• Question: what is your opinion on coeliacs?

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      Asked by baller to Andrew, Dilip, Emma, John, Ruth on 13 Nov 2015.
      • Photo: Andrew Quigley

        Andrew Quigley answered on 13 Nov 2015:

        Being a coeliac means you have a kind of allergic reaction to gluten. Gluten is a protein that is usually found in wheat, and as a bunch of foods contain wheat (and therefore gluten) it can be hard to avoid. When a coeliac eats food that contain gluten they can often find themselves with really bad stomach cramps, and if it’s really bad it can lead diarrhoea!

        I mentioned earlier that it can be hard to avoid foods that have gluten in them. This was certainly the case up until a few years ago but now more and more companies are bringing out gluten free foods. I’m sure you’ll have noticed in supermarkets that there are sometimes whole aisles dedicated to gluten free foods! Restaurants and takeaways are also getting on board as well, many of them will have a “GF” on their menus to tell you if that item is Gluten Free.

        So I think being a coeliac is at least not as big of a problem as it would have been say 5 years ago. Although I’m not a coeliac myself, so this is all from my perspective.

      • Photo: John Gleeson

        John Gleeson answered on 13 Nov 2015:

        Also to add on to Andrew’s awesome answer. In your intestines we have these bumpy dangling bits called villi. And their job is to take up nutrients from the food passing through. But the problem is, if a coeliac has eaten something with gluten in it, these villi get inflamed and can kind of flatten. So not alone do they often have to rush to the bathroom with horrific cramps they also aren’t taking in ANY goodness from the food. So it’s really essential that we make sure something really is gluten free when we say it is.

      • Photo: Emma Feeney

        Emma Feeney answered on 16 Nov 2015:

        It’s also important to know that being coeliac is a real disease, and some people avoid gluten because they have a misconception that it is unhealthy ( if you’re not allergic to it, it’s not!). This is an issue because like John mentions, people who have coeliac disease need foods to be completely gluten free. When non-coeliacs also avoid gluten but they can tolerate it, people who don’t realise how serious it is for true coeliacs can end up thinking it’s no big deal. That attitude could be dangerous as the proper precautions for true coeliacs might not be taken, and they could end up having tiny amounts of gluten in something in a restaurant, which doesn’t end well, if you read Andrew’s and John’s answers! So coeliac is a real disease with serious consequences, and it’s important to remember that in the middle of all of the fad diets out there!!

      • Photo: Ruth Hamill

        Ruth Hamill answered on 17 Nov 2015:

        Just to add that coeliac is very important cause of ill health in Ireland because we have some of the highest prevalence of coeliac disease in the world.

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