A few years ago, I catered lunch for my mother at an official meeting. I noticed one gentleman spooning of the cream filling of the tarts and discarding the tarts themselves.

Realising I was watching he came up to me an explained that being gluten allergic, it was all he could eat because he consuming any wheat products would hurt his intestines. It was the first time I came across a person who had to avoid most things the rest of us took for granted.

But the incident came back to me recently when I heard the story of Raman Prasad. A mutual friend connected me to Prasad, telling me that his wife and he had put together a book of recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.

Recently diagnosed with diabetes, I now identified in some small way with Prasad. That said my ordeal is tiny in comparison to Raman Prasad's. There is certain irony in the fact that it took having to live with special diet requirements to tune me into the plight of others of the same ilk, but I guess later is better than never, as the saying goes.

I was intrigued enough to write to the authors for more information. Soon two books arrived by mail; Colitis & Me: A Story of Recovery and Recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.

In the photograph: Raman Prasad and his wife, Niloufer.