Coeliac sufferer Kirsty Stuart recently returned to live in the UK - and found the diversity and transparency of gluten free food choices much more to her taste. With at least one in 250 people with coeliac disease (pronounced seeliac) in Australia and one in 100 people in the UK, and a culture of massive under diagnosis in both countries, it's becoming an increasing health issue. Anecdotally-speaking, ask around and chances are that most of your friends and family will know someone with the disease.

If you haven't heard of it, coeliac disease is a gastrointestinal disease, predominantly found in Caucasians (it affects approximately one in 260 Caucasians worldwide). It's an autoimmune disease that is a lifelong condition affecting the whole body.

Years ago, coeliac disease was thought to be a rare condition, but in recent years the general consensus is that it's quite common, with many people not realising they have it.

In a nutshell, gluten (a protein found in wheat, rye, barley and oats) damages the gut, which prevents normal digestion and absorption of food including nutrients, protein, fat, carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals.

If undetected, in the long term it can lead to health issues such as anaemia, osteoporosis and a greater chance of developing a cancer somewhere in the gastrointestinal tract, especially in the small intestine.

People with coeliac disease are born with the genes (there is an increased risk of 1 in 10 when coeliac disease exists in a family) and the symptoms can be triggered at any time in their life. More women are diagnosed than men and the most common age of diagnosis is 50.

It's a strange disease, where symptoms can include fatigue, anaemia, stomach pains, bloating, vomiting and mouth ulcers - or none at all. It's diagnosed via a simple blood test, then a gut biopsy (a tube with a camera passed down your throat into your stomach so damage can be assessed) under sedation. If you suspect you may have coeliac disease, never change your diet until you have a diagnosis as it can skew the result.

The good news is that it's relatively easy to treat - just eat a gluten free diet for life. At face value, this seems pretty easy. There are plenty of naturally gluten free foods including meat, fish, milk, butter, cheese, fruit, vegetables, legumes and seeds. However, considering our convenience packaged food culture, it's a lot trickier in practice.

At present, food labels in Australia are difficult to decipher without a degree in nutrition - a fact that is much discussed in NOVA articles. First, the uninitiated must understand that when you pick up a product from a supermarket shelf and read the ingredients list to see if that product contains gluten, you are not just looking for the word "gluten". Gluten comes in many forms, for example, thickeners, 1400-1450, numbers, colours, flavours, maltodextrin, malt, malt extract, hydrolysed vegetable protein - you get the picture. There are way too many for the average person to learn.

Unfortunately, many people with coeliac disease (and the friends and family members who occasionally cook for them) end up picking up a product, looking at the label and seeing a host of numbers, colours, thickeners and so on and have no idea whether those ingredients contain gluten or not and end up putting it straight back on the shelf. With that in mind, it's not surprising that the "free from" ranges are the fastest growing supermarket products in terms of demand.

After moving to the UK recently, I discovered that, as a coeliac sufferer, shopping and eating is a hell of a lot easier than it is in Australia. Why? For starters, it's free to join Coeliac UK (www.coeliac.uk) - a charity that is working to improve the lives of people with coeliac disease through support, campaigning and research. Anyone with coeliac disease can join and so far there are 70,000 members with 600 new members joining every month. There's a free dietetic and food helpline, leaflets, books and 96 voluntary groups you can elect to join to get advice, support and meet people who understand - which is especially important if you're newly diagnosed.

Coeliac UK produces an excellent annual 350 page Food and Drink Directory that lists around 11,000 foods from tins of soup to ready meals under individual supermarket headings so you know exactly where to buy it.

In addition to this, more and more UK food manufacturers are putting gluten free symbols on their foods and many supermarkets, notably Tesco, have an entire "free from" range which offers gluten free food such as pasta, biscuits, bread and so on.

The good news for coeliac sufferers in the UK (or overseas visitors) is that all food packaging must now comply with the EU Regulations that came into force in November 2005. This means that any packaged food that contains gluten now has to specify this on the pack, either in an allergen advice box or in the ingredients list.

