issues frustrated me, two especially:
a/ The media widely reported these points uncritically and apparently unquestioningly;
b/ The Wheat Hypersensitivity Report was commissioned by the Flour Advisory Bureau – which represents the British flour milling industry.
You can read my original posts on the subject here.
This research continues to make regular appearances in media articles on the subject.
Disclaimer
None of the information on this blog is intended to replace medical advice which you should seek from an appropriately qualified professional — a GP, a dietitian, a gastroenterologist, an allergist / immunologist — if you suffer or suspect you suffer from a food hypersensitivity or gut-related disorder. While all information here is presented in good faith and is accurate to the best of my knowledge, I cannot be held responsible for errors, or for posted comments from third parties.
Alex Gazzola
Last updated: 20th August 2022