October 19, 2015

This column is gluten free

Roger Cohen, NY Times - Some years ago I was told about the experience of a London caterer who had provided the food for a birthday party for Lord Carrington, who is now 96. The caterer asked if any of the aged crowd had special dietary requirements. There were none among the many octogenarian and nonagenarian guests. They were happy to eat anything.
More recently, another friend told me of her sister’s experience with a large house party in Scotland last summer. When the sister inquired about any special dietary needs, many requests came in, particularly from the younger crowd. Hardly anyone aged between 18 and 25 was up for eating anything. One young woman wrote: “I can’t eat shellfish but I do eat lobster.”

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Of course a group of people in their 80s and 90s had already been selected for health by surviving that long. The rest of their generational cohort has passed away, leaving only those in better health.

Young people have not had time to die from ill health, so they are a more mixed health group. It might also be worth saying that allergies have been increasing dramatically over the past couple of decades.

https://www.foodallergy.org/facts-and-stats