Imagine not being able to eat sandwiches, pasta, cakes, biscuits, or even enjoy a cool lager or beer.

This is may sound like another faddy celebrity diet, such as the Atkins or South Beach regimes, but these are just some of the foods coeliac sufferers have to avoid.

A new awareness campaign, to be launched today, highlights one in 100 people could become seriously ill because the condition is not being identified quickly enough by GPs.

Unlike the slender celebrities who claim to follow protein-rich diets due to a 'wheat allergy', people with coeliac disease have a chronic intolerance to gluten and have to avoid any food that contains barley, rye, wheat and, in some cases, oats.

Property developer Mohammed Aliyas, who lives in Cape Hill, Smethwick, had a healthy love of food and never had any allergic reactions to any products.

So when he suffered severe bouts of sickness and diarrhoea after returning from a family holiday in Pakistan, he assumed it was just a nasty stomach bug.

A local GP diagnosed the 39-year-old father-of-four with irritable bowel syndrome and gave him some antibiotics.

But when the medication failed to work, Mr Aliyas sought a second opinion from his own doctor, who performed several blood tests.

He said: "Before the holiday I weighed about twelve-anda-half stone but, in the eight or nine weeks of sickness and tests, I lost more than three stone because everything I ate went straight through me."

Following more tests at City Hospital, he was diagnosed with coeliac disease and consultants also discovered he had ulcerative colitis - inflammation of the colon - which was making his symptoms worse. So I went to see a dietician who explained how my diet would change, what I had to cut out and what I could eat," said Mr Aliyas.

"Before my diagnosis I had a relatively healthy diet. I'd have a sandwich or baguette for lunch and a meal in the evening, usually curries with chapattis and occasionally chips or a takeaway.

"So I was shocked all that had to go and how restricted my diet would be from now on.

"I get gluten-free bread on prescription, so I can have toast or a sandwich if I want, and the only breakfast cereal I can have is Rice Krispies.

"Gluten-free food tastes totally different from what I was used to; it tastes a bit like glue, but I've learned to get used to it.

"I thought big supermarkets would have an aisle full of gluten-free products, particularly with the popularity of the Atkins Diet, but in reality it's often just a few small shelves. There's very little choice."

A YouGov poll found that 44 per cent of patients waited more than a year after seeing a GP to be tested for coeliac disease.

Three out of four people only discovered they had this condition following tests or treatment for anaemia or irritable bowel syndrome.

However 96 per cent some or all of their symptoms disappeared once they adopted a gluten-free diet.

Sarah Sleet, chief executive of Coeliac UK, said: "Early diagnosis is key to preventing this disease leading to the development of life-threatening conditions such as bowel cancer and osteoporosis in the long term, and in the short term non-diagnosis only prolongs the misery so many experience on a daily basis.

"Once diagnosed, following a gluten-free diet will alleviate the symptoms usually within weeks."