While just 1% of the UK is allergic to the proteins that cause coeliac disease, many others suffer with gluten-related digestive problems. Some researchers believe mass-produced food is to blame
In the UK, one in 10 people now avoid gluten, and they can increasingly choose from a wide array of food products to help them do so. Last year, the “free-from” market, with gluten-free as its anchor, showed a 27% rise in sales. Gluten-free bread, cakes and pasta have become a staple of supermarkets – in recent weeks, Warburtons launched a range of gluten-free wraps, including one made from beetroot, while Stella Artois launched a gluten-free beer, certified by Coeliac UK. In the lucrative cookbook sector, there are gluten-free offerings by everyone from Ella Woodward to Novak Djokovic, with the tennis star crediting the diet with turning his health around. He is not alone in believing a gluten-free diet is healthier: 15% of British households prefer not to put foods with gluten and wheat in their shopping basket, more than half of them on health grounds. Yet, as surely as the popularity of gluten-free eating has grown, scepticism of the “it’s all in the mind” sort has matched it.
The only non-contentious fact is that people diagnosed with coeliac disease – just 1% of the UK population – indisputably suffer from a very real autoimmune disorder where eating gluten, the umbrella terms for various gluey proteins found in wheat, barley and rye, causes damage to their small intestine. But battle commences when we consider the far larger number of people, variously estimated at between 6% and 8% of the population, who self-select a gluten-free diet and who are now classed as having non-coeliac gluten sensitivity. Even though they are not coeliacs, they report similar unpleasant symptoms – diarrhoea, wind, constipation, stomach pain, cramping, bloating, fatigue – and find that these are alleviated when they cut out gluten.
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