Living Clean

A health scare at the start of 2016 made actress Priscelia Chan attempt a gluten-free diet. She shares how the switch transformed her health and wellness.

- Davelle Lee

“I used to eat so much sugar. I could have three to four pieces of cake a week,” says Mediacorp artiste Priscelia Chan, peeling a steamed sweet potato she brought along to our photo call.

“The thing about the gluten free diet is that you get hungry more frequently, so you have to eat more often,” the petite 38-year-old confesses, before taking a bite out of her starchy snack.

Gluten is a protein found in wheat and related grains, including barley, rye, oat, and all their species and hybrids.

Priscelia started on the diet in January 2016, after a health scare sent her to a dietician, who recommended that she stopped eating gluten and dairy. Her dietician explained that the gluten found in additives used in highly processed food and some dairy products is responsible for inflammation in the body, which can affect everything from the immune system to the gut.

The best route to her recovery – and to boost her overall health – was to replace all sugary, processed foods with nutritious, wholesome alternatives that would clean out her system and reduce inflammation. Simply put: out with the junk and in with the greens.

Worried for her health, Priscelia agreed to take the plunge. And it certainly wasn’t a cakewalk. “It was like doing a full detox,” she says.

UNDERSTANDING THE PROCESSED FOOD TRAP

Priscelia and her husband, former actor turned businessman Alan Tern, used to eat out all the time as they were too busy to cook. With her new dietary restrictions, there aren’t many hawker centres and restaurants offering gluten-free options.

“What you will realise is that there’s so much unhealthy, processed food out there that you haven’t been conscious of.”