DIETICIANS at Dorset County Hospital will be going gluten-free in a bid to raise awareness about coeliac disease.

The team at the Dorchester hospital will be sticking to a gluten-free diet as part of Coeliac Awareness Week from May 16 to May 22.

Coeliac disease is an autoimmune disease where the body’s immune system attacks its own tissues.

The immune reaction is triggered by gluten, a protein found in cereals such as wheat, rye and barley.

Some coeliac sufferers are also sensitive to oats.

Dietician Lesley Harper said: “Really it’s just a chance to increase our awareness of what it’s like to live with coeliac disease because we see quite a few patients with it.

“It’s also to increase our awareness of the foods that have gluten in them because there are some foods many people don’t realise contain gluten.”

Lesley said that she will find bread the hardest thing to go without during the diet.

She said: “There are some gluten-free breads and they are good but definitely it’s going to be bread which is the hardest thing to give up.

“It’s also just the little things that you don’t think about and eating out can be quite difficult.

“You have also got to think about cross contamination as well like using separate toasters because you can’t use the same toaster that ordinary bread has been in.”

As well as ditching the gluten for a week, the dieticians are also joining forces with the Dorchester Coeliac Support Group for a special event at the hospital’s Damers Restaurant on Tuesday, May 17.

They will be offering advice and answering questions that people may have about the disease and there will also be free samples on offer from local suppliers of gluten-free products.

The hospital’s catering team will be supporting the event by putting on an entirely gluten free menu for the day, as well as gluten free dish on each day of the awareness week.

There will also be a raffle full of gluten-free goodies and the dieticians will be baking gluten-free cakes and pastries to sell in aid of the hospital’s Digital Mammography Appeal.

For more information about coeliac disease visit www.coeliac.org.uk