A medical scientists from Harvard University are warning that unnecessarily going gluten-free denies the body of the benefits of whole grains, and healthy people shouldn’t blindly give up gluten because of celebrity so-called health gurus.
With only around one in 100 people have coeliac disease, a serious autoimmune condition which means eating gluten triggers a harmful inflammation of the digestive system. If people who are coeliac eat gluten, the effects on their health are severe.
But, after celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Novak Djokovic have praised ‘going gluten-free’, more than a million British people have cut out gluten entirely, and one in six say their family avoids it.
Sales of gluten-free food have also risen by 50% in the last two years, hitting about £300million last year, according to Mintel research analysts.
You’re at greater risk if you give up gluten without needing to (Picture: Getty Images)
‘For [people with] coeliac disease, gluten is harmful,’ Dr Andrew Chan, from Harvard medical school, told the Times. ‘As a result there’s been an increasing trend that gluten is something that’s bad. But there’s really no evidence to support that.’
Dr Chan studied more than 100,000 people for more than 20 years, and has just published the results in the BMJ.
His team found that the fifth who ate the least gluten had more heart problems than those who ate the most. The research found that, when looking at the difference in gluten intake from whole grains, those who ate the most gluten had a 15% lower risk of heart attacks.
‘Gluten-free seems to be equated with a healthy diet and that’s not always the case,’ Dr Chan added. ‘The diet may actually in some cases be less healthy.’
It’s believed that unrefined grains like wheat and barley protect the heart by regulating blood sugar and calorie intake, and promoting healthy gastrointestinal bacteria.
Post a Comment