Coeliac disease or its medical name idiopathic steatorrhea, is most common with young children from around one to five years old normally, the reasons for this occurring are, as far I am told, are not too well understood, children with this problem are likely to be smaller in height than other children of the same age range.

Should you be the sufferer of coeliac, and then youll know the problems and expense it can cause, and now thankfully, more and more shops are putting gluten free products on their shelves. Although just as easily as buying a steep priced cake or pack of biscuits, you can just as easily and much cheaply, buy some fruit, this is one thing which is known is good for celiac patients, as to be as careful but not too graphic with the explanation, The mucous membrane lining the digestive tract tends to degenerate, leaving the walls of the intestines very thin, which loose more or less ability to absorb certain things like fats, carbohydrates, proteins, water, calcium and most vitamins, and the patient can actually have a fragile tongue and mouth, and more often than not, from information received by me, can suffer quite a lot from fragile bones. It is an allergic reaction to the intestines and gut, which cause weight loss etc, and this is caused by an allergy to the wheat protein (gluten), hence the name of the products wheat free. The most important vitamins we lose are A, B12, D, and K. so it is always good to have things like low fat high abundant protein products, fruit, fruit juices, iron, vitamin A, b12, D and K, but the coeliac patients food should always be kept well away from any product which does or may contain wheat in any form. Normally your doctor will advise you and help you get as much information as much as they possibly can, and help you to make sure that all the products you get are wheat free by giving a prescription, and quite often your chemist can inform you of a lot of products. Off the shelf or available on prescription.

There is some belief by some scientist and the like, that coeliac may have a connection to a disease known as sprue, although I personally don not know this, I have books and spoken to my doctor about it, and all things been equal, this is the majority thought.

Graphically, to look at the intestines of an average person against a coeliac sufferer, you can see where the difference is, and sometimes you are able to distinguish the weaker bone structure should you be lucky enough to be able to look at them properly, pictures do not show everything but they certainly help the understanding, and this is one reason I dont wish to add any, but if theres anyone who has coeliac, or would like further information, I will try help, or they can look for their local coeliac specialist, ours is known as The coeliac society, easy enough to find out more information should you wish to browse.

I can honestly say that over the last decade or so, the gluten free diet has become much tastier than previously, now we have almost as many products as a standard everyday person, but the taste now, although still dry, chalky and to some people, very tasteless, but as these are still fairly new to me, I am enjoying what I have been missing for nearly 40 years, and I know which products I like and dont like, Glutafin and Juvella, both do some very nice products, but there are other companies as well, such as Rite Diet, but for chocolate and such things, its usually only the top brand names such as Kelloggs, Cadburys and so on that we can have, but not all of their product are wheat free. Some supermarkets now do a range of breakfast cereals etc, which we can have, but we must always look for the crossed grain, which is another name for gluten free products, and with this little piece of information, I hope you get a better idea of what some people can go through like myself, since I was under 5 years old, so I have grown up with it, but even so, its still a little of a bug bear when you go for a meal or something, as some reseraunt owners and chippy owners, things like that, think your mad when you ask if there is wheat or rusk in the sausage or on a product like spiced chicken for instance. Unfortunately, some people are so ignorant to the fact of celiac and other diseases like it, and so do not think about not putting flour or Rusk into a product to use as a thickener.