Americans Claim Gluten Sensitivity More Than Others

CHICAGO— Avoiding gluten is a worldwide phenomenon, but the reasons why people do so vary, a new study finds. And in the United States, it’s more common for people to say that they avoid the protein because they have a gluten sensitivity, compared with other countries. In the study, the researchers looked at the relative rates of the two main reasons that people give for avoiding gluten: that they have celiac disease and that they have a gluten sensitivity. People with celiac disease can’t digest gluten normally. When they eat it, the protein prompts the immune system to attack the small intestine, leading to problems such as diarrhea, bloating and weight loss. People with gluten sensitivity experience abdominal pain or other symptoms when they eat gluten, but they do not test positive for celiac disease in lab tests. In the new study, researchers found that people in U.S. reported the highest relative rates of avoiding gluten because of gluten sensitivity compared with the rates of avoiding it due to celiac disease: 30 percent of the Americans in the study said that gluten sensitivity was the reason they avoided the protein, according to the study, which was presented here Sunday (May 7) at Digestive Disease Week, a scientific meeting focused on digestive diseases. [5 Ways Gut Bacteria Affect Your Health] Those numbers mean that 70 percent of Americans surveyed who avoided gluten did so because of celiac disease. In all other countries surveyed, higher perc...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news