Jameela Jamil: I could only eat chicken and potatoes for SIX months

Jameela's condition went undiagnosed for a number of years

WITH her striking good looks and slender figure, former TV and radio presenter Jameela Jamil looks the picture of perfect health.

 

But behind the 29-year-old's youthful glow hides a long history of medical problems that few would have to endure in a whole lifetime.

Since birth, she has been allergic to peanuts and shellfish and coming into contact with the tiniest amount of either could be potentially life-threatening.

As a teenager she was hit by a car and so badly injured she was housebound for more than a year.

And last year the former T4 and Radio 1 presenter was at the centre of a cancer scare when she underwent tests on a suspicious lump in her breast. Thankfully they showed she was cancer-free.

But the ailment which has arguably had the greatest impact on her life so far has been coeliac disease which makes her intolerant to any gluten in her diet. Eating it leaves her exhausted, bloated and feeling sick for hours.

It can also increase the risk of osteoporosis, infertility and even bowel cancer if sufferers do not cut the protein out of their diet.

But avoiding gluten - found in wheat, barley and rye - has proved much more difficult than Jameela ever anticipated. "It's in so many foods," says the star who used to front Radio 1's top 40 chart show.

"Sometimes gluten is even added to chips which is really annoying."

Fatigue was so bad I missed a lot of school

Jameela Jamil

Now Jameela has agreed to spearhead an initiative by health food retailer Holland & Barrett to increase the range of gluten and allergen-free foods available to shoppers who suffer like her. With over 1,000 products in the range, it claims to be the biggest supplier of so-called 'free from' foods.

"As a young child, I suffered all sorts of digestive problems and was constantly under the weather," says Jameela.

"The fatigue was so bad that I missed a lot of school days. If one of my friends had a birthday party, I would be first in line for a piece of cake.

"But within half an hour of eating it I would be bloated, suffering stomach cramps and feeling sick. It was very much like a hangover."

Her worried parents took her to several doctors and Jameela underwent a battery of tests for everything from tonsillitis to anaemia. Finally at the age of 12, the family was given a diagnosis of coeliac disease and told Jameela's diet would have to change for ever.

Up to 600,000 people in the UK could be affected by the incurable illness, although it's estimated only 10 to 15 per cent have actually been diagnosed, with the rest suffering in silence.

Like Jameela, some live with the condition for well over a decade before it is finally identified. Within hours of eating any gluten-rich foods, they can have severe diarrhoea and vomiting that may last several days. The disease is mostly genetic and up to 90 per cent of those with the condition carry a specific gene, known as HLA-DQ2.

Although bread is the main source of gluten, it is also found in everything from pasta, cakes and biscuits to fish fingers, sausages and even stock cubes.

But it's crucial that sufferers avoid the protein. Repeated exposure over many years can damage bones by starving them of the vitamins and minerals they need to remain strong. This increases the risk of the bone-wasting disease osteoporosis later in life.

"But I was only 12 and I don't think my condition was really taken that seriously," recalls Jameela. "It certainly wasn't a life-or-death situation."

As a result, her gluten-free diet was not as strict as it could have been and as a teenager she learned to endure the after-effects of occasional exposure.

To make matters worse, she was hit by a car at 17 when she ran out into the road as she was trying to escape a bee which she readily concedes, "wasn't even chasing me."

She broke several bones and at one point doctors feared she might never walk properly again.

Jameela's health took another downturn when, aged 21, she was diagnosed with mercury poisoning, which she attributes to dental fillings leaking the toxic metal into her bloodstream.

 

The European Commission's scientific committee has ruled that metal fillings containing mercury are safe and there is no evidence that the poisonous metal can leak into the body.

Despite this, there have been many cases where patients blame general ill health on the harmful effects of dental amalgam and Jameela believes her worsening allergy problems in her early 20s were due to mercury exposure.

"I became allergic to virtually all fruits and vegetables and my weight tumbled. I am 5ft10in but dropped to just 8st 7lbs.

"I had to cut out most fruits and vegetables and only ate chicken and potato for about six months.

They were among the few foods that my body did not react to.

"After six months I gradually started to reintroduce green vegetables into my diet but it was years before I could tolerate fruit again."

Although awareness of coeliac disease has increased, there is still considerable room for improvement, says Jameela.

"There is still a great deal of ignorance. Restaurants don't cater properly for coeliac sufferers and neither do supermarkets.

"Yet this disease affects at least one in every 100 people and maybe many more."

• For more details about Free From products visit hollandandbarrett.com