On a typical day, you might start the day with a bowl of Cheerios, then have a turkey sandwich on wheat bread for lunch and sit down for a plate of spaghetti for dinner.

For people with celiac disease, or gluten intolerance, none of the above is possible — not without suffering anyway.

How about a piece of birthday cake or a cold bottle of beer on a warm day?

No and no.

Celiac disease keeps your intestines from processing the nutrients in grains like wheat, oat, rye and barley.

“It’s a trigger for different people,” said Mary Ann Woods, a registered and licensed dietitian at Bay Area Hospital. “It acts like an allergen and causes different symptoms in different people.”

She said the most common symptoms are gastrointestinal bloating, cramping and diarrhea.

While celiac disease affects a little fewer than 1 percent of the population, still, that means that 600 people suffer from it in an area the size of Coos County.

There is no cure for celiac disease, so people who have a gluten sensitivity must avoid products made with wheat. This list is a lot longer than you’d imagine. Many breads and pasta items are made with wheat or processed wheat flour. Pie crusts and cakes are usually made with wheat flour. Even items one might not think of — like beer and soy sauce — fall into this category.

Going out to restaurants can be difficult. Some places are starting to include gluten-free items. Ric’s Posto Bella in Coos Bay has gluten-free items in their bakery on a fairly regular basis. A call Monday morning found they had a flourless chocolate cake as a gluten-free selection.

Some people are so sensitive to gluten products that they can’t even eat products made at factories that also produce other gluten products. The glutens, even in microscopic amounts, attach to the machinery, and then are passed on to other products that might not have gluten in them.

Cari Pickett of Coos Head Food Store in North Bend knows about this first hand. Her father was diagnosed celiac three and a half years ago.

She said that even in the past three years, it has gotten easier to find gluten-free products and that labeling has improved to the point that some manufacturers include the information if they don’t have gluten products in their factories.

“He had to get back to the basics,” she said, “and figure out how things are processed.”

Pickett said Coos Head has an extensive product line of gluten-free products including cereals, cereal bars, baking goods, baking mixes and bulk items like rice flour.

“We also carry a lot of literature on helping people cope with their new way of eating,” Pickett said. “Understanding it is the big thing.”