What you eat can cost you a lot in more ways than one. Food is the source of what we need to survive.

Vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates and fats come from food.

We need to recognise that food is our daily fuel so the quality of food is essential for the cell metabolism from childbirth.

Getting the concept of the right quantity of food should be easy as the body really does not need an excessive amount of calories, only what is essential for the vital functions of the organs.

The concept of quality becomes complicated with food intolerances. The body does not always accept all kind of food.

This may be caused by the absence of a specific enzyme or due to an immune intolerance.

Eating an intolerable food for a long time will stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies against the intestinal layer and it becomes damaged. The micro lesions in the intestinal layer will disable its role as a blood filter.

Take gluten, for instance.

If you are among the one per cent who are affected by coeliac disease, eating gluten can seriously affect your health and quality of life. In turn, this can affect your life insurance risk assessment. Early diagnosis can minimise the risk to your health and your life insurance costs.

Coeliac disease is an autoimmune digestive condition caused by hypersensitivity to gluten.

If you have coeliac disease, eating any food that contains gluten damages the lining of your small intestine, which drastically reduces your body’s ability to properly absorb nutrients from food.

Up to one in 100-300 people are affected, however, because the symptoms (diarrhoea, fatigue, weight loss) are caused by other conditions too, diagnosis is not always immediate.The condition is chronic. Left untreated, it can have a serious impact on health including an increased risk of cancer of the small bowel, the throat and the oesophagus (the tube that leads from your throat to your stomach) and of developing osteoporosis, that is, the loss of bone tissue that makes you vulnerable to fractures and, eventually, reduced mobility.

The body does not always accept all kind of food

The risk of small bowel lymphoma, a cancer that affects the immune system, is 50-100 per cent higher in cases of untreated coeliac disease.

Fortunately, the overall risk can be reduced through proper diagnosis and treatment. Essentially, this means a lifetime exclusion of gluten from the diet.

Proper diagnosis and treatment can positively impact your life and also the insurance assessment risk.

Coeliac disease is one of several medical conditions which are covered under life insurance at no additional cost if you have never had day surgery, been hospitalised overnight or attended the emergency department as a result of your condition.

In cases of prior hospitalisation, insurance coverage would still be possible against an additional premium being paid. Correct diagnosis is key to reducing the health and financial risk of coeliac disease. Although it affects up to one per cent of the population globally at any given time, statistics indicate that only a quarter of the cases are diagnosed early on.

In Malta, the global rates of one per cent means up to 4,000 cases of coeliac disease are present among the population.

Public healthcare systems are unable to support prevention programmes for all diseases that impact future health, so increased awareness is key to reducing health risks.

April 25 has now been designated as National Coeliac Awareness Day, an announcement made by President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca at the national coeliac awareness seminars held last month.

MSV Life was a key sponsor of the seminars because, being a life insurer, it prefers to encourage early diagnosis and treatment through increased public knowledge rather than by developing a specific life insurance product for patients who face the complications of the disease, including carcinomas and osteoporosis.

Supporting good health, not increased health risks should ultimately be the aim.

Elena Steflea is chief medical officer at MSV Life.