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 Despite the fact that gluten-free diets are not known to provide any
health benefits for the general population, some people believe they
benefit from going gluten-free, said lead author Dr. Hyunseok Kim,
of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark.
"People may believe a gluten-free diet is healthier, and the diet is
trendy," Kim said.
To see whether the prevalence of celiac disease and the use of a
gluten-free diets had increased over the past few years, Kim and his
colleagues used data collected between 2009 and 2014 on 22,278
adults and children in the U.S. who were at least 6 years old and
had been tested for celiac disease or interviewed about prior
diagnoses.
About 0.7 percent of people were diagnosed with celiac disease, and
about 1.08 percent were adhering to a gluten-free diet without being
diagnosed with celiac disease.
The proportion of people in the U.S. with celiac disease remained
stable during the study, the researchers found.
The popularity of gluten-free diets increased during that same time,
however.
About 0.5 percent of people were on a gluten-free diet between 2009
and 2010, and that increased to 1.69 percent between 2013 to 2014.
Following a gluten-free diet is easier and less expensive than it
was in the past, Kim said.
"Now there are gluten-free sections in most supermarkets," he said.
"Also the prices dropped in recent years."
The findings of the new study are limited, the researchers caution.
For example, the data was pulled from the nationally representative
National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, but a relatively
small portion of the participants had celiac disease.
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Additionally, Kim said, some people may have an unknown type of
gluten sensitivity.
Just recently, an international team of researchers found that some
people react to gluten even though they test negative for celiac
disease.
In a commentary published with the report in JAMA Internal Medicine
September 6, Dr. Daphne Miller of the University of California, San
Francisco wrote that one reason people without celiac disease may
think a gluten-free diet is beneficial is because it reduces the
amount of processed foods in their diet.
The diet should not be dismissed as an unfounded trend, she writes.
"Instead, researchers and clinicians can use this as an opportunity
to understand how factors associated with this diet affect a variety
of symptoms, including gastrointestinal function, cognition, and
overall well-being," writes Miller
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