Dealing with diet difficulties

The Coeliac Society of Ireland is helping people take back control of their diets and their lives

WHEN EMMA Clarke Conway was six months old she started to fall ill, much to the worry of her parents.

"I would be really sick and then I'd seem to get better, so my parents would give me food again. Then I'd get worse," says the 34-year old. "I was admitted to hospital for about four months, and it took until I was two years old to figure out what was wrong with me."

The problem, it turned out, was that she had coeliac disease, a condition where the body's immune system reacts to gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, oats and rye. Gluten in her diet was damaging the lining of her intestines and making her ill.

Her family joined the Coeliac Society of Ireland and found out what foods Emma could and couldn't eat, although sometimes she cheated. "As a child, I'd be given an ice-cream cone and told to eat the ice cream but not the cone - but I'd be licking it for the taste," she recalls.

Such accidental intakes would lead to symptoms such as sickness and diarrhoea as a child, and later fatigue and bloating in adulthood. "It affects your energy and you can get stomach pains, bloating, diarrhoea, these things can have such an impact on your everyday life," she says.

But avoiding gluten completely means the symptoms disappear, she adds. "All of them should go away on a gluten-free diet. People are usually astonished at how quickly they feel better."

In Ireland, around one person in every 100 is susceptible to developing the disease, and most people with the condition remain undiagnosed, says Clarke Conway, who is now communications manager at the Coeliac Society of Ireland.

But she warns people about trying to self-diagnose coeliac disease, which can manifest at any age. "If they have symptoms they should get checked by a GP and take it from there," she says, adding that the condition needs to be managed carefully to help avoid longer-term problems, such as osteoporosis and anaemia, which can arise when the intestine is not absorbing nutrients properly from food.

A blood test can determine whether your body is having an immune reaction to gluten. The ultimate diagnosis comes from an endoscopy to look at the appearance of the gut wall. "It's an uncomfortable test but you can be sedated or have a local anaesthetic," she says.

While there is still a lack of awareness about the condition, Clarke Conway has seen an improvement in options for coeliacs here over the years. "Restaurants are definitely a lot better now, many attempt to cater for coeliacs," she says.

"But they may not have all the information. You can tell within five minutes whether you are going to have a good experience or not."

The society offers plenty of information to coeliacs on what they can eat and what they need to avoid. "I remember even as a child we would get the society's book telling you what foods you could have. It was a thin little pamphlet back then and today it has about 300 pages of foods."

There's also emotional support, she adds. "We put coeliacs in touch with each other so they can talk about what they are going through. It's a huge upheaval because other people really understand what a big deal it can be. Food is such an integral part of our lives."

For more information, log on to www.coeliac.ie, e-mail info@ coeliac.ie or tel: 01-8721471