Gluten-free diet: good for Celiac Disease, bad for gut health.

A recent article published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that while a gluten-free diet is beneficial for patients suffering from food-related diseases such as Celiac Disease, it is detrimental to gut health and gut-related immune function. A gluten-free diet is often prescribed for patients with gluten-intolerance, wheat allergy or Celiac Disease to reduce the chance of an allergic reaction. This includes the exclusion of wheat, rye, barley, and oats from the diet. Gluten is a small protein composed of gliadin and glutenin that makes up roughly 80% of the protein content in wheat. In patients with Celiac Disease, exposure to gluten can result in an inappropriate immune response in the gastrointestinal tract, resulting in changes in enterocyte anatomy, poor absorption of critical nutrients and resultant systemic deficiencies, and other intestinal problems.

Researchers at the Microbial Ecophysiology and Nutrition Group in Valencia, Spain found that a gluten free diet resulted in a decrease in beneficial bacteria such as Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium longum and an increase in potentially pathogenic bacteria such as Enterobacteriaceae and Escherichia coli. They also found the ability of colonic bacteria to stimulate cytokine production (an immune response) was reduced in patients on a gluten-free diet.

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De Palma, G., et al. Effects of a gluten-free diet on gut microbiota and immune function in healthy adult human subjects. British Journal of Nutrition. 2009.