Beyond health there are fashions , and there is one that continues to gain followers every day: eating gluten-free foods, an option that, without justifying reason, is considered healthier in some sectors of the population. And that, despite the fact that research and data confirm what many doctors have already denounced: that the proportion of individuals with celiac disease or those affected by the disease of gluten intolerance among the population remains at the same values . This is confirmed by a new study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine .
The results, which analyze data from health and nutrition surveys conducted in the United States between 2009 and 2014, reveal that the prevalence of celiac disease in the population has remained constant as more and more people eat gluten-free foods and withdraw bread, cereals, pasta and other derivatives of wheat from their diet. Gluten is a sticky and brownish substance made up of proteins, contained exclusively in the flour of rainfed cereals, mainly wheat, but also barley, rye and oats or any of their varieties and hybrids, such as spelled, spelled or kamut. Gluten is responsible for the elasticity of the flour dough.
Of the 22,278 people over the age of six who participated in the surveys, 106 (0.69%) were gluten intolerant and had been diagnosed as having celiac disease, while 213 (1.08%) were on a gluten-free diet a even though they did not suffer from any illness to justify it. According to researchers, led by Hyun-Seok Kim of Rutgers School of Medicine in New Jersey, “those numbers can be extrapolated to the entire country, so there are an estimated 1.76 million people with celiac disease and 2, 7 million people in the US who follow a gluten-free diet despite being undiagnosed. ” In the period studied, the prevalence of celiac disease has remained stable (0.70% in 2010, 0.77% in 2012 and 0.58% in 2014), but adherence to a gluten-free diet by people did not celiac disease has gone from 0.52% in 2010 to 1.69% in 2014.
According to the study’s findings, the growing interest in gluten-free nutrition by people without celiac disease could be due to a variety of factors: People’s false perception that gluten-free eating is healthier and that it can be helping them lose weight, the increasing availability of products without this compound in supermarkets or the tendency to self-diagnose.
In any case, this current is not exclusive to the United States. In the United Kingdom, for example, 60% of adults have ever bought a gluten-free product, according to a survey, and in 10% of British households there is an individual who thinks that gluten is bad for their health. In Spain, there are people who have joined this food trend because they think it helps to lose weight. But compared to other miracle diets in which some essential food is always suppressed, those who decide to imitate the nutritional habits of a celiac should, at least, have the advice of a specialist.
In the Federation of Celiac Associations of Spain (FACE) they warn that there are no scientific studies that support that a gluten-free diet to lose weight is more successful than another with gluten. When a person wants to follow a weight loss regimen, they should consult with a nutritionist. And is that the products that are made for the group of celiacs, such as gluten-free pastas, pizzas, breads or cookies, mainly contain carbohydrates, so they must be controlled if the purpose is to lose weight.
