Some Points About Coeliac Disease

I have coeliac disease. I’m sure a lot of you know what this is, but for those who don’t here’s a bit of an explanation:

Having coeliac disease means that you can’t eat gluten. When someone with coeliac disease eats gluten, the little ‘hairs’ that line the small intestine are damaged. When this happens, your body is unable to absorb the nutrients from you food, leading to the sufferer being malnourished. It affects 1 in 100 people and there is no cure. You just have to stop eating gluten.

I was diagnosed with coeliac disease when I was about 2-3 years old, so I don’t know any different.

There are two things I want to talk about in this post:

1) It seems as though it’s becoming more known about with shops having ‘free from’ sections and restaurants having a gluten free option or a whole other menu for gluten free food. However it seems as though some places don’t really understand the condition completely. I have noticed in some shops they have started selling cookies and biscuits made with oats. They say they’re suitable for coeliacs. They’re not. I had them, not realising what they were made from because they were so poorly packaged. I reacted to them but it took a while to realise that it was them causing it. I couldn't believe that they had labelled it so badly! We wrote an email to the shops that sold them only to get a reply saying that because it says (very unclearly) on the packet that they’re made from oats, they had done nothing wrong. I get that, but it’s a bit unfair to label something badly which can make people ill. It seems as though they just want to sell as many as possible without caring about people’s health (pretty unfair really....)

2)  It really frustrates/upsets me when people choose to go on a gluten free diet so that they can ‘lose weight’ or ‘get healthier’. I’m not too sure why this is. Part of me thinks that it’s just plain stupid to put yourself through something like that. I wish every day that I could just eat normally. I wish when I was little that I could eat a bit of birthday cake at my friend’s party. I wish I could have had fish with chips at the beach. I wish I could have eaten ice cream in a cone. I wish I could go to a friend’s house for a meal without feeling guilty or wondering if I’ll get ill. I wish I didn’t have to explain to people that when I eat gluten I’m violently ill and that my body will take a good few months to heal again fully. I wish I didn’t have to go through people teasing me when they got to eat food when I couldn’t. I wish people understood this so that they wouldn’t choose to be gluten free but instead would realise how flipping lucking they are to be able to eat what they want! It also upsets me when people who choose to be gluten free make a big deal about it, telling everyone about it and saying how it’s to lose weight etc. It makes people like me look like we’re just dieting. It’s not our choice and it makes me feel like I’m annoying people when I say I need gluten free food. I feel like a burden because they must think that I’m just being awkward.

I really hope other people can relate to this and that I’m not the only one feeling this way. I really hope that this will get you thinking about diet choices in the future and that you will really appreciate your health and the fact that you can go out and eat anything you like.