Coeliac Awareness Week

Next week is Coeliac Awareness Week and it is a good time to familiarise ourselves with this issue.

I have been diagnosed with Coeliac Disease in January 2012 and as next week is Coeliac Awareness Week I would like to take this opportunity to tell you more about this disease.

What is coeliac disease?

“Coeliac disease (pronounced see-lee-yak) is a condition causing some adults and children to react to the gluten, the protein found in wheat, barley and rye. Some coeliacs are also sensitive to the protein found in oats. If a coeliac eats gluten the lining of the small intestine becomes damaged reducing the coeliac's ability to absorb the nutrients from food”

It’s an autoimmune disease and it’s not contagious.  In the small intestine there are small finger-like structures called villi which absorb the nutrients from food. When the villi are damaged (or atrophic) they can no longer absorb nutrients properly.

Here are some photographic images of healthy villi compared with damaged villi.

Gluten is in bread, biscuits, cakes, pasta, beer, pizza and in many manufactured foods where gluten is contained in the ingredients such as soups, sauces, gravy, salad dressings, crisps, chocolate, sweets and ready-meals. Basically this means that I can never ever eat any food that has wheat, barley, oats and rye in it. When we go out for dinner we always have to choose a cafe/ restaurant that has gluten free options on the menu. Thankfully over the last 18 months there are lots more  gluten-free foods available. There’s a huge range and variety of gluten-free products on the shelves, specialist departments in supermarkets and indeed, whole specialist stores. Choices in restaurants and cafés are wider and cooks and chefs are more accommodating than ever – some chefs has even made something that is gluten free and really yummy especially for me . This is all wonderfully positive.

The downside for diagnosed coeliac is that gluten-free diets are sometimes well to say the least boring and a pain! This means that I can never ever eat McDonalds or Burger King! Luckily Domino’s Pizzas now have a gluten free option on their menu!

You may wonder what would happen to you when you have Coeliac Disease and you eat food that contains gluten ... here are some of the “not'-so-nice-things” (some of these symptoms  can last for several days)-

• diarrhoea
• weight loss
• chronic tiredness
• anaemia – iron deficiency
• chronic mouth ulcers
• stomach pain and bloating
• indigestion
• bone pain
• nausea and vomiting

Treatment

The ONLY treatment for Coeliac disease is a lifelong gluten free diet. By specifically removing the cause of the disease, this treatment allows all abnormalities, including the lining of the small bowel to recover completely. As long as the diet is adhered to strictly, no problems should occur.

For more information about coeliac disease, visit www.coeliac.org.nz.