This is a gripe of mine. I haven't knowingly eaten anything with gluten in it for four years and I'm still alive! Not sure if the total cost is accurate, but it is certainly true that pizza, pasta, bread rolls, loaves etc are handed out on free NHS prescriptions. People ... this isn't medication, it isn't treating a disease, these are groceries. It absolutely infuriates me.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-past-year.html

Stella

Ugh. I think it's similar here, though I think it's income tax deductions as a medical expense, not a 'script. Friends have assured me that I should get a diagnosis so I can "qualify" for deducting gluten-free junk food. Yeeeeeah, no thanks. Not unless all of my veggies and plain meats qualify. :P

It certainly seems outrageous to give people "prescriptions" for chocolate biscuits and muffins and cake!If you are going to spend that kind of money then it seems like you should spend it on giving people cooking lessons! I live a gluten-free life also and manage to get along just find without all that alternative gluten-free "junk food" except on a special occasion.

That reminds me of the quote from Dr. Pennington in GCBC: he used to say to his diabetic patients, "You want me to give you insulin so you can eat Danish pastries!"

Yeah, I'm with you on that. JERF. You don't need a prescription or tax deduction (receipts) if you JERF. (Just Eat Real Food)

Heh. I looked up the info for Canadians with celiac disease who want to make the claim.


Hmph. I wonder if coconut flour and flax seed are eligible.

More news from the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-33970598

Interesting that one of the interviewees regards bread and spaghetti as vital.

Like I said, I'm not dead.

Stella

Coconut flour and flax seed would probably be OK if you said it was part of a gluten free flour mix. The Government wants you to frame it as a wheat sub. Hmm maybe Almond flour too.

Anyway I did this a couple years ago(we have 3 celiacs in the house and used to buy a lot of GF products). I had to save all my grocery receipts, make a spreadsheet that compared the cost of GF/verses a comparable regular product and use the difference between the 2 as the tax exempt value. It gets rolled into other medical expenses, which is of course only usable if it is less than 3% of your total salary. In a family of three I never had a differential of more than 500 dollars which maybe got me 150 dollars back in tax. And I only got it once, when I had other big medical expenses (one year DD and HUB had a lot of mouth drama) because 3 % of my salary is more than 500 (you’d have to make below 20K).

I’ll bet not many people use this Canadian tax exemption.