Caroline Quentin feels the healthiest she’s ever been since she started eating a gluten-free diet.
The 54-year-old actress was diagnosed with coeliac disease several years ago, a genetic disorder which means any gluten ingested by the sufferer causes the immune system to turn inward and attack healthy gut tissue.
Since receiving the diagnosis and overhauling her eating habits, Caroline insists she has felt great by even the smallest amount of gluten triggers a reaction.
In an interview on ‘This Morning’, she said: "I feel so well now that I’m gluten free, and I’ve had my biopsy, I know I’m a coeliac. I’m gluten free and I feel really great – I didn’t know how well I could feel … It’s ludicrous how well I feel. It’s disgusting at how well and healthy I now feel – it’s actually offensive!
"Most things you get offered at a party will have gluten in so it’s very hard … even the tiniest, small grain of rice size of gluten will affect me for weeks. Your system flares up very, very quickly and quite badly."
Caroline has previously revealed she suffered from "frequent nausea, mouth ulcers and skin rashes" and "often had to rush to the loo".
The former ‘Men Behaving Badly’ star is now a patron of the charity Coeliac UK and her goal is to inform people about the illness so they don’t have to live in discomfort.
Speaking to hosts Phillip Schofield and Amanda Holden ahead of Coeliac Awareness Week, she said: "I don’t want anyone to go through what I went through. I should have addressed this years ago … I think I’ve been living with it for about thirty years and it’s a horrid thing and I can’t imagine why I didn’t deal with it earlier."
Caroline Quentin feels ludicrously well
