Sharp increase in coeliac disease

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“Pasta is out, the salad has a G, as is often the case. The salmon might be all right, but I need to ask what the sauce is made of.”
      Auli Saukkonen faces daily choices. Some of the items on the lunch menu have a G next to them, but many do not. There is no G next to the salmon, but the waiter goes to the kitchen to ask. It turns out that the sauce has no gluten in it, which means that it can be eaten safely by those suffering from coeliac disease.
      Gluten is a mixture of protein in certain grains. Those who have the allergy risk getting a long-term intestinal inflammation, which prevents the normal absorption of nutrients.
      While it is annoying to have to ask the same questions all the time, it is best to be safe, and not sorry. “Sometimes there has been wheat in the meatloaf. The nausea that resulted from it did not ease until I had vomited it all out.”
     
Saukkonen is not alone, as coeliac disease is becoming increasingly widespread in Finland. Recent studies suggest that two per cent of Finns suffer from it, amounting to more than 100,000 throughout the country. About 20 years ago, only about one per cent had the conditions.
      “A high standard of living and good hygiene could explain the increase”, says coeliac disease researcher, Professor Markku Mäki of the University of Tampere. They also might explain why there is less of the disease in Russian Karelia.
     
Finland has the highest incidence of coeliac disease in the world. Still, even here not all of the cases are diagnosed.
      “The tools to find the disease are good, if only it occurred to people to use them.”
      The condition usually emerges at about the age of eight, but it can also come out at about 40.
     
It took long for Saukkonen to get her diagnosis. She kept losing weight, which was blamed on stress.
      Her weight dropped by more than 20 kilos. “I looked like a skeleton in the mirror, and I realised that I cannot go on like this”, Saukkonen says.
      A blood test raised the suspicion, and an endoscopy confirmed the diagnosis. The treatment is a lifelong gluten-free diet. No wheat, rye, or barley in any form.
      “The first feeling was that of loss”, Saukkonen says. She still feels a longing when she gets a whiff of freshly-baked bread.
     
At home she has learned new ways of cooking without gluten, and has to make special efforts to get enough fibre in her diet.
      There are problems related to social interaction as Saukkonen has to turn down most baked goods.
      Foreign travel is the most difficult. She takes her own gluten-free bread with her when she travels abroad.
      “In Vienna it was hopeless. Someone has said that I should travel to countries where they eat rice."


Links:
  Coeliac disease (Wikipedia)

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