Chief Executive of Coeliac UK, Sarah Sleet, agrees that it's a "massive step forward". "The bottom line is increased transparency for anyone shopping," she explains. "Now gluten must be labelled as 'gluten'."

Quite rightly so. As consumers, we are entitled to know exactly what we are eating - in clear, simple terminology. Tesco supermarket in the UK, for example, (the most gluten free friendly supermarket according to Coeliac UK) has hit the nail right on the head in how they provide this information to the consumer.

Every Tesco product has a section on their labels called "allergens". Halleluiah! It makes eating gluten free so simple - the allergen box either lists "gluten" under allergens or it doesn't. That way you - or anyone else who has invited you to dinner - can pick up any item and see at a glance whether it contains gluten. Blissfully easy!

Thanks to this new labelling law, living in the UK means that a whole new world of food has opened up to me. Take bacon and ham, for instance. In my local supermarket in Australia, most of the bacon and ham had a long complicated ingredient list with all manner of scary gluten infested ingredients and I had to buy a special brand of gluten free ham and bacon that cost a fortune compared to "normal" versions. Over here, ham and bacon seem to have a lot less rubbish in them and refreshingly are, well, just plain old ham and bacon.

This can be partly attributed to the fact that Coeliac UK has been working with retailers to try and avoid gluten in their products in the first place. "The idea is that they don't design it in to the product if at all possible," says Sleet. "Now major retailers are thinking at the beginning of the product development process - does it contain an allergen and if so, does it have to? So the end result is that now you don't see the amount of rubbish you used to see in food."

Another interesting bonus the UK has over Australia is that if you are diagnosed with coeliac disease you can get gluten free food on prescription from your doctor. A prescription (costing around £6) will get you a month's supply of gluten free pasta, bread, or biscuits and so on which goes a long way to help. The cost of gluten free food in my experience in Australia is generally a lot higher than ordinary food - a loaf of gluten free bread baked locally costs around $6. What's more, for that money, the actual slice sizes are much smaller and the size of the loaf itself is almost half the size of a normal loaf. In addition, another pleasant surprise is that the cost of gluten free food in the UK is pretty much the same as ordinary food.

When it comes to eating out in restaurants - as every coeliac sufferer will attest - it's a whole different ball game. Contamination is a huge issue, occurring via using breadboards, utensils and foodstuffs like jam and butter that have come into contact with food containing gluten. It's not uncommon to see in cafes, for example, gluten free cakes or muffins sitting side by side - and often touching - cakes that aren't gluten free. This is a huge no no. There's no point in cafŽ owners ordering in gluten free food if it's contaminated with food that contains gluten and we can't eat it!

What hasn't helped the coeliac cause is that one of the latest fad diets to come out of the US is all about eating gluten free - so there's the risk that some restaurant owners and staff may assume when you ask if something from the menu is gluten free that it's not a medical condition and, accordingly, don't take your request seriously.

Another scenario coeliac disease sufferers may, unfortunately, be only too familiar with is when frazzled chefs are too busy to take the time to explain the ingredients and insist you "trust them". Too many times to mention, after insisting I be told the ingredients, it turns out that their knowledge of gluten is limited and the meal is not gluten free as promised. Had I "trusted" those chefs, I would have been very sick.

Busy chefs and hectic kitchens are totally understandable. The easy answer is for restaurants and cafes to offer a couple of gluten free items on their menu - just as they would always include a vegetarian option. Most of the time, they will probably already have a gluten free option or two - so all they have to do is label it clearly on the menu. That way, every time customers ask for gluten free - or wheat free meals - it won't take up the chef's valuable time in a busy kitchen.

It's also interesting to note that although one person might have coeliac disease, every time that person goes out for a meal with family and friends, the restaurant they choose to eat in is invariably the one where the coeliac sufferer can eat.

Some forward-thinking restaurants and cafes have already caught onto the fact that the "free from" market is burgeoning world wide and that offering tasty gluten free meals (not just a salad) - attracts a lot more customers. "Bon appetit" to that!